New regime at DETC

At their annual meeting in San Francisco this week, it was announced that long time Executive Director Michael Lambert has retired, and the new Executive Director, is Dr. Leah Matthews, She was previously VP for Recognition Services at CHEA ) and before that, 12 years with the Accrediting Commission for Career Schools and Colleges. Her Master's in Public Administration is from the U. of Oklahoma, and her Ph.D. in Higher Education earned last year from George Mason University. Her dissertation on the role of the federal government in accreditation, can be read here: (http://tinyurl.com/cw4xt2x)

 

I had a little read of her thesis. I would suggest that "for profits" may experience some tightening of standards. I guess you cannot tighten standards for one area and not another, so perhaps here may be some general "pulling out of the slack in the line".

 

Well, they've brought in someone with the proper experience and credentials, quite impressive ones in fact. I wish her all the best.

 

I'm reading her dissertation now, so I'll reserve comment, if I even have any. Except to say I like it so far.

I've admonished people considering doing a doctorate to have an idea what they want to become. She's done that. Her dissertation makes it clear she was preparing for this role at DETC (or something comparable). I commend her for that.

We don't know what changes might be in store for DETC, if any. It will be interesting to see what develops.

Mike Lambert deserves great credit for his leadership and transformation of DETC. Truly remarkable.

 

Hear, Hear! I'll second that!!

 

I read it. Nice paper.

I saw what appeared to be a typo in there at one point, but it was inconsequential to the overall work, and considering the pace I read it, I could be mistaken. (Rest assured, there is a beam in my own eye.)

I got the overwhelming point out of the paper that the government wasn't originally involved in accreditation, and how things started goiing haywire, once the government did get involved.

One scenario was presented, where the author suggested complete government takeover would come at some point. Quite the coup, when you consider the government wasn't even involved in accreditation in the beginning. Now, some institutions are hooked on the funds to the point where they will either destroy themselves or the government will do it for them.

One point was made early on in the paper that the stratification of society has persisted, despite all the billions of dollars in student loans that are given out each year, so ... the program hasn't particularly helped its original intended purpose

The one thing I can confirm is that ballooning costs that outstrip inflation are clearly unsustainable, and having someone at DETC who understands just how screwed up things are is taken as a positive sign for some hopefully good changes in the future.

 

Great post!