A real look at the accreditation cartel or just a shakedown of the agencies accrediting for-profits?

Quote:Senate Inquiry Into Accreditation

Lawmakers are looking at how accreditors judge the quality and financial stability of colleges.

November 6, 2015
By Michael Stratford

College accreditors are facing scrutiny on yet another front in Washington.

As the Obama administration announces a set of executive actions and proposed legislative steps to toughen its oversight of the agencies, a U.S. Senate investigative committee has opened a sweeping inquiry into higher education accreditation, and lawmakers have started requesting records of individual accrediting agencies, according to several people familiar with the review.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is “reviewing the role that accreditors play in assessing the quality and financial health of postsecondary institutions and programs,” according to a letter from lawmakers on the panel that was obtained by Inside Higher Ed.

The letter, dated Nov. 3, seeks a wide range of documents from the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, one of the largest national accrediting agencies, which has been controversial because it accredited the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges up until the for-profit college chain collapsed.

The letter was signed by the Republican chair of the subcommittee, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, and the top Democrat on the panel, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri. The inquiry has not yet been made public, and spokeswomen for both senators declined to comment.

Lawmakers asked ACICS to provide a large set of documents and data about the colleges it has accredited going back more than 10 years. The deadline for the agency to respond is Nov. 13.

In a statement on Thursday, Albert C. Gray, the president and chief executive officer of the accreting [sic] agency confirmed that his organization had received the request for information, which was sent earlier this week.

“ACICS will comply in a timely fashion,” he said. “The council looks forward to working with the subcommittee to improve and strengthen the accreditation process.”

The lawmakers' review of accreditation has also involved other accrediting agencies and other groups beyond ACICS, according to two people familiar with those interactions. 

The investigative subcommittee, which is part of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, has a broad mandate to review and investigate the operations of all branches of the federal government. Although accrediting agencies are not governmental entities, their stamp of approval makes colleges and universities eligible for billions of dollars in federal funding each year.

The Senate committee’s review of accreditation comes as accreditors, and ACICS in particular, have faced growing scrutiny in Washington, D.C.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently demanded records from ACICS as part of an investigation into possible “unlawful acts and practices in connection with accrediting for-profit colleges.” That came after Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, grilled the accrediting agency’s chief during a congressional hearing in July.

The two Republican chairmen of the congressional education committees have criticized the CFPB’s demand for records from ACICS as an “unprecedented overreach.” CFPB Director Richard Cordray has responded by suggesting that college accrediting agencies may fall within the jurisdiction of the consumer bureau.

This seems to be another controversial online school which has been under a lot of heat lately. 

So the Wikipedia accreditation mafia did a real hatchet job on this school....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordia_...University

I recall hearing in the news how this string of schools went out of business following an investigation.

I really wonder if this was another politically motivated witch hunt against a legitimate school with controversial methods. Anyone know anything about this?

Good afternoon from Germany!
This is Dr. Muhammad Schmidt posting again after a long time.

First of all, I am happy to learn that NationsUniversity has achieved recognized accreditation. It's a decent school with high quality Christian education and is almost free. I personally also benefitted from them by graduating from them with a Master in Religious Studies several years ago. Later, I developed some courses in Biblical Languages (Hebrew, Greek) and in Comparative Relligion (two courses on Islam and Christianity) for them plus a course on Homiletics.

The stalkers at degreediscussion.com always tried to slander NU's name because I was involved in it, but they will find it hard to do so now after the successful completion of the accreditation process with a US Department recognized body:

http://www.nationsu.org

Regarding my own school, IFTS, the news is that after many years of running it with my former African partners, I resigned as an active officer of that school network due to reasons of age. I have retired officially in June this year and decided that I would free myself from the heavy workload for no money and hand it over to my successors whom I have trained over the years to keep it in good shape, to maintain academic standards and fo strictly follow ethical practices. I left the school in good shape and as far as I can see it still is. Their new homepage is here:

http://www.iftc.kr

That homepage is hosted by one of my former co-workers from Korea, and the Kenyans now have another school with government-accredited degree programs that are not free. IFTC stil lexists to offer (mostly) free high quality education to those who cannot afford to pay tuition fees.

IFTS stilll exists and is also still active but on a much lower level - we've had 8 branches in 8 different countries befiore, including Haiti. Niow, we are still active only in Haiti and Nepal and do no longer offer free theological education. Instead, we offer language teacher training and a number of other language-related degree programs as a developing nation does not only need pastors but also teachers, social workers, etc. I currently have a PhD student from Nepal planning to do a research project on Dhimal, one of Nepal's ethnic minority languages.

