After being re-accredited for another 10 years by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association and selected as one of the nation's top liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report again this year, The College of Wooster continues to enhance its academic stature. Iain Crawford, the College's new vice president for academic affairs, offers his insight on Wooster's distinguishing characteristics as well as his vision for the future.

Q. From your perspective, what are Wooster's greatest strengths?

A. There are so many. Our student body continues to grow in strength as Wooster attracts well-rounded young people who are both gifted academically and talented in many other ways. Our faculty is an enormous strength - dedicated teacher-scholars who are profoundly committed both to their students and to engaging in the intellectual life of their disciplines. We also have an extraordinarily beautiful and well-managed campus, strong financial resources, and exceptional work in development. And we are blessed in having such a wealth of friends and alumni whose engagement with the college keeps our traditions strong and helps us create the resources essential to our ongoing advancement.

Q. How did the College fare in its recent re-accreditation and why is it significant?

A. Very well. The team that visited the campus spoke of the college's demonstrable "commitment to excellence in instruction," students' high level of satisfaction with instruction, and the college's strengths in material and human capital. Its one concern was with assessment of student learning, and the college-wide assessment committee is already working to address our needs in that area. The re-accreditation process takes place every 10 years and is significant in two ways: first, it is a formal licensing process that legitimizes the degrees we grant; secondly, it is an opportunity for us to review ourselves through a comprehensive self-study and then have an external team assess that document and visit the campus to meet with different groups, examine materials, and generally appraise the effectiveness of the education we offer.

Q. What does the ranking by U.S. News and World Report reveal about Wooster?

A. Very little that we don't already know, in all honesty. The rankings are determined partly by self-reported data and partly by a national survey of presidents and chief academic officers. In fact, the latter component is the largest single element of the ranking. Since we report the data components, we know what they will tell and, more importantly, we know what lies behind them and what things they don't capture about the college. The survey of other academic officers is essentially a test of how we are perceived, which is inevitably a very subjective indicator and not one with any inherent reliability. So overall, while we are certainly very pleased to see our strengths and qualities recognized by the ranking, we shouldn't - and don't - place excessive emphasis upon it.

Q. Why does Wooster believe so strongly in independent learning?

A. Like all liberal arts colleges, Wooster places the growth of the individual at the very center of its mission. Harold Taylor, who was president at Sara Lawrence during the 1940s and '50s," once wrote that "the central idea of liberal education is. . . the idea of individualism and individual freedom." Equally important, I believe, is that a liberal education prepares students to be engaged citizens, to take leadership positions in a democratic society, and to play their part in making our world a better one for all who live in it. Wooster draws from its Presbyterian heritage a dual commitment to individual growth and civic responsibility, and it is this commitment that underlies our special emphasis on independent learning.

Q. How does the Independent Study Program set Wooster apart from other liberal arts colleges?

A. "Unique" is a word we tend to over use, but Independent Study (I.S.) truly is a profoundly distinguishing feature of a Wooster education. Very few colleges or universities have such an established tradition as I.S., and almost no other institution has done so much to integrate the senior capstone project into the entire fabric of its life. From the day they begin their First-Year Seminars right through that Monday after Spring Break when they turn in their projects, our students are engaged in a curriculum that builds toward this senior experience. Our academic decisions at the college always take Independent Study into consideration: from the way we designed the libraries to the things we look for in hiring new faculty, we are always thinking about how what we do will contribute to making I.S. as successful an experience for our students as possible.

Q. What is your vision for Wooster in the next decade?

A. I think the great strength of the College is that its vision for the future is something that all its constituencies come together to create, and I look forward to working with each of these groups and playing my part in that process. As I look at Wooster after having been here just three months, I see a great deal that is enormously successful and that I hope I can work to sustain. I also see opportunities for us to work to help develop resources that will give faculty more support in managing a heavy workload, to improve our processes of assessing student learning (and so learning ourselves how we need to improve that learning), and to create new academic programs that will combine our continuing commitment to a liberal arts education with adapting to the new universe of knowledge that the 21st century is bringing us.