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222 25. Accreditation and Assessment Return of the NCA The 1991 North Central Association site visit team had granted a ten year renewal of the university’s accreditation, the maximum possible; but they also identified some concerns. Following their visit, the university had undertaken organizational and administrative changes, including the establishment of the vice president for academic affairs as the chief academic administrative officer, with the deans reporting to him; the establishment of three colleges; and the establishment of the representative faculty senate. In a later visit to the campus, the team observed that these changes seemed to be working well and satisfactorily addressed earlier concerns. The university was also found to have taken significant steps in improving the quality of communication on campus. A full range of committees was established, and these provided opportunities for greater involvement in the communication process. The faculty senate was organized to serve as an advocate for the faculty, and the membership of the executive committee was expanded to include the president of the faulty senate. These were identified as helping to improve relationships between administration and faculty. But, communication improvement was seen as moving at a slow pace; problem areas still existed and resulted in some unresolved conflicts among colleges. A broad range of steps had, however, been taken to develop better communication, and considerable improvement had resulted even though work remained. The team found strong commitment on everyone’s part to continue to improve the quality of