Sierra University; has anyone heard of it?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by JSword, Jun 18, 2001.

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  1. JSword

    JSword New Member

    It was a psych grad school in California (not to be confused with La Sierra Univ. or Sierra College. Thanks in advance.
     
  2. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Sierra University operated during the early 1980's in California. At the time, the state had a "three tier" system. At the lowest level, "Authorized," schools were allowed to operate after sending in an application with an affadavit attesting to their operations in 13 specific areas, and that they had at least $50,000 in assets dedicated to the school. That's it. There was no inspection or oversight conducted by the state, and schools could remain in Authorized status indefinitely. The second level was "Approved." At that time, California approved individual degree programs within schools, rather than whole schools. So, you could have a school with most of its programs Authorized, yet have one or more programs Approved. The third category was "Accredited," meaning the school was accredited by a USDOE-recognized agency.

    Sierra University's degree programs were all, to my knowledge, Approved. I had a charming chat with one of their representatives in the Fall of 1983 about the school. Back then, however, it was known as, get this: The University Without Walls! Now, they had no connection with the original UWW (which was a candidate for accreditation along with the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities), and their programs were not accredited. It turned out (according to the school itself), that no one bothered to copyright "University Without Walls" or "UWW," so they decided to take on the name, too. It wasn't long, however, before they abandoned it in favor of "Sierra University." I'm not sure if the state--or the real and then-active UWW--pressured them into that decision. Nonetheless, a few years later Sierra was gone.

    Rich Douglas

    (I know UWW is still present at some of its member schools, but most of the UWW programs have been absorbed into their mother campuses.)
     

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