Life After Accreditation Loss

as far as I know, no school that's lost RA has survived for any length of time. I remember hearing of a couple that limped along for a couple of years afterwards but I don't think any have gone longer than that.

New College of California, which had been around for about 20 years, lost its accreditation about a year ago. It's said there were multiple issues, but I believe it came down to the place being really poorly run and apparently some big internal political problems. The school closed almost immediately. I believe that students that were in their last semester were allowed to graduate.

They had to get a letter from Western States, which they've posted on their website, saying that they had been accredited and for what time period, because once they were removed from the WASC database there was no record they had ever been accredited, and this was apparently causing problems for quite a number of students.

All of the RA schools have a pretty lengthy process; first an informal warning or notice of concern, then officially putting the school on "warning" status, then on "probation" and finally, if nothing changes, withdrawal of accreditation. So it's not like it comes as a big surprise when a school loses accreditation.

I noticed one school that almost lost SACS accreditation applied for and got some off-brand but legitimate accreditation (recognized by DoEd, but a small and obscure accreditor). I think that was their "falil safe" if they lost regional, but instead, they sued SACS and apparently won. That's the only marginally happy outcome I've heard of, and I'm not convinced that the school won't end up folding a year or two down the road.

 

I wouldn't think so for at least two reasons. First, if you're a school thinking you need a fall-back position, you probably aren't able to get RA in the first place. Second, I would suspect such a school--a DL school that lost its RA--would easily obtain (or re-obtain) DETC accreditation.

 

If my memory serves me well West Coast University Founded in 1909, Los Angeles lost RA WASC accreditation and short after went out of business. Last known year of operation was late 90's.
I think 1998.

Many graduates had problems obtained transcripts, some records got lost etc.

New school opened under the same name and obtained the records of the old WCU.

New West Coast University is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS).

Programs Offered*:

Bachelor Degree

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)
Dental Hygiene

 

Here are some:

Morris Brown College

http://www.morrisbrown.edu/

Paul Quinn College

http://www.pqc.edu/

Barber-Scotia College

http://www.b-sc.edu/

They are still alive, but struggling.

 

[/quote]
Are you speaking of Barber-Scotia College?

 

On the Barber-Scotia site they note that they applied for TRACS accreditation on January 18 2009:
http://www.b-sc.edu/accreditation.html

However they are not yet listed as a candidate institution on TRACS' site:
http://tracs.org/member.htm

Not sure how long it usually takes from the time a school applies to TRACS to be granted candidate status ... they are listed as "Applications under Review" in the April 2009 TRACS report:
http://www.tracs.org/files/DOE_Apr09.pdf
And they had a "mentoring staff visit" according to the Nov 2009 report:
http://www.tracs.org/files/DOE_Nov09.pdf

 

Southern Virginia University

Lost RA (SACS) in 1996

Obtained AALE pre-accreditation in 2000, full AALE accreditation in 2003

Reapplied for SACS in 2010, decision for candidate status expected in June 2010.

http://svu.edu/about/accreditation.aspx

http://svu.edu/about/history.aspx

Shawn

 

Barber Scotia is working on becoming accredited by TRACS, they lost many students and faculty after losing SACS accreditation. I have a cousin who graduated from there back in the 90's. Years of mismanagement is what really did the school in. I went by the campus about 2 years ago and they were working on leasing some of the buildings and dorms to other nearby colleges and organizations. Shame really.

 

No, actually I was speaking of St. Andrews Presbyterian College. They've been on warning and probation for years, because of financial problems. But I just looked, and apparently they actually lost their accreditation.

They were supposed to lose it a couple of years ago, but they sued SACS and I guess that delayed things. But now, their site says they will "end their association" with SACS at the end of the 2010 academic year (i.e, in June.) And they completely downplay what that means, and the fact that they're now stuck with some off-brand accreditor.

The off-brand accreditor they have is the American Academy of Liberal Education, which is apparently more off-brand than I thought; in spite of the fact that they claim recognition by DoEd, there's no mention of this accreditor on the CHEA site, and it seems a lot of the schools they accredit are outside the US, and there are very few well known schools on their list of accredited higher learning institutions.

My guess is they won't last long, which is a pity, because it's apparently a good school.

Anyone know anything about AALE?

 

Chip,

See my post above about Southern Virginia University. My guess was that SVU moved quickly when the ownership changed to earn some type of accreditation recognized by the DOE in order for students to receive Title IV.

I am attaching a link to a report from the DOE about the AALE. Apparently, AALE has had issues with the DOE:

http://www.ed-oha.org/secretarycases/2008-03-O.pdf

Shawn

 

Once upon a time, I worked for a guy who had an MBA from West Coast University; the loss of accreditation didn't seem to affect him much in the professional world, because it was accredited when he graduated.

 

Or no one has really bothered to check if it was accredited at all. All of my employers just took my word that I graduated, let alone checked to see if the school was legit or if I actually had graduated.

 

To an extent I think you have to do that if you're hiring. If a quick google search comes up negative, that's a red flag, but then they'd need to check with the state to see if it had existed, yadda yadda yadda. My feeling is if they couldn't do the job (or had a major lie), people would be able to tell during the interview. They are pretty good at reading people.