Herman Beavers, a professor of English and Africana studies at Penn, has been elected to t he board of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). Dr. Beavers and three other new Commissioners will serve from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2019, at which point they will be eligible for reelection.

MSCHE is a voluntary, non-governmental membership association that defines, maintains and promotes educational excellence across institutions with diverse missions, student populations and resources. It is the primary institutional accreditor for Penn, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell and other institutions of higher education in Delaware, Washington, DC, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, including distance education and correspondence education programs offered at those institutions.