Should I write the NCA?

A few here may recall that I took three doc level courses from Trinity Seminary in Indiana which school is scheduled for an on site visit from NCA to determined whether Trinity should receive initial accreditation or not. NCA requests input from concerned parties. I really doubt that one person's input is consequential, yet I wonder if I should write NCA .

My dilemma is should I give my negative input to provide what I perceive as true and genuine deficits in Trinity and possibly by doing so impair Trinity's chances of RA. Could this be detrimental to Trinity's good students? Or, should I keep quiet and by my silence better assure that Trinity's many students obtain accredited degrees.

Were I to write NCA re Trinity I would focus on two issues:


FIRST, I believe one criterion NCA concerns itself with is a school's dealing with prospective students. NCA's Criterion 5 says an institution should demonstrate integrity in its practices and relationships. But IMO Trinity has a long history of deceit and misrepresentation.

One area of misrepresentation has been in the advertised utility of Trinity work. I have a catalogue of 2-3 years ago. In it much utility seems to be claimed by the statement, "Liverpool's support for Trinity will be widely recognized as an assurance of quality in Trinity's degrees." I think a reader of this statement might assume that a transferability of Trinity coursework and degrees is being implied. Also a Trinity representative, Stephen Lowe , writes, "accreditation by the University of Liverpool opens up a whole new range of possibilities regarding the transfer of credits and degrees from Trinity to other institutions of higher learning." I think these statements were intended to be deceiving to trick prospective students into signing up.

In fact contrarily, my limited experience and knowledge suggest there is considerable lack of utility when attempting to transfer Trinity work to accredited schools. Yes, I know that in the current online catalogue such claims are toned down. But is not recent history and practice an important consideration? When misrepresentation is curtailed for the purpose of the NCA lookover, which I take to be the case since it is coincidental with that, shall we blind our eyes to previous practices?

Nor do I think the current catalogue calls the Christ Church/Liverpool connections "accreditation." But in fact just two years ago it was so claimed! In my possession is an "Accreditation Request Form." By sending it in with $225 one gets the Liverpool accreditation. But what does this mean? It is not as the UK system where a college is accredited by a university. There as in Heyworth's relationship to the University of London or as in London Bible College's association with Brunel[both examples based on catalogues from these schools] the student works in the accredited college but his degree is from the accrediting university as well. But all the Trinity student gets is a sticker from Liverpool! He does not graduate from Liverpool. His work or degree is not likely transferable to Liverpool. This is a false and intentionally deceptive usage of the term "accreditation" both as in the US and as in the UK system as I understand it. This is misrepresentation which deception is recognized as well by others than myself as Walston in his book on Christian DL programs. Yes, it's true the Christ Church relationship now is called merely an "endorsement." But do not the years of trickery count?

Trinity has recently practiced deceit in accreditational and utility claims! Should I tell NCA that?



SECOND, NCA also is interested in curricula. Please understand I am not saying that learning does not occur at Trinity. My comments mostly concern the DA program! Criterion 3 requires intellectual rigor, interaction between students and profs, and it expects a student to gain mastery of the level of knowledge appropriate to the degree granted. But several items indicate this may not be happening at Trinity at least at the grad level. The Trinity DA degree in Bible or Theology is said to prepare one to teach these subjects.

Many schools offering doctoral work require the applicant to meet prerequisites. These prerequisites , which vary from school to school, determine the applicant's ability to do doctoral work. The Univ of Mississippi requires preliminary exams for admittance into its DA in Music. The preliminary exams include music theory, history, literature of music , and aural skills. It would seem a similar exam could be made to indicate entering knowledge
of Bible/Theology too, but Trinity's catalogue describes none! To enter the Stonybrook DA in Languages required the passing of the appropriate GRE. But Trinity requires not even the basic verbal and quantitative tests. Other schools measure by requiring a certain grade average in the masters work which must be done done at an accredited school to enter a doc program. The University of N Dakota DA requires a 3.50. The Univ of Ill at Chicago DA requires a 3.75. Trinity has no such requirement. Even an accredited masters is not made a prerequisite in the Trinity catalogue! Other schools as a condition for admittance to a DA course of study make the student evidence thinking/writing skills through submitting a completed thesis to enter a DA program. The Univ of Ill requires a high pass on said thesis. Idaho State requires a research paper as a prereq to entering the DA in Biology. Trinirty requires no such thing! Some schools -as the DA is for teaching- require as prerequisite that the applicant has experience in teaching..makes sense to me[else how would one know he could or really wants to teach?]! George Mason, if my notes are correct, requires three years of teaching experience for its successful DA in History applicant. Trinity requires it not. NO testing!! NO grade average!!, NO thesis!! NO experience!! NO accredited masters!! If there are NO prerequisites how is the quality of applicants determined? By the size of their wallets?

