Troy University’s accreditation visits have begun, a process that determine whether the school will be able to continue offering financial aid to its students.

After a year of working toward undergoing examinations by the Southern Accreditation of Colleges and Schools, Troy University has received its first of several campus visits Monday.

During these visits, John Dew, associate vice chancellor for institutional research, planning and effectiveness, said an accreditation team will be at all of Troy’s Alabama campuses this week to look at e-Campus operations.

Then, the co-chairs of the team will return later in the month to make a final campus visit before making any recommendations to the committee.

“The team will bring other administrators and faculty from a variety of different universities,” Dew said.

The process for approval, which takes place every 10 years, is something the faculty at Troy University has been working toward since last fall.

Part of that work included a more than 400 page compliance report and a proposal for a Quality Enhancement Plan, an initiative at Troy University that will promote reading.

Even after these visits, Dew said the approval won’t be made final until December of 2009.

First, the committee will have to make a recommendation, and then the university will have to undergo review by the board.

“They’ll give us some informal feedback probably at the end of May,” Dew said. “The SACS governing body has to review all feedback on all institutions, so nothing is really final until December.”

Dew said the reason this process is so important is because it enables the university to distribute financial aid to students.