UWM underwent its first accreditation review in 1969, when the University was fully accredited through the master’s level.³ Two focused visits on extending accreditation to the doctoral level were made in the early 1970s, and doctoral accreditation was granted in 1975. The next review was held in 1985, and full accreditation, without stipulation, was granted in May of 1985. UWM’s last NCA accreditation review occurred in November of 1995.

The NCA voted to continue its accreditation of UWM in response to the NCA evaluation visit to the campus in April of that year. The NCA evaluation team concluded that “the University meets all of the GIRs (General Institutional Requirements) and all five accreditation criteria, and continues to be a basically healthy and dynamic institution.” As a result of the evaluation, NCA recommended the full 10-year interval (2004-05) until the next comprehensive visit. The evaluation team did, however, recommend that a focused visit be added “for the purpose of evaluating progress made by the University in the strategic planning process.”

The 1995 NCA accreditation review occurred at a time of declining enrollments, state funding, and faculty size. The NCA examiners posed questions about how the University would respond to these trends. Their report emphasized the University’s urgent need for a campus-wide strategic planning process, the strained and ineffective communication among campus stakeholders, and the University’s inadequate progress in diversifying the University.

The NCA report made 14 suggestions for the University to consider and recommended a focused site visit in 1998 “for the purpose of evaluating progress made by the University in the strategic planning process.” The report stated that the lack of a planning process jeopardized the University’s ability to accomplish its mission and strengthen its educational effectiveness. The report also emphasized that the site visit would focus on evaluating the planning process, not just a planning report.

The NCA recommendations aligned with ongoing campus activities and conversations that were beginning to address the need for more comprehensive long-range planning.⁴ The NCA report gave additional impetus to this trend, and over the next three years following its publication, UWM developed a university-wide strategic plan, evaluated its degree array, and adopted a plan to increase campus diversity (treated in more detail in “Criterion 2”).