This paper provides advice to college and university administrators on issues and problems associated with the assessment and documentation of institutional effectiveness, in light of the current Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) criteria for institutional self-evaluation. Administrators need to: (1) get the attention of high-level decision-makers at their institution; (2) not just throw money at the problem; (3) avoid setting themselves up for failure by using poor definitions; (4) avoid assigning the project to their institutional research office; (5) avoid stopping the process once they get the results; (6) avoid getting lost in small numbers; (7) avoid a total focus on tests or numbers; (8) not try to hide issues; and (9) avoid using the SACS self study as a promotional document for the institution. (MDM)