Post University Reaffirmation 2024

The institution’s mission and purposes are appropriate to higher education, consistent with its charter or other operating authority, and implemented in a manner that complies with the Standards of the New England Commission of Higher Education. The institution’s mission gives direction to its activities and provides a basis for the assessment and enhancement of the institution’s effectiveness.

Team Leader:  *Tom Bryant, Vice President of Accreditation 

Committee Members:

• Shawn Fields, Assistant Director of Accreditation
• Joe Lodewyck, Director of Assessment
• Melissah Kochera, Executive Assistant to the CEO
• Joan Huwiler, Director of University Communications

The institution undertakes planning and evaluation to accomplish and improve the achievement of its mission and purposes.  It identifies its planning and evaluation priorities and pursues them effectively.  The institution demonstrates its success in strategic, academic, financial, and other resource planning and the evaluation of its educational effectiveness.

Team Leader:  Jeanna Sinn, Senior Vice President of Operations

Committee Members: 

• Jennifer Zaniewski, Vice President Enrollment
• *Jennifer Nicknair, Sr. Director, Institutional Effectiveness & Strategic Operations
• Jennifer Peffers, Director of Admissions ADP
• Victoria Meehan, Director of Enrollment
• Kristi Burrell, Director of Strategy and Analysis
• Frank Monteiro, Chief of Staff

The institution has a system of governance that facilitates the accomplishment of its mission and purposes and supports institutional effectiveness and integrity. Through its organizational design and governance structure, the institution creates and sustains an environment that encourages teaching, learning, service, scholarship, and where appropriate, research and creative activity. It demonstrates administrative capacity by assuring provision of support adequate for the appropriate functioning of each organizational component. The institution has sufficient autonomy and control of its programs and operations consistent with its mission to be held directly accountable for meeting the Commission’s Standards for Accreditation.

Team Leader:  *Shawn Fields, Assistant Director of Accreditation

Committee Members:

• Tom Bryant, Vice President of Accreditation
• Melissah Kochera, Executive Assistant to the CEO
• Wesley Debnam, Sr. Vice President of Culture, Diversity, & Associate Experience
• Kristin McDonald, Associate Program Chair of Human Services and Sociology
• Abigail Nemec, Program Chair – Equine Studies
• Sarah Meeks, Chair – Bachelor of Science Nursing Program
• Kristine Skalsky, Chair, Research and Scholarship
• Hamid Malakpour, Program Chair – Finance
• Michelle Hubbell, Director Military & Graduate Admissions

The institution’s academic programs are consistent with and serve to fulfill its mission and purposes. The institution works systematically and effectively to plan, provide, oversee, evaluate, improve, and assure the academic quality and integrity of its academic programs and the credits and degrees awarded. The institution sets a standard of student achievement appropriate to the degree or certificate awarded and develops the systematic means to understand how and what students are learning and to use the evidence obtained to improve the academic program.

Co-Chairs: *Lucia Dressel, Assistant Dean for General Education and Stephanie Payzant, Director of Instructional Design

Committee Members: 

• Caitlyn Masiewicz, University Registrar
• Melissa Kendall, Senior Associate Registrar
• Alisa Hunt, Assistant Dean, Graduate Business Studies
• Brenda Helmer, Chair, Master of Science Nursing American Sentinel College of Nursing and Health Sciences
• Dawn Sherman, Dean, School Continuing Education
• Andrew Smith, Assistant Dean, John P. Burke School of Public Service & Education
• Dr. Yolanda Smith, Assistant Dean American Sentinel College
• Marisa Mucherino, Assistant Director of Instructional Design
• Gina Wellman, Director of Academic First Year Experience

Consistent with its mission, the institution sets and achieves realistic goals to enroll students who are broadly representative of the population the institution wishes to serve. The institution addresses its own goals for the achievement of diversity, equity, and inclusion among its students and provides a safe environment that fosters the intellectual and personal development of its students. It endeavors to ensure the success of its students, offering the resources and services that provide them the opportunity to achieve the goals of their educational program as specified in institutional publications. The institution’s interactions with students and prospective students are characterized by integrity and equity.

