In about 20 months, Baker University will welcome members of the Higher Learning Commission.

Members of the visiting team will look at all areas of the university and will make a decision about whether the university will receive accreditation.

“Accreditation is the currency, the value, of a higher education institution, in that it keeps you standing with other institutions,” Provost Randy Pembrook said.

Pembrook and Simon Maxwell, vice president of information technology, are co-chairs of the steering committee that oversees the planning for the Higher Learning Commission, which will visit all four Baker schools on Nov. 9-11, 2011.

“It’s a very large organization,” Pembrook said. “They cover this part of the country.”

Pembrook and Maxwell oversee six different committees, which will be made up of around 150 faculty, students and staff members from all four schools. The committees will also include the administrative cabinet, athletic administrators and members of the Board of Trustees.

“They want to know all parts of the university,” Pembrook said. “So we have to be busy thinking about quality in all venues and trying to make sure people in those venues are involved with the self-study process.”

The Higher Learning Commission comes to different institutions every 10 years and makes suggestions on what the university needs to work on and what it is doing well.

“We use that as a starting point to figure out what we believe and what we want to do,” Pembrook said. “Our task is to start with some of the things they think is important, add to it what we think is important, figure out if we are accomplishing what we think is important and tell them in what ways we are accomplishing it.”

Chief Operating Officer Susan Lindahl said Baker is part of the north-central part of the Higher Learning Commission.

“There are six regions of it,” Lindahl said. “It’s really an exciting opportunity for us to look at everything we do and have an opportunity to look at things we would really like to do better.”

Although Pembrook will end his Provost duties on June 30, he will continue working at Baker in order to prepare for the Higher Learning Commission.

“I’m still going to be working with some of the academic programs … and I’m excited,” Pembrook said. “I think I’m going to start doing some more teaching and work with students in various parts of the university.”

Before Pembrook came to Baker, he oversaw doctorial research projects for students looking to get their doctorate degrees.

"That was something I did a lot of before I came to Baker," he said. "So to do that again will be exciting."<br/>