The Accrediting Commission International, Inc. for Schools, Colleges and Theological

Can anyone provide information on this agency? "The Accrediting Commission International, Inc. for Schools, Colleges and Theological Seminaries"

 

ACI is probably second only to Maxine Asher's WAUC in notoriety. A well known accreditor of dubious programs. The search engine doesn't support three letter searches, but try searching on accredit.now for many interesting stories about this agency.

 

Possibly I should have tried it myself first.

Instead use "accrediting and commission and international" without the quotes.

 

UH OH!

My professional association advertises one of this accrediting groups schools and the school advertises them. My Association also advertises RA schools.

I honestly believe my association is not aware of these facts as university programs are new to my industry (Security)

How do I warn em without being sued?

 

ACI is not recognized as an accrediting body by the U.S. Department of Education or by CHEA, the Council For Higher Education Accreditation.

 

Kane asks: "How do I warn em without being sued?"

John replies: The story of the Attorney General's clever sting operation that resulted in the closing of ACI's predecessor, IAC, and heavy fines for its head (and the offer for all IAC schools to get immediate automatic accreditation from ACI) has been told many times. It is in Steve Levicoff's book, and mine. And it was a sidebar to my article on degree mills that was in University Business Magazine. Sadly, University Business went out of business last month and their URL is gone. I'd asked my publisher to put it up on www.degree.net but that hasn't yet been done. Someday DegreeInfo.com will have attachments, and I hope it will be there. And Dr. Barrett of quackwatch.com recently offered to put it there, after University Business went away. One way or another . . .

Or perhaps (pardon the bandwidth) I'll just put that part of the article right here.
--------------------------------------------------
GREAT MOMENTS IN ACCREDITATION
THE CASE OF IAC, ACI, AND THE THREE STOOGES
by John Bear
From University Business Magazine, March 2000
In 1982, there opened for business in Missouri the International Accrediting Commission. They aggressively marketed their accreditation services among hundreds of then-unaccredited institutions in the US. Their standards were rather modest, but they were operating legally, and they were able to bestow that magical word “accredited” upon their clients.

More than 130 institutions had achieved IAC accreditation by the year 1989, when one Eric Vieth established the Eastern Missouri Business College, and immediately applied to the International Accrediting Commission. Vieth opened his headquarters in a one-room office in St. Louis, and issued an 8-page typewritten catalog, that listed faculty members such as Arnold Ziffel, Edward J. Haskell, M. Howard, Jerome Howard, and Lawrence Fine.

Trivia buffs may recall that Arnold Ziffel was the pig on the TV show Green Acres, Eddie Haskell was the friend on Leave It to Beaver, and the Messrs. Howard, Howard, and Fine were collectively known as The Three Stooges.

It gets better. The college seal was emblazoned with the phrase Solum Pro Avibus Est Educatio, which means “Education is for the birds,” and the motto was Latrocina Et Raptus, or, loosely translated, Everything from petty theft to highway robbery. Doctorates were offered by mail in dozens of fields, from aerospace to marine biology. The marine biology textbook was identified as The Little Golden Book of Fishes.

Unlike what you may have been predicting, founder Vieth was wearing a white hat. As assistant attorney general for the state of Missouri, he set up this clever sting operation. And when the head of the International Accrediting Commission stopped by, had a quick look around, accepted a cashier’s check, and pronounced the East Missouri Business College fully accredited, he was immediately slapped with an injunction, and was ultimately heavily fined and ordered to shut down his agency.

End of story? Sadly, no. Immediately after the closing of International Accrediting Commission, there opened, next state over in the metropolis of Beebe, Arkansas, the Accrediting Commission International, which immediately invited all of the IAC schools (except, presumably, East Missouri Business) to become automatically accredited by ACI.

ACI is in business today, bigger than ever, accrediting more than 200 institutions (we don’t know how many more, since they decline to make their membership list public), including such household names as Century University, Wisconsin International University, Hawthorne University, and Western States University.

This is absolutely legal. The accreditor operates legally under Arkansas law. The 200+ schools they accredit apparently all operate legally under the laws of their own states.

And those well-meaning consumers, who have been trained to ask, “Is it accredited,” reach for their checkbooks, because they don’t know that they must ask the essential second question: “And is the accrediting agency recognized by the Department of Education, or the Council on Higher Education Accreditation?”

