Accreditation

Any credible academic institution
must undergo accreditation
every ten years. My school is currently preparing for
this arduous process by compiling data that either
confirms our consistency in relation to
or calls attention to our inconsistency with
the mission and goals we profess to guide our work.

Because I am a student worker in the office of the president,
I have been asked to use my 20 hours a week
to help prepare the report
before the accrediting team arrives in
September to see things for themselves.

My specific task is to hyperlink the data
(visual, charts, graphs, statistical analysis)
component of the report
to the narrative
(written explanation in paragraph form)
component of the report.

I am, in essence, making the walk match the talk, on screen.
Really: it's just a click away.
I must, of course, first convert and transfer all kinds of documents.
And you must, of course, first slip the disc into the drive,
and hope your PC or Mac likes the disc,
and hope adobe acrobat (or adobe reader--based on your budget) behave,
and, of course, you must be able to understand, interpret, and make decidicions about (without ever having actually seen the students, faculty, administration, staff, buildings, curriculum, & classes in question)
the data.

But first off: i have to learn these conversion & transfer tricks.

Lincoln left yesterday.
Funny how the professional often mimics the personal.
How do you hyperlink lovers
across freeways
or air traffic lines
over minutes, days, & months of uncertainty?
There's data and then there's narrative
but they are off screen
and intertwined--already--so
our chances of passing the accreditation process
are high because
the mission and goals we profess to guide our work
were dually chosen
and no one is coming, except ourselves in the future,
to judge the (in)consistencies.

But first off: we have to learn these conversion & transfer tricks.