Team Leader:  Devon Putnam, Director of Student Engagement

Committee Members: 

• Victoria Meehan, Director of Enrollment
• Scott Allen, Senior Vice President
• Jennifer Labate, Director of Title IX and Disability Services
• Jewel Williams, Vice President of Regulatory Compliance and Financial Aid
• *Gregory Dennis, Director of Center for Academic Success
• Jennifer Zaniewski, Vice President Enrollment
• Stephanie Caban, Program Chair – Management and Baldrige Diversity Officer
• Tom Kavanagh, Director of Enrollment – Financial Aid and Technology
  
• Jeff Olsen, Vice President Student Experience and Dean of Students

The institution supports teaching and learning through a well-qualified faculty and academic staff, who, instructors and processes appropriate to the institution, collectively ensure the quality of instruction and support for student learning. Scholarship, research, and creative activities receive support appropriate to the institution’s mission. The institution’s faculty has primary responsibility for advancing the institution’s academic purposes through teaching, learning, and scholarship.

Team Leader:  Jeremi Bauer, Interim Co-Provost 

Committee Members: 

• Elizabeth Kranz, Dean – School of Arts and Sciences
• Jim Loughran, Program Chair of Graduate Business Studies
• *Michael Wolter, Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Programs
• Kristine Skalsky, Chair of Research and Scholarship
• Breana Sanchez, Associate Director of Enrollment-Advising
• David Renza, Associate Director Academic Success and Retention

The institution has sufficient human, financial, information, physical, and technological resources, and capacity to support its mission. Through periodic evaluation, the institution demonstrates that its resources are sufficient to sustain the quality of its educational program and to support institutional improvement now and in the foreseeable future. The institution demonstrates, through verifiable internal and external evidence, its financial capacity to graduate its entering class. The institution administers its resources in an ethical manner and assures effective systems of enterprise risk management, regulatory compliance, internal controls, and contingency management.

Team Leader:  *Carey Cseszko, Controller

Committee Members:

• Jay Kim, Vice President Financial Services/Bursar
• Donna Prudhomme, Chief Financial Officer
• Tracy Ralston, Library Director
• Adam Gorski, Chief Information Officer
• Myla Wilson, Associate Director of Regulatory Compliance
• Dennis Zancan, Facilities Manager
• Robert Acosta, Cybersecurity Analyst
• Frank Kuster, Associate Experience Generalist

The institution demonstrates its effectiveness by ensuring satisfactory levels of student achievement on mission-appropriate student outcomes.  Based on verifiable information, the institution understands what its students have gained as a result of their education and has useful evidence about the success of its recent graduates. This information is used for planning and improvement, resource allocation, and to inform the public about the institution. Student achievement is at a level appropriate for the degree awarded.

Team Leader:  *Jennifer Pisco, Senior Director of Student Engagement

Committee Members: 

• Devon Putnam, Director of Student Engagement
• Joe Lodewyck, Director of Assessment
• Gina Wellman, Director of Academic First Year Experience
• Dr. Elizabeth Kranz, Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
• Brenda Helmer, Chair, MSN Program
• Roger Caramanica, Program Chair, Gaming and Esports Management
• Darren Cesca, Default Management Leader
• Shelley Cote, Director of Student Accounts

The institution subscribes to and advocates high ethical standards in the management of its affairs and in its dealings with students, prospective students, faculty, staff, its governing board, external agencies and organizations, and the general public. Through its policies and practices, the institution endeavors to exemplify the values it articulates in its mission and related statements. In presenting the institution to students, prospective students, and other members of the public, the institutional website provides information, including information about student success, that is complete, accurate, timely, readily accessible, clear, and sufficient for intended audiences to make informed decisions about the institution.

Team Leader:  *Rich Schechter, Chief Marketing Officer 

Committee Members: 

• Joan Huwiler, Director of University Communications
• Michele Bartlett, Director Website Development & Visual Branding
• JC Hopkins, Director of Marketing
• Sean Cooley, Director of Marketing Analysis & Lead Generation
• Wesley Debnam, SVP Culture, Diversity & Associate Experience

As a member of the reaffirmation team for Standard Seven, my goal is to drive continuous improvement and develop a deeper understanding of how seemingly unrelated departments come together to support Post University’s mission. Throughout the year, collaborating with a team of talented individuals, I discovered that the reaffirmation process, through the self-assessment perspective, shows areas in which we can enhance existing processes and procedures that improve our student experience.

Having standards, policies, and procedures are indispensable for any organization’s success and continuous improvement. They serve as a framework that can keep an organization aligned with its mission. NECHE Standards of Accreditation provide the structure for remaining committed to delivering our mission by providing personalized guidance, unwavering motivation, robust support, and student-centered education that allows our students to achieve their goals.

