There are two things one can say about the scheduling of a meeting:
- If the meeting is long-planned, there should be long-range notice
- If the meeting is truly important (and one truly cares about community opinion), then the meeting should be scheduled after normal working hours, to allow people to attend
If a presumably important public function like departmental accreditation gets just a day or two of notice for public participation, then either it’s not important or those managing the process don’t think it’s important.
A last-minute announcement tells all one needs to know about a process: that it’s dull, routine, and approached in a perfunctory way.