B ecause most colleges and universities seek accreditation by Pone of the six regional associations that review and accredit institutions of higher education, the concept of accreditation is familiar to most people in academia. Accreditation ensures the quality of institutions and programs through voluntary self-evaluation and peer assessment based on a set of established standards. In addition to institutional accreditation, specialized accreditation exists in many disciplines. The Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB) has been performing the function of accreditation for the computing profession for over fifteen years. Its mission is to provide for the accreditation of baccalaureate programs that prepare students for entry into professions in the computing sciences. Many changes have occurred in the structure and process associated with the accreditation of computing programs in the last several years. CSAB recently intergrated with the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), an organization that has performed the accreditation of engineering and technology programs since 1932. CSAB has developed and implemented new criteria for evaluating computer science programs. ABET has developed criteria for evaluating sol, are engineering programs and CSAB has now developed criteria for evaluating information systems programs.

The intergration of CSAB into ABET provides more opportunities for cooperation in computing programs that cross disciplinary lines. For example, CSAB will share the responsibility of evaluating software engineering programs with the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) and cooperate with EAC on computer engineering programs. In addition, the intergration has resulted in a forum where computing societies can come together to discuss accreditation issues that are of mutual interest. Currently, ACM, the IEEE Computer Society and most recently the Association for Information Systems (AIS) are member societies of CSAB. However, the potential for expansion holds a great deal of promise.