I do not really want to expand this and do more; the few things I am still doing are just right for me at this time. I also continue to publish my books.

That's all for now, good luck to everybody, and please get me a bit of poison for the stalkers at degreediscussion.com.....LOOOOOOL

Quote:Politically Correct Conditioning: It Starts Early In School
10/27/2015 06:05 PM ET

Indoctrinated: Some can recall a time when our campuses of higher education were zones where free speech thrived. That was another era, though. Today's students want speech restricted. How did it come to this?

The results of a poll that should be shocking, but sadly aren't, show that 51% of students favor their "college or university having speech codes to regulate speech for students and faculty."

Oddly, 95% say that "the issue of free speech" is important at their college or university, while 73% believe that the First Amendment is "an important amendment that still needs to be followed and respected in today's society." Only 21% told the Buckley Free Speech Survey that it is "outdated" and "can no longer be applied in today's society and should be changed."

Maybe these findings are not so odd, after all. In today's America, "free speech" and "First Amendment rights" tend not to include any expression that doesn't conform to left-wing ideology.

Seven years ago, almost two entire college generations in the past, the Acton Institute observed, "Students at colleges and universities who articulate conservative and traditional views are at particular risk of bullying and indoctrination by campus administrators and faculty who are zealous ideologues."

In that same commentary, author Ray Nothstine noted, "Some administrators practice a brand of radicalism intent on punishing students who dissent from the ideology of the campus power structure."

This, says Nothstine, is a danger to free society because "students (will) become accustomed to having their rights limited and will be more lethargic in countering possible oppression from a growing and intrusive state."

Remember, this was written in 2008. Students, it seems, are now fully accustomed to being told what they can and cannot say, and what they can and cannot think, and are just fine with it. In fact, they apparently want more restrictions.

The conditioning of minds begins early. High school kids are suspended for mild expressions of faith; elementary school students can be forced to undergo psychological evaluations if they draw a picture of Jesus on the cross; kids who wear shirts with the American flag or name of a conservative group are sent home to change; schools monitor students' social media for speech that administrators don't like; and sixth-graders have been assigned to "revise" the "outdated" Bill of Rights.

Perhaps worse than all of the above is the failure of teachers to present or even tolerate alternatives to what they're teaching.

As disturbing as it is, this is the educational world where our children are growing up. Free speech and expression are tolerated only when in accord with the left-wing doctrine of faculty and administrators.

It's a chilling look into a grim future.

Once again the "Gold Standard" turns out to be a double standard.  Fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government are bad, according to the RA drones, but confiscatory redistribution schemes, dead babies and guys pronging other guys in the ass are good.

Quote:Student Sues College Because It Refused to Let Her Start a Conservative Club: It’s ‘Censorship. Pure and Simple’
Oct. 18, 2015 12:00pm Kaitlyn Schallhorn

A Maryland college student has filed a lawsuit against her community college after school officials denied her request to start a conservative club on campus — a choice that she said infringes on her First Amendment rights.

Moriah DeMartino, a 22-year-old political science major, said the fight with HCC began after she requested to launch a Turning Point USA chapter at Hagerstown Community College and was told by college administrators that if she wanted to start a group that was conservative in nature, a club specifically for Democrats would have to be started at the same time. The email to DeMartino also said that students cannot “start new clubs that duplicate the purpose and mission of existing clubs,” according to a blog post on Turning Point USA’s website.


Moriah DeMartino, 22-year-old college student, has filed a lawsuit against her school after school officials repeatedly denied her request to begin a conservative college club. (Image via Facebook/Moriah Kristen DeMartino)

According to HCC’s website, the public college’s only other political clubs include the Spectrum Club with a mission centered around LGBT issues, a National Organization for Women club that DeMartino said is more left-leaning and a general political science club.

Despite her numerous efforts and a letter from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education to get HCC’s administration to have a change a heart regarding a policy that DeMartino and FIRE called “unconstitutional,” the school does not seem to be budging. So DeMartino decided to sue using a private lawyer — a decision that she told TheBlaze was difficult to make.

“My ideal outcome would be that they reverse their policy and openly and willingly accept other students on campus for their views — whether it be political or not,” DeMartino said in an interview with TheBlaze. “I just want every student to see what’s going on on campus and realize that they not just have their rights, but can take legal action if they have to if it comes to that.”

“It has been a very overwhelming and stressful situation, but I know it has to be done,” DeMartino said.

In a statement to TheBlaze, Turning Point USA’s founder Charlie Kirk called the school’s decision “censorship, pure and simple.”