Other schools regularly require a student to finish all coursework before candidacy is granted. But I have on my wall a nice diploma looking thing from Trinity saying that I am a candidate for the PhD degree. Trinity sent it to me after I'd finished two courses. [yes, the Liverpool accreditation sticker is on it...I'd sent in my $225!].

At times Trinity has misrepresented the instructional staff- who the profs of courses were. I took "Christology" supposedly according to the catalogue taught by Zodhiates a well known author. When I enrolled no disclaimer was made as to a change in faculty. However it turned out that only the cassette tapes were by Zodhiates. However the prof for that course was indeed qualified by a PhD from DTS anyway, and I liked him too. He is the one who most remarked on the work I submitted...but still insufficiently IMO.

It would seem to me that at times, often , there is little prof-student interaction at Trinity. In my possession are prof remarks on several forms returned as a grade for a paper. The form has 10 areas to be measured (as in Bloom's Taxonomy). Also the form has a space for teacher comment. Several of these were retuned to me with each area marked with a check, a cumulative score of 100% and just the brief remark in the comment section "good paper." How does this evaluation lead to further learning? Where are the probing prof questions? How is this genuine interaction between prof and student?

Further whether one is in an AA, BA, MA, or DA (was PhD then) program , one still listens to the same cassettes and reads in some cases the same texts! Yes, the advanced students does MORE work. But should not it be assumed that a person in the DA program need not repeat the identical material to which an undergrad is being exposed? Even in teaching learning disabled 7th graders I don't have all do the same work! If 50% or more of the DA's work is at BA level, how does this effect the student acquiring competency at the DA level?

Finally in my opinion no one is ready to teach Bible/Theology at the college level who has no experience in the original languages. If you will look at the Trinity site and its description of the goals of the DA you will see that the expectation is that the student will be able to work his/her way through the *difficult* problems concerned with these disciplines. I assure you [and can easily demonstrate] that this cannot be done by only using English . Remember the DA is a teaching, not a pastoral, degree. My challenge is to anyone to provide just one US RA doctoral program in Bible/Theology which does not require a working knowledge of the original languages of the Bible as prerequisites and as bases for research.[yes, I know some foreign schools do not, I do not understand why, but Trinity is in the USA after all]. This makes the Trinity DA program different in scope, in content and inconsequence from any other US RA doc degree in these disciplines. The goals of the DA at Trinity are not reachable without a working knowledge of the original languages.

I would very much appreciate input to my basic issue of whether I should write NCA at all and I would also value any suggestions re the appropriateness of my criticisms.

Thanks for reading and for any advice,

 

Bill,

I remember well the situation, and I read your post and feel that it's well written, factual, and clearly describes your issues.

I would very strongly suggest writing to the NCA and telling them of your experiences.

Don't forget that one of the things that Dennis Huber and Levicoff uncovered was what appeared to be some very unsavory ties between the nonprofit Trinity and a for-profit sister company... if I remember, it seemed as though much of the money coming into the nonprofit was being siphoned off and into the for-profit and in the pockets of one of the founders.

Additionally, Trinity's approach when being caught with their hand in the cookie jar was to immediately start threatening and huffing and puffing... certainly not what one sees from a legitimate institution that has nothing to hide.

Let's hope that NCA will maintain dilgence and dig deeply into anything it finds. We don't need another ACCIS gaining accreditation because the accreditor ignores its own guidelines about ethical standards.

 

Thanks Chip

I'm not clear how I could document the Huber-Levicoff discoveries. Any suggestions?

