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Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to share with you the letter I received last week from our regional accreditor, the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE). The letter is the Commission's culminating assessment of our University of Maine System (UMS) comprehensive evaluation and is the final element in that process, which began in earnest in January 2021 and included both the production of our system-wide Self Study in June 2022 and a NECHE-appointed evaluation team's visits to all of our universities and Law School last October. An accessible version of the letter will be available on the Unified Accreditation website early next week.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to the nearly 150 faculty, staff, and administrators who contributed to our Self Study, as well as the more than 500 UMS community members— faculty, academic and research leaders, students, staff, Boards of Visitors members, external stakeholders, and others— who interacted with the evaluation team last fall. I would also like to thank our Presidents and Trustees for their steadfast commitment to the comprehensive evaluation process and the considerable time and effort it required.
Building on the foundation of unified accreditation, and guided (upon its completion) by our new UMS strategic plan, we will move forward together in serving our students and our state. Thank you for everything you do to contribute to the ongoing vitality and success of our universities, Law School, and System as a whole.
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