Commission on Colleges and Universities File, 1928-1969 | University of Illinois Archives

The Commission on Institutions of Higher Education was formed in 1916 when the Commission on Accredited Schools and Colleges was, upon revision of the constitution, replaced by three commissions (see 25/50/5).  The Commission consisted of forty-eight persons, thirty representing higher institutions and eighteen representing secondary schools.  Subject to the approval of the North Central Association, the Commission was empowered to prepare standards to be met by institutions of higher education, to make such inspection of institutions as it deemed necessary, and to submit to the Executive Committee of the Association, for its approval and publication, lists of institutions which were found to conform to the standards prescribed.[1]

            In 1942, with the adoption of a new constitution, the Commission on Higher Education was renamed as the Commission on Colleges and Universities. Constitutional status was now granted to the subcommittee known as the Board of Review.  The Board was to consist of seven members, and was responsible for analyzing the data submitted by institutions seeking first accreditment, or retention of their earlier relationships, and to report its findings to the larger body. [2]

            In the 1970 By-Laws of the Association, the Commission on Colleges and Universities was renamed the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education (see 25/50/5). According to these By-Laws the Commission “shall prepare policy statements....for the guidance of member and non-member institutions of higher education; receive and consider applications from institutions of higher education for membership in the Association and, in connection therewith, to make surveys and conduct examinations; request periodic reports form member institutions and make surveys and conduct examinations of such members; prepare a list of institutions of higher education recommended to the Association for accrediting.[3]

[1]Calvin O. Davis, A History of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, 1895-1945 (Ann Arbor: The North Central Association, 1945), 38.

[2]Ibid., 39-40

[3]Louis J. Geiger, Voluntary Accreditation: A History of the North Central Association, 1945-1970 (Menasha, WI: George Banta Company, 1970), 171-172.