By Donell Maxie

MVSU Communications Director

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) has reaffirmed the accreditation for Mississippi Valley State University for the next decade. MVSU’s reaffirmation came without recommendations for improvement from the commission.

Additionally, MVSU gained approval for its Prison Educational Partnership Program (PEPP), which offers academic programs to incarcerated students with Second Chance Pell. This federal program is restoring access to income-based financial aid for incarcerated people. The university offers courses in both Greenwood and Cleveland, Mississippi.

The reaffirmation was announced at SACSCOC’s annual meeting on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, in Orlando, Fla.

SACSCOC serves as the common denominator of shared values and practices primarily among the diverse institutions in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Latin America, and specific international sites approved by the SACSCOC Board of Trustees that award associate, baccalaureate, master’s, or doctoral degrees. 

Accreditation by SACSCOC signifies that the institution has a mission appropriate to higher education and has resources, programs, and services sufficient to accomplish and sustain that mission. Accreditation also shows that MVSU maintains specified educational objectives consistent with its mission, appropriate to the degrees it offers, and indicates whether it has successfully achieved its stated goals.

Dr. Jerryl Briggs, Sr., President of MVSU, said, “I am deeply grateful to all the staff and faculty for all their hard work that led to this very positive outcome of our review. I want to extend my sincerest thanks to our MVSU community for our diligence in assuring our continued growth and success, especially for this SACSCOC reaffirmation process,” he said.

“I applaud the Reaffirmation Committee and the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Committee for their diligence and commitment to organizing and submitting the necessary documentation during this process,” Briggs said. “They also did a great job preparing the campus community for a visit by SACSCOC’s On-Site Review Committee members earlier this year. Following that meeting, the SACSCOC committee left with no issues or recommendations, meaning we had no areas of noncompliance, which was reflected in their report.