CCU did it!

From the new CCU website:

"California Coast University is awarded accreditation!

On January 10th 2005 California Coast University was awarded accreditation by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). The DETC is an educational association located in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1926, it has been the standard setting agency for distance education institutions."


I'm proud of and happy for CCU and all of their students (I happen to be one!).

 

Puh-leeeeeze . . .

DETC has been known to accredit mickey-mouse schools in the past, and their accreditation will not make CCU's courses any more transferrable to regionally accredited schools than if CCU had no accreditation at all.

Now, when CCU get accredited by WASC*, then I'll eat crow.
__________________

*The Western Assn. for Schools and Colleges, the regional accreditor for really credible colleges and universities in California.

 

Levicoff,

I admit that I HAVE wondered how DETC can claim to accredit say J.D. programs when there are only TWO such programs or engineering programs when there's exactly ONE. How do they establish "good practice"? Where do they find the necessary expertise to evaluate these programs?

On the other hand, they certainly can examine financial stability and overall honesty. I guess that as a consumer protection device DETC is useful. But DETC is certainly not any sort of program accreditor.

 

I expected as much from you, Steve. You're not going to go down without a fight. I'm confident that my CCU degree will transfer to some RA schools. First some of you were screaming about CCU not being accredited--now they're accredited but their accreditor isn't good enough, right? In the eyes of the government, DETC and WASC are the same, right? That's all that matters to me.

 

Well, no, they in fact AREN'T equal in the eyes of the government. DETC accreditation does not qualify a school to participate in federal student aid programs, meaning loans or grants.

Regional accreditation does.

 

Steve, yes well ... thank you for your opinion... yawn... next.

 

Also, government employers often require law and engneering degrees to be accredited by their respective professional bodies; DETC won't do.

 

nosborne, for what I'm trying to do, it doesn't matter. Accredited is accredited. For $3800 I don't need financial aid.

 

Going down? A fight? This is just silly. This really is not a situation where Steve could lose. He's given his opinion. In my opinion, it is a reasonable opinion.

I was one that criticized CCU for not being accredited. From your reaction, you apparently agree with my opinion that CCU should get accredited. On the other hand, the question of "not good enough" is a separate issue. The way that I look at it is that all schools are placed on a spectrum of respectability and therefore utility of their degrees. The top schools on this spectrum are the well established and highly respected schools. All of the top schools from the USA are RA. The RA schools in general occupy the top of spectrum closely followed by the NA schools. Way down on this spectrum from the accredited schools will be the part of the spectrum for the unaccredited schools.

CCU has made a big jump up the spectrum. CCU degrees will subsequently have far more utility. CCU is way above where it was on the spectrum a couple of days ago. That is still below the vast majority of accredited schools though, at least IMHO.

I'm confused by your final statement. The government's involvement in establishing this spectrum is not relevant to most people. (The spectrum is a matter of opinion so naturally differs from one person to the next.) Within the government when one applies for a job, the same type of comparisons and competition applies. So someone with a degree from say Yale, Harvard, or Oxford would have an advantage over someone with a CCU degree. So I'm confused by your final statement and would appreciate clarification since I doubt that you think that somehow CCU degrees are now equivalent to say a degree from Stanford?

 

Well, in the eyes of the government, NA and RA are, unfortunately, not the same. In higher ed institutions they are not the same either. Gaining DETC accreditation is a great thing for the future of CCU.

I am glad that your CCU degree meets your needs. There is an easy and obvious way to prove your point--get accepted into an RA masters program based on a CCU degree and silence all of the critics!

Tony Pina
Northeastern Illinois University

 

What's silly is how relentless some people are being. I sincerely doubt that even your RA degree would be equivalent to a degree from Stanford, Yale, or Harvard. I never made that comparison--I said that it will be good enough and it will be.

 

Tony, I will. I've already spoken with some RA schools concerning that very issue--it's a non-issue to them (because CCU is accredited).

 

Oh and Bill, I didn't mean "literally going down without a fight". You guys on this board can't take every statement literally. It's just a figure of speech. I honestly think that some of you just look for "ammo" to start arguments over. Yes, that contention is one that you should take literally.

 

You know, this issue came up on the other thread about CCU's accreditation, but I'll raise it here in a nonpolemical fashion.

BDev, I am concerned about the tendency of many CCU students to become exercised over the supposed universal hatred of CCU by the rest of us and to frame its accreditation in somewhat apocalyptic terms, as though Ahura Mazda had finally kicked Ahriman in the slats.

This notion of universal hatred giving way to universal chagrin is wrong in both its parts. No hatred, no chagrin.

