Responding to recent controversies in South Carolina and Alaska, federal panel on accreditation will study how regional agencies should monitor politicians’ influence over public colleges.
One needn’t look very hard these days to find evidence of significant intervention by state politicians in public university matters — or of accrediting agencies questioning those politicians’ decisions. Just in the last two weeks, regional accreditors in the Southeast and the Northwest, respectively, issued warnings that decisions by the governors of South Carolina and of Alaska could threaten the continued good standing of their states’ universities.
The accreditors’ recent actions drew the attention this week of the federal panel that advises the U.S. education secretary on accreditation, prompting it to appoint a special subcommittee to explore the issue. And the federal panel’s members appear to have divergent views about what they hope the subcommittee will say and do — with some wanting the accreditors to zealously block politicians’ excessive interference in the governance of public universities, and others believing the agencies have no role in doing so.
The issue arose during the twice-yearly meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, known familiarly as NACIQI (nuh-seek-ee). The panel reviews accrediting agencies and makes recommendations to the education secretary about which ones it should recognize as gatekeepers to federal financial aid. It also at times explores accreditation issues of interest to the executive branch in charge at the moment.