Visit Schedule

All team members are expected to arrive on Saturday for the visit. Team chairs may ask team members to arrive by noon on Saturday to begin their work, especially at large comprehensive institutions. Arrival by noon on Saturday may require team members to travel on Friday night. At very small institutions, team members may begin the visit with an informal dinner on Saturday night.

The exit conference is scheduled between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, depending on the amount of time the team needs to complete its report on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. All team members are expected to work with the team until noon on Wednesday unless notified of a different time by the team chair. When the institution is located far from an airport, team members should not plan a flight until late afternoon or evening. In some cases, one or more team members may have to stay over on Wednesday night in a hotel near the airport. Some team chairs choose to finalize the BOE report on Wednesday, leaving the area on Thursday. If team members cannot arrange to work until noon on Wednesday, they should not accept the assignment.

Institutional Presentation

The template includes the option for a 30-minute presentation by the institution at the Sunday evening meeting with the team. Most institutions use this opportunity to describe their vision, major improvements since the last visit, and exemplary practices. Sometimes the presentations are speeches, but often they are multimedia productions. These presentations traditionally have been part of a dinner with selected institutional representatives, but other options are possible.

To highlight its programs, an institution and the team chair may decide a poster session on Saturday or earlier on Sunday is more appropriate. In these sessions team members can move around to talk with faculty and see operations and programs in action. These sessions might include candidates, faculty, and/or other members of the professional community. Teams find these presentations much more informative than the Sunday night presentation and valuable in planning the team’s work on Monday and Tuesday.

Although the template suggests Sunday evening for this presentation, the team chair and institution could schedule it for Saturday, Sunday afternoon, or Monday morning. These arrangements should be made at the previsit.