Mardock’s accreditation work earns him the Gold U

When Luther Mardock, this month’s winner of the Gold U, arrived at UNMC in 2019, he was asked if he’d like to organize and lead UNMC’s accreditation review for the Higher Learning Commission.

He admits, now that the process is successfully completed, that he didn’t entirely understand the scope of the task.

But he came through in a big way.

Said his nominator: “Luther helped anchor and did most of the ‘heavy lifting’ for our accreditation team.” He specifically:

• Helped improve the process for gathering, tracking and retaining materials for university-wide accreditation.
• Supported a campuswide accreditation team in shifting how it functioned during the pandemic with little to no disruption in the data and evidence gathering process.
• Was responsible for writing almost all the initial drafts, revisions and the final version of the submitted documents. 

“Due to the pandemic, a lot of that work happened by myself in my attic,” Mardock said. “So having that time and effort recognized means a lot to me.”

Mardock said he enjoys working with Kendra Schmid, PhD, assistant vice chancellor of academic affairs, and Dele Davies, MD, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs.

“Dr. Schmid sets goals and outcomes for us, and we are expected to find our way to that end. I like having that autonomy to problem-solve to come up with the best processes,” he said.

Currently, Mardock is working with the UNMC College of Dentistry and Department of Physical Therapy to set up an assessment system for student achievement “on objectives rather than just grades,” he said.

“As accreditors are moving toward asking colleges how the students are performing on their standards and outcomes, it becomes necessary to have some way to collect that data and provide it.”

His work on the accreditation process also has led to an effort to develop a system to for colleges to collaborate on accreditation efforts.

“Historically, colleges have worked almost entirely independently on their own accreditations,” he said. “While we’re not looking to do their accreditations, we think there are some shared things that could be done together that would save people a lot of work – for example, providing boilerplate language for things at the institutional level.”

Mardock said he is pleased to find his niche at UNMC.

“UNMC has an outsized impact on the world, as a Nebraska and Omaha-based organization,” he said. “When this accreditation and assessment position opened, I thought it would be a good fit.”