BY JOHN K. WILSON Cairn University has announced the elimination of the School of Social Work, prompting the following letter from the National Association of Social Workers: The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and its Pennsylvania Chapter have grave concerns about Cairn University’s sudden dismantling of its social work program because of University President…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the current issue of Academe magazine I reviewed a new book, Free City! The Fight for San Francisco’s City College and Education for All. It’s a terrific book, which details the five-year fight to save the college from an over-aggressive accrediting agency and expand access. I had previously posted frequently about…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the waning months of his term as California governor Jerry Brown embraced a new pet project: a totally online community college. With the enthusiastic support of California Community College Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley, Brown got the Legislature to somewhat reluctantly agree to spend an initial $100 million to get the online…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In an article for Forbes, Tom Lindsay reports on the scope of the student debt problem as a preface to discussing H.R. 4508, legislation introduced by Virginia Foxx (R-NC) to “reform” higher education ostensibly to make it more affordable. Titled the “Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform Act,”…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of a petition to the Higher Learning Commission signed by elected officials and community leaders from across Indiana and the Midwest, joined by thousands of faculty members and students at colleges and universities across Indiana and the Midwest. The petition calls on the Commission to reject…
BY HANK REICHMAN In a stunning development that the Faculty Association for the California Community Colleges called a “major win” for the state’s community college faculty, the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) yesterday announced that it had settled its lawsuit against the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), the embattled agency that accredits…
BY RISA LIEBERWITZ On July 10, 2017, the AAUP submitted comments to the American Bar Association opposing proposed revisions to the ABA’s accreditation standards that would eliminate a requirement that full-time faculty “teach more than one-half of the total credit hours offered by the law school in a year or more than two-thirds of student…
BY MICHAEL C. BEHRENT On Defending UNC-Law School’s Civil Rights Center Against a Political Attack North Carolina has, in recent years, been subject to increased political meddling in its higher education system. After the attack on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Poverty Center, the Board of Governors has now trained its sights…
BY HANK REICHMAN A bit more than a year ago then-Secretary of Education John King ruled that the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), which accredits all of California’s 112 community colleges, had a year to come into compliance with two Department of Education regulations. Of particular importance was Regulation 34 C.F.R. §…
BY HANK REICHMAN San Francisco City College’s (CCSF) five-year battle against a rogue accrediting agency is over and the college has won. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) informed school administrators yesterday that CCSF’s latest application for accreditation had been approved for a standard seven-year period. “All of us at the college…