A race to the bottom?

Trinity Newburgh: Favorite target of a certain PhD trucker we once knew. Eerie, mocking laughter could be heard in Indiana, as he drove past in his 18-wheeler. What a colorful path! Trinity of the Yellow Liverpool Stickers, Canterbury endorsements, Uni. of Wales validation, RA (not achieved) DEAC (not achieved) and finally, the auction block, as Dr. Bear reported.

But Trinity still lives! (Accreditation-free, of course.) I was just looking at the site. Amazing what faith can accomplish, isn't it?

 

They seemed to have frittered away opportunity. They had credible faculty attached, a campus, and perhaps a shot at accreditation. Their former VP (Frye ?) became a whistle blower about unsavoury internal practices and financial issues. If I recall correctly, he said part of their business model was predatory in that they got people signed up knowing that large numbers would drop out and they had the cash without a lot of work. In fact, he said they would have been in trouble in terms of resources being stretched had those students actually stayed.

He made me laugh when he noted that the really bad Masters School of Divinity (not to be confused with The Masters Seminary) had low low standards at the time (bad). Trinity allegedly told the accreditor they were separate from Trinity. He said they told them this while the RA inspection team was wandering around the hallway past a room that Trinity was printing the Masters School of Divinity material.

 

Yes - that famous letter killed their RA chances, right before the final site visit. Somebody leaked the letter quite a few years ago. Then there was DEAC... Now, they're uh- untroubled by accreditation issues

 

Educated people might catch on to what they're up to.

 

Their history of multiple failed attempts at accreditation alone are rather stigmatizing. I am not sure they can come back from it. Posting that you are unaccredited but taking the high road and known for decades for quality education is somewhat overshadowed by multiple failed accreditation attempts, loss of infrastructure and so on.

 

But then a lot of unaccredited institutions try the line, "Accreditation? Accreditation? We don't need no stinkin accreditation".

 

I once got the side-eye on another degree forum years ago - I quoted the original "We don't need no stinkin' badges etc." from the book, "Treasure of the Sierra Madre." - it contains VERY salacious Spanish and some profane English, both of which were censored-out of the movie. It's on this page if anyone is curious and wants to see it - I'm not going through THAT again. Some people thought it was mine - not a quote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinking_badges

 

I did not know the whole quote! Love it. Fits better too.

 

I suspect a lot of people believe the line originates not in the novel, not in the film, but in Blazing Saddles, where Mel Brooks' parody of the scene was so spot-on it became famous all on its own.

 

I just read the original line from the book. (Thanks for the link.) Let's just say that, having grown up just a few miles from Mexico, the language was, um, quite familiar. Yeah, familiar. We'll go with that.