Membership in ATS provides many benefits to theological schools AND comes with responsibilities, three of which are primary.

1. To be sure that the school abides by the various responsibilities described in Board-approved documents (Standards of Accreditation, Policies and Procedures), the ALO must have a good working knowledge of these documents. Responsibilities include ensuring that:

additional locations are visited at the time of a comprehensive visit (P&P III.B.1),
an upcoming comprehensive visit is announced (III.B.2),
the Self-Study Handbook is carefully followed throughout the self-study process (III.B.4).

2. Completing the Annual Report Form (ARF) accurately and in a timely fashion is the responsibility of every member school. The process is very much a team effort, as the required data is drawn from across the institution, including admissions/enrollment, personnel, development, library, and financial data. Some of the data are sensitive in nature and the ALO may not have access to all that must be submitted, e.g., salaries. An effective ALO serves as the point person ensuring that appropriate persons understand the information that is to be reported and that deadlines for submission are met. Knowing that some information is required in several places in the Form (e.g., Fall Enrollment Headcount is reported in EF-1 by Race and Gender, EF-2 by Age and Gender (odd years only), and EF-3 by Denomination), should alert the ALO to checking that each degree total on all three of those forms matches. Similarly, Previous Year Completions are reported on three forms and degree totals should match in every place they are submitted. Alissa Horton, Manager of Data and Reporting, horton@ats.edu is available for assistance in the event of difficulties or questions related to the submission of the ARF.

3. Payment of annual membership dues and fees related to evaluation visits (comprehensive or initial evaluation, and focused evaluation visits) is the third primary membership responsibility. These are outlined on the ATS website here.

In addition, the ALO should know how to find the Commission's Statement of Accreditation Status and the semester of their next comprehensive evaluation visit, both of which are listed on a school's page on the ATS website.

Comprehensive evaluation visits are at the heart of the relationship between each member school and the Board of Commissioners and the foundational way in which a school maintains its accreditation. Policies and Procedures, III.B.1-10 outline clearly major dimensions of the visit process, while the Self-Study Module in this course address this in greater detail.

Recognizing events that might trigger a petition, notification, or other action is one of the primary ways in which an ALO serves as a guide for their school. These are outlined below in the Maintaining Accreditation section of Policies and Procedures.

Focused Visits have two different purposes and the ALO knows that some are in response to a substantive change and may be thought of as "school initiated," while others are in response to a Board concern, i.e., "Board initiated".

Maintaining Accreditation-IIIA.pdf