How to choose an UNACCREDITED school?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by LearningAddict, Sep 4, 2020.

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  1. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Ouch! Sad story. Details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoxville_College . I like the fact this has been a "work college." Students could work (reasonable hours) in return for tuition. And their work would often do good in the community.

    I wouldn't know where to start. The abandoned buildings have had 30+ fires, vagrants etc. The site is toxic from improper storage of chemicals back in the day. This school has problems that make even Morris Brown's list look trivial. For the simple reason that I don't think the school will ever be able to pass even the least-stringent financial tests of any recognized accreditor, I don't think recognized accreditation is in the cards. This is one case in which I would take extreme joy in being proven wrong!

    Their distance program costs $350 per credit hour. That's pretty high for an unaccredited school.
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2020
  2. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    @Stanislav I don't see any 'free tuition' stuff for DL students. It's a straight $5000 per semester - $4600 tuition, $400 in fees. I'm presuming for a tuition-free degree, you have to be there in Knoxville and work in exchange for tuition. And they say nothing about COVID times at all. I imagine that might have an impact on what they do locally. No?

    What I see here does not seem helpful to a comeback. I wish it did. Just sayin'...
     
  3. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    The front page states:

    "All classes will be ONLINE. Take advantage of TUITION-FREE Associate Degree programs TODAY! These program require you to pay for books only! Hurry! For more information, contact us at [email protected]. " This specifically refers to Fall 2020 semester, so it's anyone's guess whether this still stands, and whether anything on that website is up to date.

    As to the extent of their problems: yeah, it looks bad; especially in light of the fact that there's no evidence of the kind of administrative and fundraising efforts and a consistent plan Morris Brown had last couple of years. At one point, they were going to offer vocational credentials in "sustainable energy"; that plan is absent from their website now. Later, they tried to rent out their campus to some hairbrained scheme to run a "sports university" (an entity trying to field teams to play college sports without, umm, being, like, a college). That scheme crashed and burned. It's not clear what particular things they try now.
     
  4. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Yes, it does. They say contact admissions about tuition-free programs. I'm guessing that yes - if you're local they would get you into the work program. Yes again - all classes are online. COVID-aside, with all those abandoned buildings, I wonder how many (if any) usable classrooms are left.

    I'd say there's no chance for a remote student to get a free degree here - nor should there be. Work scheme designed for students who are from - or come to study in - the Knoxville area. Hope things get better for this school. They can hardly get worse.

    Go Bulldogs ... again, some day...I hope.
     
  5. innen_oda

    innen_oda Active Member

    Not to worry - there's still potential for a Leadership and Diversity Pavilion (not making that up, that is the actual name): http://www.kcba-architects.com/project/knoxville-college-leadership-and-diversity-pavilion/

    Clearly spending what must be very limited funds in the most considered and measured way possible:
    Best of all, the new building is delightfully subdued, so as to avoid outshining the historic buildings near by. If they didn't tell you, you might just think it had always been there.
     
  6. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    On the subject of Knoxville College, from Wikipedia:

    Kudos to the Trustees for firing him when they realized he wasn't a good fit even though he wasn't drawing a salary. That's a tough position for a lot of Boards.
     
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  7. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Yeah, right. Your meaning is very clear.
    Considering the "historic buildings" are largely abandoned, boarded up ruins, it's pretty hard to avoid outshining them. "If you're broke - buy a new building. You'll feel better."
    This is not going well. And as Dustin just suggested, executive-level turnover is pretty high here. I'm figuring all the hurdles to progress may not be external.

    C'mon. Let's go find another unaccredited school. One we don't have to beat up - one that we can cheer for.
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2020
  8. innen_oda

    innen_oda Active Member

    What are you talking about? The old buildings look great:

    A bit dusty maybe, but a few volunteers and a quick vacuum will get it ship-shape in no time.

    (Really, watch the video. It almost seems like everybody just left one day and never came back.)
     
  9. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I did. I'm sure this is more of your humor, innen_oda. The buildings are dilapidated and boarded up. They have suffered the depredations of vandals and vagrants for many years. There have been 30+ fires. They have been CONDEMNED - officially. That means you can't do a "quick vacuum" and re-occupy. Some of the buildings (and the grounds) suffer serious chemical contamination.

    It seems a terrible shame, to me that so many obviously valuable things (and I include children's toys and resources in what looks like an abandoned kindergarten or daycare) were not removed (for potential re-use) as soon as the building was closed. And all the crap (e.g. fragmented animal bones) wasn't removed. Looks like the University officials just walked the other way -with everyone else. Call time of death, Dr. innen_oda. This patient isn't coming back.
     
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  10. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I've seen buildings this bad (empty for many years, anyway) re-habbed for lofts and condos. Huge money in that. But it takes huge money to do. Looks like nobody's going to make it available for this school to rebuild itself. No organized, planned effort in that direction either, it seems. This is not Morris Brown College, that's for sure.
     
  11. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I suppose if the property still has any value then maybe they can sell it to fund a transition to being online only, then bootstrap back into dual mode from there? But there's so much competition nowadays that that would be a really tough row to hoe.
     
  12. innen_oda

    innen_oda Active Member

    Quite. If I'm honest, this is a depressing indictment on the incredible wealth of the US and the West as a whole, where all this infrastructure and material (as seen in the video) is freely abandoned, because we've all grown so wealthy that it's not even worth the effort to rescue, retain or recover what's left.

    Meanwhile, around the world there are children and adults learning in unelectrified rooms with just some chalk and a board, hospitals that haven't been updated in 60 years, and families trying to scrape a living off less than $1 a day.
    We abandon opportunity that 3 billion people will never even SEE in their lifetime.

    If you don't laugh at the absurdity of it all, the truth hits and it's almost too disgusting to handle.
    This is a national embarrassment.

    (Rant over.)
     
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  13. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    True. Every word. And I can't, of course, say that Canada doesn't have its own national embarrassments of waste and fraud, oppression and whatever. We're a smaller country - maybe there's a bit less to waste and steal (or not) , but we're doing our level worst to keep up.
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2020
  14. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    Since posting this list just 3 months ago, WorldQuant has received DEAC and the Institute of Buddhist Studies WASC!
     
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  15. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    Yes. Also, Morris Brown College is now officially a candidate for TRACS. This is great news for them.
     
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