Campus Accreditation Liaison Officer

February 19, 2010

After many years of service as the campus Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO), Professor Ronald Tobin has announced his departure from that position.  He will continue as the Associate Vice Chancellor, Office of Academic Programs.  I  want to thank Professor Tobin for his faithful service to the campus in this capacity and for helping launch us on the next round of accreditation.

I am pleased to announce that Michael T. Brown, Professor of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education and Acting Dean of Extended Learning Services has agreed to serve as the new campus Accreditation Liaison Officer, effective immediately.

Professor Brown has a long and distinguished career in research, teaching, and service. He is an alumnus of UC Irvine and obtained his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.  He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at Ball State University and moved to Wayne State University four years later.  He joined the faculty at UC Santa Barbara in 1993.  The focus of his research is the interplay between social and psychological factors in the career choice and decision-making of racial/ethnic minorities and women.  For his work he was elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Society of Counseling Psychology).  

In addition to his many significant teaching and research accomplishments, he has been active on a number of campus and systemwide Academic Senate committees, including his most recent service as Chair of the systemwide Academic Senate and his previous service as Chair of UC's Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools.  Most relevant to the ALO position, Professor Brown served on the systemwide Undergraduate Educational Effectiveness Task Force (UEETF) that was charged with developing procedures for identifying and articulating the educational objectives of UC undergraduate academic programs and with determining methods for evaluating the success of those programs (see UEETF Report).

As Accreditation Liaison Officer, Professor Brown will work with The Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) on matters of accreditation.   The liaison officer facilitates an effective relationship between the Commission and the UCSB campus and enhances the participation of the institution in accreditation.   Please join me in welcoming Professor Brown to this new role.

As you may recall, we produced an Institutional Proposal for accreditation last year.  A copy may be found at  http://evc.ucsb.edu/wasc/institutional.proposal/.  The next step is to prepare for the Capacity and Preparatory Review in 2011.  I have asked Professor Brown to work with the Academic Senate and me to establish the committees that will prepare the campus for this next step, and I hope that you will accept our invitation to participate when asked.