Southeast Missouri State University received accreditation for its theatre and dance program from the National Association of Schools of Theatre on March 21 after 13 years of working and developing the program to meet the national standard.

NAST is the national agency that grants accreditation to theatre or theatre-related disciplines. It set standards for both undergraduate and graduate programs.

Accreditation is a system of academic review for a program. According to NAST's website, "It is a process which periodically evaluates and produces an independent judgment by peers about the extent to which an institution or program achieves its own educational objectives and meets the standards established by an Association."

"Accreditation is a big deal," Dr. Philip Nacy, Theatre and Dance Department chairperson and associate professor said. "Being accredited puts Southeast on par with national schools."

Approximately 177 theatre programs are members of NAST, which includes the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the California Institute of the Arts and Florida State University.

"Gaining membership is a very prestigious honor for our university and program in theatre," Dr. Kenneth Stilson, professor of acting and directing, said.

Like Nacy, he said this is a big deal and it is something to celebrate.

"It legitimizes the program at a national level," Stilson said.

In order for the university to become accredited, every element of the program had to achieve a certain standard, Stilson explained. NAST examined the department's mission, curriculum, library holdings, facilities, the number and quality of faculty, staff and students and more. Every part of the program has to be an open book.

"To gain NAST accreditation, we have to prove that we are who we claim to be," Stilson said.

Stilson was one of the people who spearheaded the project and was the department chair when the process began in 2001. He remained the official NAST representative for the department after rotating out of the chair position. He wrote the self-study of the program, which is a 300-page document.

"I wrote the self-study working with a lot of people," Stilson said. "That means, including even people from the provost's office, to the dean's offices, to institutional research's office, the library. You know, working with all sorts of people, but I am the one who collated all of that information and then wrote that document."

He also coordinated the consultant visits and the accreditation team visits.

"This was not a one-person thing," Stilson said. "I wrote the documents and helped and coordinated a lot of this. The whole university gets accredited, and it takes a lot of people collaborating to get something like this done."

Nacy and Rhonda Weller-Stilson, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts helped Stilson to write the documents. All of the faculty members were involved in developing the curriculum and the mission statement. The changes that were made had to go through the university and the Board of Regents, as well as get approval from the Missouri Department of Higher Education in Jefferson City, according to Stilson.

The process was long and involved, he said, comparing it to running a marathon. He feels relieved to achieve this goal 13 years in the making.

"Getting there [achieving accreditation] -- that was a pretty high mountain to climb," Stilson said.

Nacy agreed and said the process was a long one, so getting NAST's approval was satisfying.

"It's great," he said. "You work very hard for a long time."

Now that the theatre program is accredited the work is not over. The department has to continuously meet the standards set by NAST in order to get reaccredited. Stilson said he has no doubt that the department will be able to get reaccredited and maintain it. Getting reaccredited is much easier than getting accredited in the first place, Stilson said.

Becoming accredited will immediately alter the way the department markets and recruits students. Department representatives can say Southeast is a member of NAST now.

Both Stilson and Nacy believe the theatre department will see an increase in enrollment due to this membership.

Students can put that they went to a university that was a NAST member on their resume, which looks good Stilson said. It gives them a competitive edge.

He said the program will be more attractive to the top students, so there may also be an increase in the quality of students.

"Our students right now are excellent people," Nacy said, but he thinks people who wouldn't consider attending Southeast for theatre before, may consider it now.