It’s time to stop talking and start doing.

That’s the message the UK Art Department made earlier this semester when after 30 years of talking and thinking about being accredited, they finally went through the process.

The result? Accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, joining two other accredited art programs in the state, and thousands of current students and graduates who can feel a little better about their degree.

Accreditation has an array of benefits, but the most important is the weight a degree from an accredited program carries over their un-accredited counterparts. No one needs to be reminded of the current job market. In a Kernel article on Tuesday, Provost Kumble Subbaswamy summed up the reason why students should care if their departments are accredited.

“When there is an agency accreditation, it matters to their employers when they go look for jobs,” Subbaswamy said.

Jobs aren’t the only reason that students should push their departments for accreditation. Many colleges participate in various national competitions that help bring money and fame to the school. But most of these competitions limit their entries to only accredited schools and departments. Losing out on a scholarship because a student’s major isn’t accredited would be mighty hard to understand.

Currently, UK has 42 accredited undergraduate programs and the school as a whole is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. This is not enough.

Some programs don’t have the option of accreditation, like history and English majors. While that is a sad fact, what is even sadder is that there are programs at UK that could be accredited, but are not.

Student, faculty and staff should push their departments for accreditation. Every member of every program should bring up the requirements and think of what it would take to achieve that status. It’s plainly obvious that top-20 schools would have a vast majority of their programs accredited.

While that’s not saying UK doesn’t have that majority or isn’t trying to reach it, but if everyone knows what the final goal is, then it seems like one of the easiest accomplishments would be accreditation for all programs that were able to qualify.

Students, ask your professors. Faculty and staff, ask your deans. Deans, ask UK administration. Let’s push for accreditation for all.

It’s really the easiest thing UK can do.