The 2024 reaffirmation process requires me to change my perspective and think of everyone’s involvement, mine included, in relation to how our decisions impact students. While I have limited involvement with students, the reaffirmation process prompts me to consider the impact of policies and procedures that we implement and strike a balance between securing the organization and exploring how these measures affect students.

As with any critical topic, the best way to inspire other staff members is to highlight its importance and make compliance a focal conversation about the impact it has on our students. By creating a culture that values compliance and open dialog, we can communicate the purpose of reaffirmation while linking it to Post University’s mission. Emphasizing the meaningfulness of compliance will allow associates to understand their responsibility in delivering an exceptional experience to our students.

I hope to gain a broad knowledge of how we reflect our mission across all areas of the University. The reaffirmation process is the ideal opportunity for me to be involved in highlighting the quality programs we offer and how we prepare students to achieve their personal and professional goals.

Living the mission is the foundation of all we do. The NECHE Standards of Accreditation provide a roadmap that guides our story of how, when, and why we perform our daily duties of providing meaningful educational experiences for our students. Working to ensure compliance with the NECHE Standards of Accreditation exemplifies our commitment to fulfilling the mission.

I am the Assistant Dean of American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences. It is critical for me to be wholeheartedly involved in the 2024 reaffirmation process because this is an important aspect of highlighting that the level of education we offer meets the highest standards. Therefore, I approach the process with a focused ambition of supporting the team with completing the requirements so we can be ready for a successful review by the NECHE site evaluation team.

My hope is that my passion for the accreditation process as well as how I promote the importance of meeting the NECHE Standards of Accreditation will be so contagious that other associates will want to become involved. Having a stamp of approval for the quality of our programs is the epitome of excellence, and I will continue to emphasize the positive impact of that approval on our students, associates, and the University.

As chairperson for Standard 6, I have two specific goals. The first is to gain a better understanding of how we, as a university, fulfill the various aspects of the standard. I think as we go about our day-to-day activities, we all believe we are living up to the standards but writing a self-study forces us to reflect and evaluate those beliefs against the realities of operating. Second, upon evaluation of where we stand, I hope to gain an understanding of how we can improve. I believe that we should always seek to be better today than we were yesterday and that the collection of better days over time will have a positive impact on our students and their lives.

I am an enormous supporter of not only the NECHE standards but the standards within each of our programmatic  accreditors as well. I believe, when used appropriately, the standards within NECHE and our programmatic accreditors help us achieve our mission. What separates  higher education from many other industries is that it is highly mission driven. The standards within NECHE, and our programmatic accreditors, give us an operating manual to achieve our mission with a constant focus on our students and their success.

I have the honor of serving as both the Dean of The Malcolm Baldrige School of Business and as the Assistant Provost of Academic Strategy. I believe these two roles give me a unique perspective on both the academic and non-academic operations of Post University. As such, I believe my involvement in the 2024 reaffirmation process will enable me to communicate more effectively with all stakeholders (internal and external) about the value of what we do as a university. But more importantly, how that value is validated by our execution of the NECHE standards.

This is an important question as it relates to inspiration. Inspiring others is a fundamental task for anyone who considers themselves a leader.  And I do not mean positional leadership. The NECHE standards are all about quality education and quality services. The standards provide a way to measure our quality of education and services against what has been determined as fundamental to student and institutional success. As such, I do not see compliance with the NECHE standards as an optional endeavor. I see compliance with the NECHE standards as a commitment to our students, alumni, and stakeholders. A commitment that engenders trust that we hold ourselves accountable for delivering on our mission. A commitment that holds us accountable for the quality of our students’ education, making them proud to have resumes that bear the name of Post University. Beyond accountability, we have a responsibility to make compliance with the NECHE standards as non-negotiable as the sun rising each morning. In so doing, we have a responsibility to all stakeholders to live and breathe the NECHE Standards in all that we do at Post University.

My biggest hope for this process is to support Post in creating exceptional academic experiences for our students. Being a member of this team affords each member with an overall view of the student experience and how academics can create and foster immediately applicable academic resources and experiences.

Post’s mission promises personalized guidance, motivation, support, and student-centered education. Additionally, Post focuses its mission on the practical and professional skills inherent in socially responsible, workforce-ready leaders. This can only come to fruition through a constant assessment of how Post’s academic services and student services define, assess, and achieve these purposes. The accreditation process through NECHE shows that Post is committed to delivering its mission to Post stakeholders and to its self-regulatory processes.

