New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College recently received a positive update in their on-going process for reaffirmation of their academic accreditation.
The seminary was visited by an On-Site Reaffirmation Committee from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) in early March.
SACSCOC is a major institutional accreditor that oversees more than 700 institutions of higher education across 11 Southern states and Latin America.
As a result of the committee’s recent visit, NOBTS received zero recommendations from this committee in their preliminary assessment, which the seminary received April 13.
Final action from the SACSCOC committee will take place this December, and the seminary anticipates receiving reaffirmation of their accreditation for another 10 years.
Jamie Dew, President of NOBTS and Leavell College, spoke to this recent accreditation update.
"NOBTS and Leavell College have always sought to serve our students and the churches of the convention well,” Dew said.
“The recent SACSCOC site visit team came to campus and spent time interviewing our students, faculty, staff, and administration. The visiting team left campus affirming the work of every facet of the institution and gave us zero recommendations. A reaffirmation report with zero recommendations is a rare occurrence. We are grateful for the work of the visiting committee.
“As a reminder, the findings of this visiting committee represent a preliminary assessment of the institution at this time, final action on the report rests with the SACSCOC Board of Trustees, who will review and act on the committee report when they convene for their December 2026 meeting."
NOBTS Provost Norris Grubbs praised the work of the seminary’s faculty and staff throughout this accreditation process.
“The on-site visit is the culmination of the opportunity for peer evaluators to ensure the quality of our programs and the stability of the institution,” Grubbs said.
“The positive report the seminary received after this visit reflects the work we put into this process and the excellent state of NOBTS and Leavell College.”
Sandy Vandercook, professor of English and education, has helped lead the seminary’s effort in preparing for the accreditation process.
Among her various roles with NOBTS, Vandercook serves as associate vice-president for accreditation and assessment as well as the seminary’s SACSCOC institution accreditation liaison.
She detailed the full significance of this visit and update from SACSCOC.
“New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College recently completed the second stage of its 10-year reaffirmation of accreditation by the Southern Association of College and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC),” Vandercook explained.
“Following visits to five of our off-campus instructional sites and culminating with a visit to the main campus in New Orleans March 9-12, the SACSCOC On-Site Reaffirmation Committee, composed of ten peer evaluators from member schools, issued no recommendations to NOBTS.
“It is very uncommon for a college or university to receive zero recommendations. This is the best possible outcome from a SASCSCOC review and visit and is a testament to NOBTS’s continued commitment to academic excellence, institutional effectiveness, and overall institutional health. Moreover, it speaks to our solid and extensive preparation for both the offsite review and the visit.”
Vandercook praised the work of the entire seminary for the years-long process of preparing for this vital process.
“Our NOBTS team—made up of faculty, staff, and administrators—spent nearly three years gathering information, analyzing data, and producing reports to show our compliance with the SACSCOC standards,” she said. “During the visit, the On-Site Reaffirmation Committee interviewed dozens of students, faculty, staff, administrators, and Trustees, all of whom affirmed the four distinctives of NOBTS and Leavell College: servanthood, devotion, proclamation, and mission.
“I am extremely grateful for the campus-wide effort and overjoyed with the committee’s findings. The visiting committee has submitted their comprehensive report to the SACSCOC Board of Trustees, who will review and officially act on the report at their December 2026 meeting.”
Dew expressed his thanks for the work of Vandercook and her team.
“I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the NOBTS and Leavell College family, particularly Dr. Sandy Vandercook and her Institutional Effectiveness team, for the hard work that went into these efforts,” he said.
