HLC Accreditation
Lawrence is accredited as a degree-granting institution by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and is in good standing. HLC has three Pathways for Reaffirmation of Accreditation (Standard, AQIP, and Open) and we are on the Open Pathway, which follows a 10-year cycle. As part of the Open Pathways we undergo institutional reviews including regular monitoring, Assurance Review (Year 4), Quality Initiative (Years 5-9), and a Comprehensive Evaluation (Year 10). Our Comprehensive Evaluation (Year 10) visit occurred in October 2018. Our Assurance Review (Year 4) will occur in July 2023. The Provost's Office houses a dedicated web page related to the visit including the internal accreditation team, documents submitted to HLC, links, and a post-visit summary (login is not required). The Office of Institutional Research houses the Consumer Information disclosure requirements. The Director of Institutional Research is a standing and active member of the Presidential Committee on Accreditation and Assessment and is the lead for Federal Compliance.
HHMI Inclusive Excellence Grant (2018-2025)
Lawrence was one of 33 institutions selected in 2018 to receive a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence (IE) Grant, joining 24 schools selected in 2017. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute awarded Lawrence $1 million over a five-year period (2018-2023), and we received a no-cost extension (2023-2025). The program’s aim is to catalyze schools’ efforts to engage science students of all backgrounds and identities. The program is focusing on “the New Majority” — underrepresented minority, first-generation and low-income students.
Learn more about the grant! Ask about presentations and workshops our office has done in collaboration with others on campus!
American Talent Initiative (2017 & Beyond)
Launched in December 2016, the American Talent Initiative (ATI) is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and was founded with a national goal of educating 50,000 additional high-achieving, lower-income students by 2025 at the 341 colleges and universities that consistently graduate at least 70 percent of their students in six years; ATI members are a subset of these 341 institutions. Lawrence joined the ATI in February 2017.
The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) (2013-Present)
The Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IHDE) is a non-partisan applied research institute located at Tufts University’s Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. The IDHE studies higher education’s role in democracy, including issues of student political learning, discourse, equity and inclusion, and participation. The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) is a one-of-a-kind, signature initiative of IDHE that includes data on more than 1,200 campuses and "offers colleges and universities an opportunity to learn their student registration and voting rates and, for interested campuses, a closer examination of their campus climate for political learning and engagement and correlations between specific student learning experiences and voting." Lawrence has participated in the study since 2013, when it was first offered. The NSLVE provides a campus report to participating institutions.
WiscAMP Grants (2007-Present)
The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) is a multidisciplinary undergraduate program with multiple institutions working toward a shared goal. The overarching aim is to address the retention and persistence of underrepresented domestic minorities (African America, Hispanic/Latino(a), Native American, Alaska Native, Native Pacific Islanders, or Native Hawaiian) in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines resulting in a significant increase in the quantity and quality of underrepresented minority students who graduate with a degree in the STEM disciplines. The Wisconsin Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (WiscAMP) was established in 2004 and Lawrence has been a member since its inception. The first WiscAMP Small Grant awarded to Lawrence University was in 2007. It was a Collaborative program with UW-Oshkosh, "WiscAMP Summer Opportunities: Lawrence-UW-Oshkosh Collaboration."
Lawrence University, like all alliance member institutions, has provided WiscAMP enrollment and degree information for their reporting and evaluation obligations since 2004. WiscAMP collects data from its alliance partners and then reports it to the National Science Foundation. The Office of Institutional Research has been submitting annual enrollment and degree data to WiscAMP broken down by discipline, enrollment type, degree type, class year, sex, and race/ethnicity since 2012; prior to 2012 another department on campus was submitting these data.