SACS requires that each institution establish a SACS Leadership Team to oversee and manage all aspects of its reaffirmation, including its Compliance Certification and the development of its QEP. Additional committees or work groups may be established to assist in the process, but the Leadership Team is the only one specifically mandated by SACS and is responsible for coordinating and managing all institutional activities related to reaffirmation.
SACS wants the Leadership Team to "include individuals who have the skills, knowledge, and authority to lead in this total institutional effort." However, it repeatedly stresses that this should not be a large group of people. The Leadership Team is not meant to be a cross-section of the entire university, not is it meant to include representatives of all important groups on campus. Instead, it should be a small, core group of people who, because of their positions and/or their experience, are uniquely qualified to direct the institution's reaffirmation efforts.
Those that SACS does want on the Leadership Team include:
- the chief executive officer,
- the chief academic officer,
- the accreditation liaison, and
- a representative faculty member.
- The chief financial officer, while not specifically required to be on the Leadership Team, is frequently mentioned in the SACS handbooks as a key participant in the reaffirmation process who must work closely with the team.
Of these five, the two that receive the greatest attention from SACS are the institution's chief executive officer and its accreditation liaison. Both have important roles to play before and after, as well as during, reaffirmation. According to The Handbook for Reaffirmation of Accreditation: "With the chief executive officer, the accreditation liaison is responsible for the accuracy of all information submitted to the Commission [on Colleges of SACS] and for ensuring ongoing compliance with Commission standards, policies, and procedures beyond reaffirmation." (p. 9)
The members of NKU's SACS Leadership Team are:
James Votruba, NKU President
Gail Wells, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
Mary Lepper, SACS Liaison and Director of Curriculum, Accreditation, & Assessment
K.C. Russell, Associate Professor of Chemistry and representative of the Faculty Senate
Ken Ramey, Vice President for Administration & Finance
Pat Moynahan, Vice Provost
Douglas Robertson, Assistant Provost and Professor
Sue Hodges Moore, Vice President for Planning, Policy & Budget
Daryl Wright, Director of Institutional Research
Steven Weiss, Professor of Communication and representative of the Board of Regents