I don't think this sort of, what, expression of resentment (?) serves CCU well. Other than one former poster who bragged that he was going to lie and say that his unaccredited doctorate was accredited if CCU ever got accreditation from DETC, I don't recall that I ever whacked-a-mole in regard to CCU--and that wasn't directed against CCU but at a brazen declaration of one student that he intended to lie about his CCU degree.

Why do you think this hypersensitivity exists? It extends to lying about us on other fora, a strange refusal to accept the many statements of congratulation as genuine. I am genuinely puzzled. Is this a self-respect deficiency? If CCU was a good enough unaccredited school, it is now a good enough DETC school. If it was good enough to enrol in in the first place, why do some of its students exhibit this odd reaction, not to criticism, but to affirmation?

Is anything short of total praise "relentless" antagonism?

This stuff does not reflect, by the way, the attitudes I found in talking to Tom Neal or any CCU faculty or staff over the years. To the extent it exists, it's a CCU student problem.

Regards,
Janko Preotul

 

"Good enough" makes wonderful sense and I'm very pleased and happy that you will get the desired utility out of your degree from CCU.

What you said before was, "In the eyes of the government, DETC and WASC are the same, right? That's all that matters to me."

This is something that seems very different and I am unsure how the huge entity you called the "government" could have the impact that it would be the only thing that matters to you.

My degree is a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and believe that it has a level of utility that is roughly comparable to what one would see from Stanford. Even after many years in the business, the utility of the degree is still occasionally paying dividends.

 

Congrats to CCU!

Question: Will this accreditaton now change the way CCU students complete their degree? I know in the past, students were require to comlete study guides that consisted of multiple choice examinations. Will this continue?

I interested in completing a Master's Degree at CCU.

Thanks.

 

I think that all discussion boards on all topics have posters that occasionally make posts to inflame others.

A possible example is even your own second post in this thread. I think that your post might be an example because in it you attempted to characterize some DegreeInfo posters as having a personal antagonism against CCU. Another possible example is Steve's post, which if that was his intent then it seemed to be very successful and you fell right into his "trap". Think about it, why would Steve (or any other poster on this board) have any personal antagonism against CCU?

 

Unc,

As long as I've been a member of this forum, I think that today was the first time that many of you "found out" that I am a CCU student. I've never said much of anything concerning CCU. Some members of this forum have an extreme bias/prejudice towards CCU-we all know that. I "went to bat" for KWU also and I have absolutely nothing to do with them so we can't say that I'm defending CCU because I'm a student. The problem that many people have with this forum is it seems like if you don't chant a certain "mantra" or subscribe to the "popular train of thought" here that your opinion 1) doesn't matter, 2) you're not intelligent, or 3) you're a "shill" (and you get attacked). It's not just me that feels that way. Can you tell me what I've done wrong? I believe that if I had a negative opinion of CCU, you and I wouldn't even be having this discussion. I have a positive view so...I've attacked someone? I don't even know whether your perception of CCU is positive/negative but whatever it is, that's your opionion. Honestly, I think CCU was doing a good job before they were accredited and I expect them to do an even better job now. Who is that hurting? How/why is that a negative? I always look forward to reading your posts unc and I don't agree with some people lumping you in with the other "experts" here. You have a great sense of humor and you seem to approach many things from varied perspectives.

Unc, I can't speak for every past/present/future student of CCU so I really can't answer your question. My main question for you though, is: Have I been like that? I believe I represent CCU well. Just like you, I am an ordained minister and I think I represent the ministry well...I represented the Armed Forces well when I was in. I think part of the problem with this board is: elitism. "You didn't graduate from where I graduated from so your degree doesn't have as much value as mine...". When I graduate from CCU, my degree will mean as much to me as some of my counterparts who graduated from Yale (whose work product isn't any better than mine <at all>). I think to get the answers to the questions that you have, you'll have to talk to the people that are displaying that behaviour.

 

Bill,

I understand what you're saying. I went back and re-read what I wrote. Honestly, my intent was not to inflame anyone. I think it's funny that the only way that some people here will give CCU any credit is if they go RA. I wasn't angry when I wrote that but looking at it again, I guess it could look that way. My apologies. That's one of the bad things about the internet-you can't see me. I'm laughing all of the time...it would take much, much more than a post from some anonymous poster to irritate me.

 

I have to say... Way to go CCU.. They made the changes, applied and stuck through it. I would like to at least be able to celebrate with them a while. There are other schools that can be talked about now in a negative. For now, I again celebrate success with CCU, as many others are as well.