Diablo Valley College will be subject to an accreditation evaluation process from Oct. 6 – 9 with the visit of 12 members of the accreditation evaluation team.

Every six years, community colleges in California undergo an evaluation process which takes a deeper look at the institutions’ practices and suggests areas of improvement.

The team consists of faculty and administrative members of various member colleges in California.

The evaluation process will start on Monday, Oct. 6 at the San Ramon campus and will kick in to full gear on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at Pleasant Hill.

Some members will be walking around and examining the processes all over campus that need to meet accreditation standards set by educational institutions; while others will be in offices looking over governance documents.

A 520-page document called “Self Evaluation Report of Educational Quality and Institutional Effectiveness in Support of Reaffirmation of Accreditation” was prepared jointly by faculty, classified staff, students and administrators working in teams on specific accreditation standards.

DVC administrators do not foresee any issues arising from the evaluation.

DVC President Peter Garcia and Ted Wieden, Accreditation Liaison Officer, had a preliminary meeting with the team chair and assistant in August to finalize the visit.

“I don’t see any red flags right now. Will we get recommendations for improvement? I guarantee it. It’s a good thing, they see things we don’t,” said Wieden. “I don’t think any college goes through without recommendations. It’s healthy.”

The decisions of the 2010 recommendations have brought significant academic changes which have been made to enhance student success. One of the mandates from the state board of education is noticeable in the way the new syllabi are worded for the fall 2014 semester. The program-level learning outcome and course-level student learning outcome are updated to help students better understand what is expected of them for each course.

As for the accreditors’ visit, the administration is asking the student body to be kind to anyone who is wearing an accreditation visitor’s badge and to help direct them when asked.

“Be engaging and help out,” Wieden said.