Dear University Community,

Illinois Tech is currently preparing for a significant accreditation event—our 10-year reaffirmation of accreditation—which will take place early next fall. Accreditation is the process by which universities demonstrate the quality of their education, including courses, teaching and student services, research, and scholarship. Accreditation shows the quality of our degrees to employers and the wider community.

Illinois Tech’s accrediting body is the Higher Learning Commission, which also accredits many other universities. The accreditation process involves a review of all our operations and academic offerings. This review will culminate in an in-person site visit by a team of HLC reviewers in October 2026.

To prepare for this visit, we are having a preliminary mock review visit with a team of HLC peer reviewers on March 24–25, 2026. As part of this mock review, we will be hosting a trio of meetings:

• For Staff: Tuesday, March 24, 3–4 p.m. in the Hermann Hall Ballroom
• For Students: Wednesday, March 25, 12:45–1:50 p.m. in the Hermann Hall Ballroom
• For Faculty: Wednesday, March 25, 12:45–1:50 p.m. in the Kaplan Institute (Tellabs west, located in the southwest corner of the building) and also on Zoom

The meetings will be led by one or more of the HLC reviewers.

Faculty and staff: As part of this process, the Office of the Provost is leading the creation of a self-study report that demonstrates how the university is meeting the standards set by HLC and involves the contributions of faculty and staff representing a diverse range of departments at the university. The report describes Illinois Tech’s operation in a very wide set of activities, including our mission and strategic planning; our teaching and student services; our research and scholarship; and our budgeting, planning and financial management. Faculty and staff are central to all of these activities, and we need your active participation to have a successful visit. Prior to the meeting in March, we will be releasing the draft self-study report argument shared with the HLC review team to all faculty and staff for review. We will also include a structured feedback mechanism for faculty and staff feedback.

Please join us to share your feedback with the reviewers and to participate in this event. Thank you for being an important part of this process.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Hudson
Provost, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Chief Academic Officer

Nick Menhart
Vice Provost for Accreditation and Assessment