“Turning Point USA is a non-partisan group that educates students on fiscal responsibility. We are not partisan and our mission cannot be combined with other political groups,” Kirk said. “Hagerstown Community College is playing political games and we have had enough.”

The mission of Turning Point USA, according to its website, is to “identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government.”
DeMartino said she wasn’t able to submit a formal application to start the club as she was denied before she could even do so.

“I don’t understand how they can deny me whenever I hadn’t even put in an application,” she said.
The political science major said she has seen support from her peers — some of who have told her unequivocally that they would join the Turning Point USA chapter if it was allowed on campus — and faculty, although she said she was aware that some faculty members were afraid of supporting her outright as they could face repercussions or even lose their jobs.

But for now, DeMartino is standing by her decision which she said was reaffirmed by the number of organizations that exist simply to help students fight for their rights on public college campuses.

“Mostly my priority is my free speech right, is what it comes down to,” she said. “I don’t believe [HCC] has a right to tell a student, ‘we can’t have a political club on campus because it’s duplicating.’”

HCC did not respond to requests for comment from TheBlaze over the weekend.

Not sure why it took him 11 years to fully comprehend the obvious, but better late than never.  Maybe a few more of the drones will join him.

Hope he's tenured, or he'll need to go back to practicing law.  The vindictiveness of the libtard loons in academia knows no bounds.

Quote:Law Professor: Campus Carry ‘The Common Sense Solution’ to Campus Shootings



by AWR Hawkins    9 Oct 2015

On October 9 Charles Haywood–Purdue University associate professor of business law–contended that “the common sense solution” to campus shootings is campus carry, a mechanism that allows students and faculty the legal avenue of being armed on campus for self-defense.

Haywood has been teaching at Purdue for eleven years. He said that after the Umpqua Community College attack it dawned on him that his students are sitting ducks and he would “be helpless to defend them” if someone stormed his classroom.

Writing in The Exponent, Haywood said he has a concealed carry permit but is not allowed to carry his gun on campus for self-defense. He says the time has come to do away with this ban so that law-abiding citizens have a fighting chance in the event of an attack.

Haywood admitted that emotion plays into decision making when guns and school campuses are discussed in the same sentence, so he is asking people to step back and think rationally about campus carry. He offers three questions for people to ask themselves: “What’s the problem Purdue’s policy is designed to solve? What are the benefits of the policy? What are the costs?”

He quickly shows that the problem with banning campus carry is the simple reality that criminals do not recognize the ban, therefore it “will never stop premeditated murders, whether small or mass.” So it does not solve anything.

As to the second question–which was partially answered with the first question–Haywood points to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers which show “[concealed carry] permit holders commit crimes at a rate of 22.3 crimes of any type per 100,000 people, compared to a rate of 3,813 per 100,000 people in the general population.” In others, they are characterized by law-abiding tendencies.
He says this shows that people who want campus carry banned to keep concealed carry permit holders from committing campus crimes really have no evidence to support their position.

Lastly, Haywood addresses the cost of banning campus carry at Purdue thus:

Quote:As to costs of banning concealed carry, on a normal day there are minimal costs. [But] it’s on the not-normal days that the costs become incalculable. A nearby concealed carry holder at Umpqua, a college that formally banned all guns, could have ended the shooting. If Chris Mintz, who charged the gunman and got shot seven times, had instead had a gun, the Umpqua story would have ended differently.

These points are all part of Haywood’s rational appeal for campus carry at Purdue, And when you get down to it, what Haywood is really doing is simply asking the university to give law-abiding students permission to defend their lives in the face of danger.

Haywood said: “Concealed carry holders have stopped and deterred shootings numerous times around the country—just never in ‘gun free’ zones like Purdue, where no law-abiding person has a gun.”

George Gollin fined $5,000 for violating Illinois Ethics Act

George Gollin has been found in violation of the Illinois State Employees and Officials Ethics Act and fined $5,000. George Gollin "knowingly and intentionally used his state-provided email account to engage in prohibited political activity...." George Gollin admitted he knew he was misappropriating state resources when he sent "dozens" of campaign emails with his university email. The Executive Ethics Commission levied a $5,000 fine against George Gollin, the maximum allowed under the statute. The Commission also issued an injunction ordering George Gollin to comply with the state Ethics Act and UIUC guidelines concerning the use of university resources for political campaign activities.

This comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with George Gollin's well-documented legal history of alleged extortion, stalking, civil rights violations, defamation, computer hacking, and a myriad of other contemptible and bizarre behavior. George Gollin seems to think that the taxpayer supported university is his personal playground, and its resources are to be exploited for his personal amusement. About a decade too late, but better late than never.

