After six years of work, Oregon Coast Community College is now an independently accredited institution.
Birgitte Ryslinge
The college received news of the decision by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities on Feb. 4, it announced in a news release.
The 33-year-old college serves Lincoln County through its locations in Newport, Waldport, and Lincoln City. OCCC students pursue health care, aquarium science, teaching, early childhood education, associates and transfer degrees at Oregon Coast, along with adult basic education and numerous other certificate and degree programs.
“Up until this year,” said OCCC President Dr. Birgitte Ryslinge, “every diploma earned by the students at Oregon Coast over the past three decades bore the name of an ‘accrediting college,’ through which Oregon Coast delivered instruction.” Since 2014, OCCC graduates earned diplomas and credits from Portland Community College.
“Other small community colleges in Oregon followed the same path over their early decades,” Ryslinge said. “Oregon Coast was the last community college in Oregon to lack its own independent accreditation.”
In May 2004, Lincoln County voters approved $24 million in bonds to build the college’s north, central and south county facilities. Construction on those buildings was completed in 2009. In 2014, Ryslinge was named president of of the school and charged by the college board to lead the college to independent accreditation.
Virtually every college system and process was examined and improved the past six years. The work was documented through reports and self-evaluations totaling thousands of pages. The college also hosted two separate accreditation teams comprised of community college presidents and deans representing Northwest institutions.
As an independently accredited institution, Oregon Coast Community College will manage processing and distribution of financial aid for its students, including work study. College credits will transfer as earned at OCCC, and the college will maintain its students’ transcripts, streamlining the process students need to go through to request transcripts and other records when transferring to other colleges and universities. The college will be able to set its own qualifications for faculty hiring, as opposed to following standards established at Portland Community College. Further, OCCC faculty will have control over selection of textbooks and materials most appropriate for their coursework, while also retaining responsibility for maintaining the appropriate levels of academic rigor and course content.
The college will also be able to be more responsive to local needs. When accredited through a larger college, OCCC was generally only able to offer classes and programs offered by that college. Now that Oregon Coast is an independent institution, it will be have greater freedom to work with partners and stakeholders in Lincoln County to evaluate, create, and adjust sustainable programs to meet the needs of local students and the broader Lincoln County economy.
The change also brings changes to web surfers – and the email addresses of students, faculty, and staff. The college website, currently “oregoncoastcc.org” will be transitioning soon to “oregoncoast.edu,” and that change will soon be reflected in college email accounts, too. Note that both addresses will work for an extended period of transition to ensure no messages are lost.