 

About 8 mos ago I visited ACI's website hoping to find specific criteria this organization uses to ascertain which schools they accredit. The website hardly says anything about specific criteria.
I sent an email to Dr. John Scheele, President of ACI asking him what ACI use for its criteria when accrediting a school. He emailed me back and referred me to ACI's website essentially dodging the question.

Its my understanding that Century University is accredited by ACI.

 

On a website of one ACI school, Andersonville Baptist Seminary, ACI is proudly characterized as the world's largest purveyor of "private, non-governmental accreditation." PRIVATE accreditation? I thought accreditation had something to do with a school's PUBLIC reputation. Since ACI accredits a school--the president of ACI has made three visits--where the entire instructional paradigm is sets of three audio tapes (no writing, no tests, no oral exam, no reading, no nothing) I think that says it all.
I still can't help but wonder if private accreditation is anything like private advertising.


Craig

 

ACI is unique among accreditors in refusing to reveal the names of the schools they have accredited. I was shown their list, once, by a person who ran a member school (this was a violation of ACI policy, too).

Century is one of very few non-religious-school accreditees. Others included Wisconsin International University (the "campus" address was the founder's home in Milwaukee) and Western States University, whose founder has three totally fake degrees bought from British degree mills.

 

The ACI accredited school most closely fitting Kane's description is The International University in Grandview, MO and its College of Security, Technology & Management.

TIU Chancellor Barnhart's bio appears to indicate that he holds three degrees from his own school.

 

That's a cute trick!

North

 

That is the school bgosset. The Internation U's college of security, technology and management (or whatever *S*).

Anyone have experience or studies of this school?

 

Are you suggesting that he obtained the three degrees with minimal or no work, or that his dissertation committee was lenient just because he was the president of the school?

 

Who needs writing, tests, oral exams or reading when so much material is contained in the three 60 minute tapes? Perhaps ABS uses a literal method of interpretation when defining a 3-hour college course---i.e., 3 full hours of material. So if one earned a 36 hour Doctor of Ministry degree, one would be required to listen to 36 complete hours of material. Given a few hours sleep this could conceivably be earned in 2 days. Or even better, a 60 hour Ph.D. program could be completed in a week. One could go on vacation, stay gone a week and return home a Ph.D.

Hmmmmmm!

 

Russell: Now that you put it that way--a whole week to complete a Ph.D.-- I have new respect for ABS. Perhaps they use a speed recording technique that puts several hours of lecture on one sixty minute tape. Or more likely, like Father Guido Sarduchi's Five Minute University on Saturday Night Live, they just teach you what you would REMEMBER five years after you graduate from a real program. At any rate, we know that the PRESIDENT of ACI has personally (not impersonally) visited the campus, and has vouched for the tape's... I mean the school's integrity. Actually ABS is now called ATS having changed "Baptist" for "theological," as Baptists everywhere sigh in relief and Theologicals gasp in fear.

Late, Craig

 

Along those lines but on a more serious note, President Richard Roberts (President of ORU) is pursuing his doctorate (DMin. in Executive Leadership) from ORU. ORU is a respectable 2nd tier school (US News). It must be rather odd to be grading the research and academic work of the man who runs the University. I assume everyone expects integrity.

North

 

That is pretty interesting. While I imagine any number of university presidents have degrees from the school they work for, I wonder how many got the degree while they were president. You might think he would at least take a leave during his studies. Perhaps he intends to demonstrate confidence in his school. "I'm not only president of Hair Club for Men, but I'm also a client." Or "Im not only President of ORU, but a student, and quarterback of the football team AND I work in the cafeteria!"

Craig

 

It flies a lot of red flags, Kane. The accreditation is meaningless. The school purports to operate under an exemption, presumably religious. I would think it unlikely that any legitimately accredited school in the U.S. would recognize their awards.

 

Based on a letter i received from Richard and Oral some years back i believe he could well complete his DMin by writing the name of the courses and place the list in a sunny place until the shadow falls over each class thereby giving him a passing grade. So acutually he could complete his course work in about two hours.

 

Its not realistic to think that Richard would be working in the cafeteria--when would he have time to study?