We don't make 'em up. Read all about it here:


  14EEC011_Gollin_06_25_15.pdf (Size: 375.12 KB / Downloads: 2,499)

Sleep with dogs, get fleas. Thanks to George Gollin and his half a million dollar campaign of self-aggrandizement, three of his unethical prof butt buddies now have been found in violation of the Ethics Act as well. When will the libtard buffoons in academia learn what we all knew: George Gollin = Cancer.


  09.16.15_Greene_Dash_Blake_Released_Report.pdf (Size: 1.4 MB / Downloads: 2,286)

Quote:
UI professors found in violation of Ethics Act
By Maggie Sullivan | 09/28/15 12:15am

Nearly two years after physics professor George Gollin's unsuccessful campaign for democratic congressional candidate, three University professors became the subject of an ethics investigation by the Illinois Executive Commission.

Leon Dash, journalism professor, Nancy Blake, literature professor and Laura Greene, physics professor, were found in violation of the Ethics Act which led to the investigation.

"Any violation of the Ethics Act's prohibition on use of State property or time for political purposes is serious enough to warrant inquiry," said Daniel Hurtado, chief of staff and general counsel of the office of executive inspector general.

Dash said he was considered to be in violation of the act because of a one-sentence email reply to Gollin, sent to his University account, in which Gollin asked Dash to introduce him as a candidate at a local Democratic Party meeting.

"I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican," he said. "But I became wrapped up in an ethics violation after responding to a request from a colleague with whom I am friendly."

Dash said he realized in hindsight he was in violation of the Illinois ethics regulations because it was connected to partisan political activity and not a part of state or University activities.

In a public statement to the Office of the Executive Inspector General, Laura Greene said she did not intentionally violate the act, and therefore, the law does not apply to her situation.

"It is abundantly clear that an unintentional and inadvertent use of a State email account for a political purpose is not a misappropriation of State property," Greene stated.

Additionally, she said she felt the findings ignored both the facts and the law.

"I have been a long-time zealous advocate for the University of Illinois, as well as a tireless and ethical professor of physics," Greene said. A couple of email exchanges that inadvertently took place on my University email account and that were not even initiated by me simply do not justify the conclusions in the report."

Dash said he met with two investigators from the Springfield Ethic Commission office in May 2014.

"One of the investigators had called me to set a meeting date and indicated I was the subject of an ethics violation, but think as I might, I could not recall any ethics violation," Dash said. "When the two investigators met with me, they showed me my one-sentence reply to Professor Gollin."

Dash said he told the ethics investigators the error was an "inadvertent mistake" and he said he felt they were doing their job.

Hurtado said Dash, Greene and Blake could have avoided the ethics inquiry by paying closer attention to the Ethics Act, or consulting with their ethics officer.

Robin Kaler, University spokeswoman, said the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act and University policy do not allow the use of University resources for prohibited political activity, and the University takes violations of state law and University policy very seriously.

"The entire experience has definitely put a chill on any future political activity I might have engaged in," Dash said.

Nancy Blake could not be reached for comment.

There's been a lot said about me on this board. No biggie, but I haven't really been available to respond.

I would invite questions that people have on their minds. As long as the tone is civil, it would be my pleasure to respond.

Here's one to start with:

"Are you really 5'6" (or below)?"

No. I'm actually 5'11". I'm not sure where the short stuff comes from, but I think it had to do with that video I did at the Naval Post-Graduate School.

Oh, here's another:

"Did you really take a PhD from Union in 8 months?"

No, of course not. The actual time in program was about 7 years. I had a huge break in my program, but when I returned I was faced with an 8-month (two-terms) minimum. I took 13 because I needed to do a new dissertation (Project Demonstrating Excellence).

Oh, darn, here's another:

"What was up with MIGS? You sure shilled that, didn't you?"

Yes, I did. But I did it with full disclosure. (It was still a mistake.)

MIGS looked like it was going to use the model Touro University International went on to use, where the home campus provided cover to a unique (and largely unrelated) distance campus. (In fact, the CEU got MIGS included in their listing in the International Handbook of Universities, which is a source used to determine if a school is comparable to being accredited here in the U.S.) I was so enthused by the chance to finish my PhD that I didn't explore the workings critically. (This was true of many people involved with MIGS, including its President, Armando Arias, with whom I met regarding MIGS.) After working from the inside, it was clear that the people involved didn't know how to run a distance program. But the real problem was that they didn't register with the state of Florida. I implored them to do so, and they promised they would. But when they didn't, I alerted Florida authorities and severed my ties with them. They subsequently applied for licensure by the state, but failed. They closed soon after that. (I think the home campus in Mexico, the CEU, got cold feet.)

