Representatives from various NIU departments and the NIU reaccreditation review steering committee will meet Wednesday with the associate director of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

In February 1994, the NCA, a non-profit voluntary organization that evaluates schools, colleges and universities in the Midwest for accreditation, will evaluate NIU.

English Professor James Mellard said Stephen Spangehl, the NCA’s associate director, will come to NIU to explain more about what the NCA is, what it expects of the university and how it goes about evaluating a university.

The NIU steering committee, consisting of 12 NIU faculty members and spearheaded by Mellard, had its third meeting Friday and already is getting organized for the review.

Mellard said the purpose of the meeting was to let the steering committee members know who and where they can turn to for information regarding their committee.

Donald Davidson, assistant provost for Resource Planning, and Nicholas Noe, director of Institutional Research, spoke to the committee members about their positions, their duties and what they could do to help the committees.

Noe will put a statistical report together for the NCA called “Basic Institutional Data Forms,” containing graphs, charts and statistical information about the university, Mellard said.

Noe put the 1982-83 report together for the last NCA review, Mellard added.

Mellard said the subcommittees, spearheaded by each steering committee member, are forming well. Each subcommittee is responsible for producing a report based on the data it has collected.

Each report will make up the narrative account given to the NCA, Mellard said.

“The response has been very positive and very high from people who were asked to serve,” he said.

NIU is reviewed for accreditation every 10 years.