My current position at Post is as the Assistant Dean of General Education. This position and the current Gen Ed reform have shaped my vision of Post’s mission and its obligation to the student experience. I am fundamentally involved in the student experience and in creating academic opportunities that focus on human skills and career skills throughout the entire program. The reaffirmation process will assist in assessing and revising the opportunities for students to advance their educations, careers, and communities, which is the inherent mission of the General Education program at Post.

Compliance is about ensuring that Post is delivering the quality educational experience promised in our mission statement and in our ethical and legal obligations to our stakeholders, particularly students who are investing time, money, resources, and love in their educational journeys. From the moment a student speaks to a Post representative, all associates need to be involved in striving for the quality and relatability of what we offer.

Being relatively new to Post University, this is an excellent way to become more familiar with the intricacies of how the institution operates. It is one thing to get to know our school casually and on an “as needed” basis (e.g., who/where to go for a specific issue; learning about a new initiative in a meeting; etc.). But going through the reaffirmation process is like reading the owner’s manual. It is also an excellent way to connect with other associates and departments across the university whom I would otherwise would never have a chance to meet.

Mission Statement

At Post University, we believe that personalized guidance, unwavering motivation, robust support, and a student-centered education are the catalysts that allow students to achieve their individual academic and career goals.  We shape workforce ready, socially responsible leaders through learning experiences offered in and out of the classroom designed to promote the exchange of knowledge, expand thinking, and refine practical and professional skills. 

There are many connections to be made here, but I will keep the focus limited to Standard 5: Students (the standard the team I am on has been assigned to). In this standard, NECHE wants to see evidence that we are consistent with our mission, specifically that we provide support and service to our students in order for them to be successful.

In doing this, the phrase “robust support, and a student-centered education” stands out. Post University has created an academic support system for its students, which complies with both what NECHE is looking for as well as what we explicitly set out to do in our mission. From our dynamic advising teams, to our dedicated faculty, to services such as First Year Experience, the Center for Career & Professional Development, and the Center for Academic Success, it makes our job easy to prove we have the infrastructure to help our students succeed.

I am the Director of the Center for Academic Success. Our department is reexamining our services and re-evaluating how we can best support all students at Post University. So being a part of the reaffirmation process was a rather fortunate coincidence, as this is a time for the entire university to look back upon the goals and strategies it set for itself and evaluate how well it stayed on course. As our department is trying to figure out how we can best serve our students, it is a great reminder to look beyond our department walls and realize we are an active part of a larger machine. In other words, it is not just how our department directly helps the student, but instead how our department assists the entire university in its student-focused goals.

This may not be an “inspirational” response, but I will say accreditation is easily the single most important thing for any higher education institution. This is where we prove that what we do is helping our students be successful (or, at the very least, we are offering them the resources and services needed for them to succeed). In other words, this is where the rubber meets the road, this is the proof in the pudding, this is… well, you get the idea. Without accreditation, there are no programs. Without programs… again, you get the idea. So while many may perceive the term “accreditation” as something boring, this is our opportunity to not just prove we do what we claim, it is a chance to show off what we do well. More importantly, it is a time for us to examine where we can do even better.

When asked to join the reaffirmation team, my hope was simply to learn what goes into creating a self-study, but since starting the work, I have learned how this exercise forces you to step back and examine your processes and helps identify areas where improvement is needed. Sometimes, we fail to see these opportunities when we are in weeds of our day-to-day responsibilities.

Complying with the NECHE Standards of Accreditation supports our mission by providing us a baseline upon which to grow, as well as the framework to thoroughly examine how well we are meeting our commitments to our students. It forces us to question the efficacy of our processes and challenges us to dream bigger and provide a higher standard of support for our students.

I am currently the Director of Enrollment – Financial Aid & Technology. As stated earlier, this is an exercise of self-assessment. Identifying what my department is currently doing well and where we need to improve will shape the future of how we support our students. I feel that my involvement in the reaffirmation process will teach me to challenge the status quo on an ongoing basis and seek ways to improve our processes well beyond the conclusion of this self-study.

The best way to inspire other associates who are not directly involved in the self-study, is to tell them about it! We can explain what we are currently working on and why it is so important to the continued success of Post and our students. Additionally, it is so important to underscore that the substance of the self-study, the evidence we provide to demonstrate how we meet and exceed all compliance requirements, comes from the work that THEY do day in and day out for our students! Whether you are helping to write the self-study or not, you are directly impacting the story we tell.