Anyway, if you'd like to know something else (besides the "have you quit beating your wife" questions), I'd be happy to answer them.

One of gay boy pornographer and degreeinfo.com proprietor Thomas Vernon "Chip" White's customers?  The only real surprise here is that he wasn't a physics prof.

Quote:Michigan university professor traveled 1,300 miles with condoms and lube to have Sex with 14 year old police officer
‎8‎/‎11‎/‎2015‎ ‎3‎:‎30‎:‎00‎ ‎PM - Source: dailymail.co.uk

A [regionally accredited] University of Michigan professor who describes himself as a 'boy lover' traveled 1,300 miles to meet a father and young son he had met online for sex - but was caught in an FBI sting, police have said.

James Cavalcoli, 51, an assistant professor at the [regionally accredited] university's department of computational medicine and bioinformatics, reportedly started chatting with the father, 'Jim', on a child pornography website.

He arranged to meet Jim - whom he believed to be a fellow 'boy lover' - and Jim's 14-year-old son for sex and traveled from his Ann Arbor home to Florida, armed with condoms and lubricant, it is said.

But after making the 1,350-mile trip to Broward County, Cavalcoli discovered the father he had been speaking to was actually an undercover officer working with the FBI's Child Exploitation Task Force.

Cavalcoli, who also allegedly sent naked photographs to Jim ahead of the trip, was arrested and booked into Broward County Jail, pending transportation to a federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

He immediately confessed to his actions and said he 'regretted' his trip, police said. He is now facing a federal charge of traveling across states to have sex with a minor.

Quote:Scott Walker: Hillary's Education Plan Benefits Her Liberal Academic Friends, Not Students
Katie Pavlich | Aug 12, 2015



When it comes to education policy, Hillary Clinton has her sights set on Wisconsin Governor and GOP presidential candidate Scott Walker. 

During a campaign stop yesterday, Clinton accused Walker of wanting to "raise taxes on students" and "delighting in slashing education funding" after laying out her plan for education reform, which has been dubbed "The New College Compact."

Quote:Hillary Clinton has made her first direct dig into Scott Walker, the hardline conservative favourite for president who is now fading in Donald Trump’s shadow, as the Democratic frontrunner continued to condemn Republicans on the campaign trail.

The Wisconsin governor “seems to be delighting in slashing the investment in higher education in his state”, Clinton said during a town hall-style event in the early voting state of New Hampshire on Tuesday.

Clinton also accused the governor of “rejecting legislation” that would help Wisconsin students repay their loans.

“I don’t know why he wants to raise taxes on students, but that’s the result,” she told the crowd at River Valley Community College in Claremont.

Now, Walker is firing back by defending his record and attacking Clinton's new higher education plan, which will cost taxpayers $350 billion dollars in tax hikes.

"We've frozen tuition now four years in a row," Walker tells Townhall. "That's how you do things. You protect college students and their families from high cost of tuition."

"[Her plan] is done under the guise of helping students but in the end...is a way to put more money into the university system without addressing the very legitimate question about why is tuition going up so much?

"Why is the cost of a college education going up so much? And why is it becoming increasingly difficult to get a degree within a reasonable amount of time?" Walker continued. "Instead of addressing the real challenges, instead of making policies relevant to the real needs of students, pouring in more money has just driven up the cost and caused colleges and universities to be less and less relevant to what our students' needs are."

When asked if he believes Clinton's education plan is geared toward benefiting her liberal friends in academia, much like her other policies and record with the Clinton Foundation, Walker said "absolutely."

"For them, sadly more money from the federal government is really just an enticement for a lot of these colleges to up tuition, to charge more, to use that money historically to drive up costs. It's certainly good for a lot of their liberal friends in the university systems to spend more money but what we've seen over time is that tuition is going up, in some cases three to four times the rate of inflation," he said. 

Yesterday Walker tweeted the following in response to Clinton's attacks, reminding voters that while he's frozen tuition rates in Wisconsin over the past four years, Clinton has been charging public universities more than $225,000 to show up for a thirty minute speech.

"This is just typical of the left, pour more money into something without fixing the problem," Walker said. "She thinks if you're not pouring taxpayer money into things that that's the only way you solve problems. In the case of the federal government pouring more money into student loans without addressing the high cost of college in the first place only continues to exacerbate the problem," he said.