A fledgling program for University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students in recovery or treatment for substance misuse has received full accreditation.
The Mocs Recovery Program, a collaboration between the Center for Wellbeing and the Counselor Education Program, has been fully accredited through the Association of Recovery in Higher Education’s Standardized Review for Collegiate Recovery Advancement. As a result of the ARHE review, the Mocs Recovery Program received the designation of a “fully reviewed program” with an overall score of 92%.
Universities seeking fully reviewed program status need a minimal score of 80%.
“This is a true testament to the hard work that folks in this campus have put into this program from the very beginning,” Center for Wellbeing Director Megan McKnight said. “Folks who have not had recovery or even substance misuse education as a part of their job description have cared enough about this work to do it and do it well, and it was exciting to receive such a high score in a review process that also included campuses that were much larger than ours.”
UTC is one of the first 10 campuses in the country to go through the accreditation process and the youngest, having launched its collegiate recovery program in early 2022.
“A lot of large state schools were part of this pilot,” McKnight said, “and we were the smallest and the youngest. We came out of that and showed that we had all the necessary requirements for our program to stand up and be seen as a valuable and supportive environment for our students.”
The mission of the Mocs Recovery Program is to provide students in recovery with the support they need to grow personally and academically.
In its external review and findings summary, the ARHE said the UTC program exhibited a well-defined organizational structure aligned with the broader institutional mission and boasted a robust staffing structure committed to recovery principles.
“Notably, the strategic plan is well-articulated, but opportunities for regular reviews and updates are highlighted to ensure ongoing responsiveness to the evolving needs of the collegiate recovery community,” the ARHE report stated. “The program’s engagement with stakeholders, both on- and off-campus, is commendable, but there’s room for further expansion and diversification.
“In terms of recovery promotion, the program excels in fostering a robust recovery culture, yet there are opportunities for greater visibility of student achievements and the introduction of formalized recognition programs. Commitment to equity and social justice is evident, with recommendations for creative approaches within state law constraints.”
McKnight said she was pleasantly surprised to see that the ARHE report cited the work being done to ensure that Mocs Recovery groups and programs are inclusive spaces where students with many different identities feel like it’s a place for them.
“I was very encouraged that they noticed the diversity of our offerings within our recovery program—which is unique in the landscape within collegiate recovery programs,” she said. “More and more programs are looking at branching out from just substance use to looking at mental health recovery; it’s becoming a conversation within this space.
“But in doing that work ourselves, it was exciting to see how eager other people were to hear about how we were approaching recovery on our campus.”
The ARHE’s pilot program participants were of different sizes, included both public and private institutions, and were chosen from different geographic areas around the country.
“It was nice hearing that it’s not one size fits all,” said Jami Hargrove, UTC assistant director for health education and wellness promotion. “I think that was something in my mind before the process—that the program needed to look a certain way.
“Hearing that it looks very different at every campus and there isn’t one recipe was a pleasant surprise.”
According to the ARHE, the Mocs Recovery Program needs to create recovery-supporting on-campus housing space and enhance community partnerships.
McKnight agreed.
“There are a lot of folks doing recovery work and treatment for substance use disorders in the community that don’t know that we have a recovery program here,” McKnight said. “Now that it’s a fully reviewed program, if they’re working with clients—whether they are current UTC students or folks interested in returning to school but are worried about whether it’s going to be a place that’s going to be supportive of their recovery—to know that this is something that we can provide for students is really important.”
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