I recently wrote about City College of San Francisco (CCSF) and its impending loss of accreditation, which would essentially shut down the largest community college in California (85k students).
Last week the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), which operates under the corporate entity the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), voted to end accreditation for the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) as of June 2014. Unless reversed, the loss of accreditation would like force the 85,000 student college to shut down. CCSF would be the largest college to date to lose accreditation, and it is also the largest community college in California.
The rest of the post walked through the seven years of history that led to the current crisis. In essence, CCSF was notified originally in 2006 by ACCJC that they were potentially out of compliance on three issues.
Based on this evaluation, the ACCJC “took action to reaffirm accreditation, with a requirement that the college complete a Progress Report and a Focused Midterm Report”. In the letter, two areas were highlighted for further review.
- The Commission asked that the Progress Report be submitted in 2007 to specifically cover resolution of Recommendation #4 (Financial Planning and Stability).
- The Commission required a Focused Midterm Report in 2009 “which must give evidence of progress” on specific recommendations #2 (Planning and Assessment and #3 (Student Learning Outcomes).
But this is all one side of the story – the view according to the accrediting agency. What are the dissenting views?
Emerging Consensus from Institution and Political Leaders
There have been many complaints about the ACCJC process and decision, and the vast majority that disagree with the decision have originated from faculty and faculty unions. Despite their concerns over the potential closing of such a large college, most non-faculty groups have essentially supported the process.