Conflict of Interest Policy for Site Visitors

In preparing lists of site visitors, the CoA and Program Consultation and Accreditation staff attempt to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest with the program being visited. This is absolutely necessary to maintain the credibility of the accreditation process. However, all relationships between individuals and programs cannot be known by the CoA and staff. The responsibility to determine any possible conflict, actual or apparent, lies equally with the program and the site visitors.

Possible conflicts for site visitors include:

• former employment by the program
• former student in the program
• family connection with the program
• having an "old" friend associated with the program
• having a former classmate on staff at the program
• having a close professional or personal relationship with a member of the staff at the program
• being a previous site visitor to the program
• where a staff member of a program an individual is asked to visit was a member of the site visiting team to his/her program

The Commission is committed to avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interest and maintaining the integrity and credibility of the accreditation process.  It will not consider a site visit report in which it detects an appearance of or an actual conflict of interest.

Updated 1/31/08