 

Actually, I don't have time to do it, but if someone wants to dig through a.e.d. on groups.google.com and find the references to Trinity, it was probably posted there. I do remember that Dennis was amassing a lot of info, but not sure if he ever posted all the details... I'm sure we could track him down and get the dirt...

And Levicoff probably has all of the juicy stuff from when he posted to the Trinity mailing list on Compuserve...

This could definitely be interesting... and in any case, would be a great thing to have in the degreeinfo archive for future people doing a search...

 

I'll look for some stuff at AED and here.

 

An oracle: thou must needs write. TTS is not the Lord's anointed; thou mayest not only cut off the corner of their robe of deceit while they cover their feet, as David did to Saul the tyrant, but pierce them through so that their dirt gusheth out, as did Ehud to Eglon. Drive them before you from Dan to Beersheba, even from Liverpool to Canterbury, yea, from Toledo to Newburgh. Selah.

 

Bill,

I would do it. I did the samer thing re: Argosy when the NCA came out to Orange for their visit. I contacted them, asked for the contact information of the leader of the team, and then contacted him. I sent a letter with concerns and why I considered them concerns.

Now, I did not close the loop. I did ask what would happen next, and did want to complete the cycle, but then some things happened, maybe coincidentally, but things happened. The campus president (about the 4th since I've been there) left. There was an interim president from Chicago. Now we have a new person. Some things have changed, others haven't. However, the school seems more stable, and I'm getting e-mail from them again- somethhing that was quite spotty before- except to collect tuition.

Anyhow, it couldn't hurt to add your two cents. In my case, I only wanted the school to get better, and my concerns were mainly administrative.

 

Thanks Russ. I began my rough draft today. As much as possible I'm adding "exhibits" to support my points. Whether to write or not is a complex moral dilemma to me. But at this point I do think I'll send in my opinions.

 

===

Thanks Unk.

 

Bill,

I wholeheartedly support you submitting your concerns to NCA. Indeed, I would suggest that you have an ethical duty to do so...not to mention that it may be a very cathartic exercise for you in some respects.

I support and agree with your concerns about Trinity, and feel that they are well-reasoned.

Just a couple of points of clarification pertaining to the above-quoted phrases from your initial post:

Heythrop College isn't actually a "validated" college of the University of London, along the lines of LBC's relationship with Brunel or Spurgeon's relationsihp with Wales. In actuality, it is one of the constituent or member colleges of which the University of London is composed, similar to the colleges of which Oxford and Cambridge are composed. The difference, of course, lies in the distinction between "relating to" a validating institution and being "part of" that institution.

Also, in response to your comment about RA institutions not requiring biblical languages as a pre-requisite for doctoral work, I can offer Princeton Theological Seminary and Luther Seminary in MN as two examples of institutions that do not require applicants or candidates in many PhD theology concentrations to demonstrate competency in biblical languages. NT/OT majors are subject to such requirements. However, both of these institutions seem more concerned with theology majors demonstrating competency in German and French than in Hebrew and Greek.

Blessings! I wish you much wisdom and clarity of thought as you organize your reflections.

 

Cory

Thanks for your corrections re Heyworth , Princeton, and Luther Seminary and for your encouragement. I will adjust my remarks to NCA accordingly. I should get it sent off in a week. I plan to enclose as well about 20 "exhibits" as my eight page plea to the Dean in Jan, 02 to encourage profs to make probing remarks on submitted lessons [instead of just marking "A" on submissions with a comment like "good work"] and the student application to get the UofL "accrediation" for a mere $225 more.

 

Bill,

I recently purchased an entire roll of University of Liverpool stickers from e-bay. I'll sell you one for $225.

 

==

Russell

I already have the LP accreditation. T. sent me a very diploma looking like thing that proclaims that I am a "candidate" for the PhD. It is signed by several T. dignitaries as the Pres and the dean! At that time I'd finished only two classes. This item has the coveted LP "accreditation." I'm sending a copy of this too to the NCA as evidence of T.'s inconsistency with standard (I think) practice that candidacy follows the completion of all course requirements . I suppose such items are sent to keep the sucker on the hook.