By Dan Adkins

"All universities go through accreditation reaffirmation every 10 years, but this is not a routine activity. The self-study and the team visit help us identify both our strengths and our weaknesses, so we can build on those strengths and correct our deficiencies."

-- John J. Piecoro Jr.,
director, UK self-study

April 16, 2002 (Lexington, Ky.) -- A team of 27 academicians from universities across the Southeast today began a review of the University of Kentucky's departments and programs as part of UK's accreditation reaffirmation process.

The team from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Commission on Colleges, led by University of Alabama President Emeritus E. Roger Sayers, began arriving in Lexington Monday and completed organizational meetings.

UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. formally welcomed the group to UK at a reception and dinner Monday night at Spindletop Hall, a UK-owned estate north of Lexington near the Kentucky Horse Park.

The group will hear Todd give a formal presentation on the state of the university at 8:30 a.m. today (Tuesday, April 16) in the 18th floor Board Room of the Patterson Office Tower. The visiting team will then begin two days of some 500 interviews with students, faculty and administrators, scrutinizing UK's academic, athletic, student affairs and other programs.

The visiting team will base much of its activity on the results of a two-year university self-study directed by John J. Piecoro Jr., professor in the College of Pharmacy.

"All universities go through accreditation reaffirmation every 10 years, but this is not a routine activity. The self-study and the team visit help us identify both our strengths and our weaknesses, so we can build on those strengths and correct our deficiencies," Piecoro said.

Among the universities represented on the visiting team are the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Virginia Polytechnic Institute.