TRACS and Bob Jones

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by Orville_third, Mar 5, 2012.

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  1. Orville_third

    Orville_third New Member

    I am not a student of BJU, but I do know some people who have gone there and/or graduated, including my parents (former students), brother (graduate) and sister-in-law (ditto). I also live in the same town as BJU.
    As some of you know, Bob Jones sought national accreditation from TRACS in 2005, after years of refusing to seek accreditation. They were quickly granted accreditation, but problems began not long after. Students began noticing their degrees were not considered valid for further study. Other schools were not accepting the transfer credits. As a result, BJU is considering regional accreditation.
    There is a blog (NOT sponsored by BJU) about all the Accreditation stuff here:
    http://bjuaccreditation.org/
    Some are rather upset at BJ's positional changes and refusal to acknowledge them.

    What are the thoughts of those here? (As an aside, do people agree that TRACS's accreditation by DoE can only be attributed to one letter: W?)
     
  2. major56

    major56 Active Member

  3. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Even when they were unaccredited, Steve Levicoff praised their academic quality (not their doctrinal positions), and predicted they would be accredited easily if they ever sought it. I'm just not sure why they were/would be opposed to RA.
     
  4. Orville_third

    Orville_third New Member

    Two reasons. First, for years they acted like accreditation would be spiritually damaging to the students and prevent them from fulfilling their mission. Second, it's been pointed out that regional accreditation would not allow for restrictions on academic freedom, which might prevent things like the purges of Calvinists they used to have years ago. Finally, accreditation would require the college to not use nepotism. And since the Jonses have run it for years...

    As for Levicoff's comments, I agree. I have a number of doctrinal and theological differences with BJU, as do the others mentioned, some of who were forced to leave over those (there are other issues for me too), but I do like their academics. It's a disservice to them to be associated with TRACS.
     

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