Why Regents Changed Its Name: A Conversation with Gordon Ambach

Dear DL Experts:

I had the wonderful experience of covering last week's meeting of the National Advisory Commission on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), the body which makes recommendations to the Secretary of Education (which he always accepts) concerning the recognition of accrediting agencies. In other words, these are the people who actually decide if an accrediting agency will or will not be recognized by the USDOE.

When I say "cover," I am responsible for preparing a verbatim transcript of the event. I'm working as a court reporter right now to help pay my way through my Ph.D. at the George Washington University in political science. I have an AA from Edison and a BS from Regents as well as a traditional MA.

Anyway, one of the members of NACIQI is George Pruitt, the president of Edison, and the vice-chairperson is Gordon Ambach, currently executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers but better known to those who follow DL as the father of the Regents External Degree Program. The REDP became Regents College and, of course, recently, Regents College went private, separating itself from the Regents and changed its name to Excelsior College.

I was lucky enough to have a conversation with Mr. Ambach during one of the committee's breaks, and the first question I had for him, after I thanked him for his very significant contribution to my education, was why his creation had gone private and changed its name.

The reason is based on questions of accreditation. When the University of the State of New York started the REDP back in the early seventies, according to Ambach, they decided that in order to lend credibility to the program, they would keep it in-house. However, this put the program in the position of being subject to criticism as being basically self-accredited: the Regents run the program, and the Regents accredit the program.

The plan to spin off the school had apparently been in the works for some time, and now, as an independent college, Excelsior cannot be criticized as being self-accredited.

By the way, I'm surprised that Gordon Ambach himself gets so little credit in DL circles. He's truly one of the giants on whose shoulders we all stand. If you go to the Excelsior Website, you'll see the now-registered trademark: "What you know is more important than where or how you learned it." Guess who they're quoting (plagiarizing, actually, because there is no reference to him anywhere on the Website)? Yep. It's Ambach.

The whole idea of credit banking, the whole concept of flexible degree requirements that can be met by so many different means, basically the entire concept of the regionally-accredited external degree as it now exists at Excelsior, Edison, Charter Oak, Ohio University, the Illinois Governors' program and so many of the other excellent programs that receive top marks in John Bear's guides are all based on work that Ambach and his compatriots did back at the New York State Department of Education in the late sixties and early seventies. We all owe him a great debt of gratitude, but an AltaVista search I just did on his name comes up with absolutely NO references to the creation of the Regents External Degree Program.

What do the rest of you, especially Regents College graduates, think?

Donald Jacobsen, M.A.

 

I don't see how that would be a problem, since USNY/Regents/Excelsior was/is also regionally accredited. The fact that the USNY Regents also accredited them was an afterthought, IMO. I personally believe they were better off as USNY, as state ownership automatically confers legitimacy on a school.

BTW Donald, very interesting & informative post, thank you.

Bruce

 

I echo Bruce's post... very enlightening and interesting.

What I'd *really* like to know is what kind of process they went through that ended up with the ridiculous name "Excelsior", which to many of us refers to packing material rather than the "excellence" that the Regents people were apparently thinking of.

My guess is that there was little, if any, input sought from present or former students, or any sort of focus groups. And it will be interesting to see if some choose not to go there simply because it's a stupid name.

Of course, the same thing happened when it changed from USNY to Regents... although, IMHO, Regents is a much nicer name than Excelsior.

 

The information presented is pretty much the same as what was presented on A.E.D. sometime ago on the reason for Excelsior College's move to independent status. Good to see that Gordon Ambach is still active.

The issue on accreditation comes down to the point that USNY is an accrediting body. As such they make decisions regarding all NY schools. Consequently, on the Regents College issue they were effectively making decisions on their own program (Regents) and thus possibly giving a perception of favoritism. This is an important political point because at around the same time the Board of Regents removed the Adelphi Board of Trustees and were also being asked to approve a Regents College graduate degree program so there was a lot of attention on the Board of Regents. As a result, the graduate degree program became stalled and there was a big effort to put the successful USNY/Regents College program out on its own.

Consequently, when USNY gave Regents its charter it also stipulated that the College had three years to change its name and could not use "Regents" in the new name. There was considerable debate on the name change (in years) and all I can say is that most everyone wanted to keep the name Regents College but the Board of Regents would not permit it.

John

Whose USNY diploma is signed by "Gordon Ambach"

For those that may be unaware, my association with Excelsior is a B.S. in '84 in liberal studies and physics. I am also president of the Excelsior College Alumni Association. My term will expire at the end of June. This position includes an ex-officio seat on the College's Board of Trustees.

 

On a side note---I recently received something from the State of New York. I never noticed this before, it may have been used for ever, but the word "Excelsior" was part of the state logo.

Jeffrey

 

It is the state motto. (Translated: "Ever upward.")

Rich Douglas

 

John,

Let me ask you this, then: Why isn't Ambach given any recognition at all on the Excelsior Website as the founder of the college? It seems to me a horrible slight. The fact that they plagiarize and then trademark his words doubles the slight. Is there anything that we Regents alums can do to try to get this man, who has done so much for higher education in America, some recognition? (In addition to founding Regents, he was commissioner of the Board of Regents for a good deal of time, served on Clinton's transition team dealing with education issues, is vice-chair of NACIQI, et cetera, et cetera.)

Interestingly enough, he's one of the few luminaries in higher ed who does *not* have a doctorate. He has a BA from Yale and an MAT from Harvard...for those who might be interested in reading a bio, one (which pointedly does NOT include the founding of Regents College as one of his accomplishments) can be found at http://www.benton.org/Policy/TV/ambach.html.

It would be nice to see his name at least mentioned SOMEWHERE on the Excelsior Website...

Don.

 

The founding of the College is typically credited to the visionary Ewald B. Nyquist. Ambach was certainly a key player but so were many others at the time. Ambach eventually succeeded Nyquist as commissioner. The history of the College is detailed and I would suggest, if you can get a hold of one, is a copy of "Regents College The Early Years," by Donald J. Nolan, 1998, published by The Donning Company Publishers in Virginia Beach, VA. Ambach is prominently listed and pictured. He is definitely not forgotten.

John