The Adrian College Athletic Training program has made great strides toward obtaining accreditation in the 2009-2010 academic year. (Photo courtesy www.adrian.edu)
There have been major changes for some of the academic departments during the 2009-2010 academic year, as part of an attempt to better the academic experience of Adrian College students. The Social Work and Athletic Training programs have seen the most results this year.
“Every year we’ve been implementing new courses and new requirements,” Tina Claiborne, the director of Athletic Training Education and Exercise Science, said. “There’s been constant change.”
The Athletic Training program is currently working on becoming an accredited program.
According to Claiborne, they plan on submitting a self-study of the course by the end of May and hope to have a site visit sometime next year during which a committee will come to the campus to evaluate the program and offer recommendations to AC about becoming accredited.
After that, the Commission on Accreditation for Athletic Training Education will make the final decision about whether or not Athletic Training at AC will be accredited.
According to Claiborne, the commission to determine accreditation status only meets once a year in August, so the program will not know if they have become accredited until August 2011.
“I think it’s all tremendous,” Claiborne said about the changes in the Athletic Training program this year. “Everything’s positive.”
There is currently only one course of study that has achieved accreditation status at AC and that is the Social Work program.
According to Charles Vanderwell, professor of Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice, the Social Work curriculum has been striving to become accredited for the past five years.
The program received accreditation in February.
“What it means for students is that they are eligible to be licensed as a social worker in every state in the country that licenses Bachelors,” Vanderwell said about reaching accreditation status. “It allows them to work.”
He also said that it grants students advanced standing, if they decide to attend graduate school.
“[It] reduces time in graduate school by about 25%,” he said.
According to Vanderwell, the initial application to vie for accreditation is challenging in order to weed out programs that still need a lot of improvements. However, once a program receives candidacy status, all their graduates are treated as if they went to an accredited institution.
Also, when the Social Work program became accredited, all their graduates since they first applied for accreditation in 2006 were given accreditation status.
“It’s been exhausting, but what it has done is challenged us to think through every facet of the program,” Vanderwell said about the accreditation process. “It’s a much better program as a result. [The students have] really benefited from the changes.”
According to Vanderwell, the Social Work program will have to apply for reaccreditation every eight years and was encouraged to start working on that process two years ahead.
Junior Kim Palmerton is studying to become a social work major.
“I think it’s great,” Palmerton said about Social Work becoming accredited. “It opens up more opportunities for those who want to go into social work.”
There was also an “Accreditation Celebration” that the Social Work department held last Thursday, as a way to congratulate the program for its achieved status. It was located in the second floor of Valade Hall and there were refreshments available, along with a collection of what the social work program has accomplished.
“It was pretty cool,” Palmerton said. “They had tables displaying social work stuff.”
According to Palmerton, there was a display that showed everything it took for the program to become accredited.
“I know that it took a lot of work to get accredited,” she said.