Soka University Skips Candidacy, Becomes RA

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by BillDayson, Aug 17, 2005.

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  1. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    Another of the 'top tier' CA-approved schools bites the dust. Following the path blazed by the Keck Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Soka University of America presented its first graduating class in May and then went direct from applicant to RA at WASC's most recent June 5'th meeting.

    http://www.soka.edu/page.cfm?p=26

    http://www.wascsenior.org/wasc/MI_Directory.htm

    Perhaps the site visitors were impressed by Soka's very attractive campus (note one of the Channel Islands out on the horizon).

    http://www.soka.edu/page.cfm?p=435
     
  2. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Funding and execution. A wickedly good combination.
     
  3. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    No lack of the former.

    Reportedly they've already sunk $245 million into their campus and they have a $300 million endowment on top of that. Now they are working on a separate $100 million endowment just for funding scholarships.

    Situated on 103 acres overlooking a 4,000-acre wilderness park, the campus was designed by a group of leading architects to resemble an old Tuscany hillside village, with variegated red-tiled roofs, earth-colored stucco, and hand-hewn travertine stone from an ancient family quarry in Italy. An art gallery; an athenaeum; an Olympic-size swimming pool; a 200-million-gallon, one-acre lake; and a 100-foot brass dome all grace the campus. Soka even has its own olive trees and the newest (and perhaps only remaining) orange groves in Orange County...

    Officials had hoped that within two years of opening, the college's returns on its endowment's investments, plus tuition, would cover operating costs. Given current market conditions, that level of financial stability may be delayed, but only by a year or two, Asawa said...

    "I give it a better chance of succeeding than anything in the last century," said David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.


    http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0202/news0602-soka.shtml
     
  4. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Maybe that Nembutsu thing works...

    Thanks for the good news, Bill! I wish them the best.
     
  5. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I guess so!!!

    Maybe I should go looking for a Gohonzon... :D

    Nah. Nichiren Buddhism leaves me cold. (But prosperity to the tune of half a billion dollars? hummm...)

    Between the schools that have been accredited, become candidates or are on the accreditors' site-visit lists, the CA-approved 'top tier' is getting kind of ragged. I've been snooping through the BPPVE list, but I don't see very many credible replacements coming up behind them.

    It's interesting how Soka is starting out along a path that's the diametrical opposite of what we see with so many new unaccredited schools.

    Soka has unlimited resources and isn't afraid to use them. But their initial offerings are modest, to say the least. A handful of bachelors degree students and a small masters degree in ESL. It looks like their short term plan is to try to become an elite small liberal arts college. They say that they intend to eventually roll out some Ph.D. programs, but that's years off in the future. (One of their new phase-II buildings in the design stages is a graduate research facility. Phase II also includes a music/fine arts building and a 2000 seat performng arts center.) They are also putting in DL facilities, but haven't publicly announced any DL plans that I know of. But something may be brewing.

    Compare that to all the instant universities appearing from out of nowhere, offering more doctoral programs than Berkeley.
     

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