How easy/difficult is it for a college to lose its regional accreditation?

Whenever I first decided to go back to school I, like alot of students, did not completely understand the different between national and regional accreditation, as a result I chose Columbia Southern Unitversity. While the relevance of this school, as well as other NA schools, has been widely discussed in these chats I did not want to risk the stigma that's associated with NA schools. So I decided to trasnfer to its sister school Waldorf College which is RA; however, now that I have done additional research and am 3 classes away from my bachelors I have become scared that because Waldorf is a for profit school it may lose its RA status similar to Ashford a couple years ago. I was debating on staying ar Waldorf to complete my Master's in organizational leadership but am worried about its future. So my question is... How hard is it for a school to lose its regional accreditation?

Thank you in advance for the responses...

 

It is very rare for a school to lose regional accreditation. When this happens, it is most often due to serious financial problems or mismanagement. It can happen to either for-profit or non-profit schools.

It takes a long time for a school to lose accreditation, because the agencies give schools some chances to fix their problems. There are always warning signals first: schools will be placed "on notice" or "on probation"; finally a "show-cause order" may be issued.

You can easily check the status of Waldorf College with NCA, which is its regional accreditor. There are currently no warnings or problems listed, so Waldorf appears to be in good standing.

Ashford had problems, but never lost its RA status. Here's what happened:

- Ashford started as a B&M school in Iowa. It had RA from NCA, the agency for the Midwest.

- Eventually, Ashford's DL operations, which were based in California, became much larger than the B&M operations in Iowa. California is outside the NCA region, so NCA told Ashford that they needed to switch regional accreditors.

- Ashford therefore applied for "new" RA from WASC, which is the agency for California. Their initial application with WASC was rejected. But Ashford was still covered by the "old" RA from NCA. So they didn't lose their RA status.

- Ashford re-applied for "new" RA from WASC, and was accepted the second time. Then they dropped their "old" RA from NCA. Ashford currently has RA from WASC, and appears to be in good standing.

 

As an aside, if the school was accredited when you got your degree then you graduated from an accredited school, regardless of what might happen in the future.

 

Well stated.

We never know about the future. I would make sure to concentrate on the present and that wherever you attend that it is accredited when you complete your studies.

 

While this issue is one that wouldn't cause me worry, it's one of the reasons (minor) that I typically look to state universities first. As rare as accreditation loss might be, it's even less common for a state school. Close to impossible.

 

CalDog,

Thanks for the details put into this post it was very helpful!

 

Yes, good point Kizmet, going forward I will be looking into state universities especially since I am considering an MBA degree which is half as expensive with in-state tuition.

 

The threatened loss of accreditation by San Francisco City College (discussed elsewhere in this forum) -- it would be one of the largest schools ever to lose accreditation (33,000 students) -- will apparently be decided in the next 3 or 4 days. WASC wanted to cancel the accreditation now. The city brought legal action, asking for an additional two years for SFCC to meet the current standards. WASC's response is due any day now.

 

The most I've ever heard of an HR department do is look a college up in the current RA list. Losing accreditation would screw to various degrees alumni of the past handful of years independent of whether their degree was during the year it was lost. Folks who know of the debacle would also understand 1) the problems would have been a long time coning and 2) work experience since graduation count more than degree details. An old enough degree would not matter but newer ones would.

The only example I recall is Ambassador College in Pasadena losing a level of accreditation I think it was in the 1980s. We they are a college for missionaries they continued accreditation through one of the bible college organizations. But their organization worked very hard and regain accreditation.

I think the threat of pulling activates the management of a college to reform and that's why it happens so rarely. I think actually losing activates the entire staff and that's why colleges tend to get it back.

 

The Ambassador situation was exacerbated by the very public and very nasty battles between the founder and his son (Herbert and Garner Ted Armstrong), each making bitter accusations about the other. If there's one thing accreditors don't like, it is schools airing their linen (clean or dirty) in public.

 

INSTITUTIONS PREVIOUSLY ACCREDITED BY WASC THAT ARE NO LONGER ACCREDITED: http://www.wascsenior.org/files/CLOSED-MERGED-TERMINATED%20Institutions%20April%202012.pdf

Armstrong College (Berkeley, CA): WASC accredited in 1963; accreditation was terminated 1990. Armstrong was then accredited by ACICS for a time.

University of West Los Angeles: Granted initial accreditation in June 1983. WASC terminated accreditation on June 30, 2006.

West Coast University: Accredited by WASC in January 1963. Accreditation terminated as of 3/11/1997.

New College of California: Accreditation terminated effective 3/27/2008 with programs in teach-out accredited through 6/30/2008.

Immaculate Heart College Center: Accredited by WASC in 1949 and terminated on 6/30/1981.

 

With the judge's ruling expected any day, WASC jumped the gun, this morning, by granting CCSF a two-year extension of the loss of their accreditation. They called it a "restoration" ruling: the college just restore things to a "proper" condition. But the judge's ruling could make all this moot. It is interesting to see accreditation as the main page one story in the morning newspaper.

 

WASC has two separate college accreditation programs: one for 2-year institutions, and another for 4-year/graduate institutions. The list posted above, for schools that have lost WASC accreditation, only covers 4-year/graduate institutions.

The list of schools that have lost WASC accreditation would be larger if 2-year institutions were included. One recent example is Compton College, a public community college that lost its WASC accreditation in 2006. Compton College was technically closed, but then it reopened as a branch of a neighboring community college, which took over its administration.

CCSF, which is currently fighting to stay accredited with WASC, is also a public community college.

 

Colleges No Longer Accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC)-WASC (re Directory of Accredited Institutions Updated January 2015, pp. 38-40, Jan. 2015):
http://www.accjc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ACCJC_DIRECTORY_of_ACCREDITED_INSTITUTIONS_01_14_2015.pdf

 

And then, today, Friday, two days later, the court ruled that WASC had acted improperly, denying due process, and gave SFCC two years to respond to the WAS charges. The Chronicle of Higher Education story is headlined, "Accreditor Fumbled in Acting Against City College of San Francisco, State Court Says." However the verdict gives WASC the opportunity to act against SFCC after the two years, if the SFCC response is not satisfactory.