We have received notification from SACSCOC that our request to Move to the Next Level – with the launching of HBU’s first doctoral program, the EdD in Executive Educational Leadership – was approved by the SACSCOC Board of Trustees on June 15, 2017. With this formal approval from SACSCOC, HBU is now recognized as a national, comprehensive university. We anticipate that additional doctoral degrees will be developed in the next few years.
Houston Baptist University submitted the application for the Move to the Next Level on July 2, 2015, and was approved on January 19, 2016, to launch the program in the fall of 2016. In the spring of 2017, the University hosted a SACSCOC Substantive Change Committee to review continued compliance with the Principles of Accreditation. The visiting review team then prepared a report, which was reviewed by the Compliance and Reports Committee (C&R) and presented to the SACSCOC Board of Trustees.
Although this effort obviously involved the entire campus, numerous faculty and staff were directly responsible for the preparation of the application and involved in the on-site visitation. A special thank you goes to Ritamarie Tauer, our SACSCOC Accreditation Liaison, for her outstanding leadership throughout the process. We also want to thank Dr. Teresa McIntyre, Dr. Dianne Reed, and the faculty and staff in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences; Dr. Cynthia Simpson, Dr. Michael Rosato, John Holmes, Lisa Covington, Todd Cockrell, and Victoria Means; Dr. Jeff Green and the Graduate Admissions staff; Dean Riley and the library staff; James Mable; Al DesHotel and Christina Garza; Bennie Gilbert and the Aramark staff; and Gary Dyke and Larry Blakley. We are truly grateful for the dedication and hard work of everyone involved!
This landmark decision represents a major step forward in our ongoing work to fulfill Pillar Ten of our strategic vision.