October 10, 2014: Judge again rejects ACCJC attempt to stop trial

Proposed Change to Board of Governors' Regulation on Accreditation

On October 16, 2014 Chancellor Brice Harris put out a Consultation Digest proposing a change in how the accreditation agency for California’s community would be performed. Chancellor Harris noted that “On June 26, 2014, the California State Auditor issued an audit report entitled California Community Colleges Accreditation: Colleges Are Treated Inconsistently and Opportunities Exist for Improvement in the Accreditation Process. This audit report provided both a review of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and the accreditation process in general, as well as a more in-depth examination of recent events related to City College of San Francisco (CCSF). The report raised significant criticisms of the ACCJC and the accreditation process and made a number of recommendations to remedy the identified concerns. The Consultation Council discussed the report at its July meeting and again in September.”

1. Section 51016 of subchapter 1 of chapter 2 of division 6 of title 5 of the California

Code of Regulations is amended to read:

§ 51016. Accreditation.

Each community college within a district shall be an accredited institution. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges shall determine accreditation. Accreditation shall be determined only by an accrediting agency approved by the Chancellor. The Chancellor shall approve only a regional accreditor recognized and approved by the U.S. Secretary of Education under the Higher Education Act of 1965 acting within the agency's scope of recognition by the Secretary.
It should be noted that Education Code Section 70901. (a) The Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges shall provide leadership and direction in the continuing development of the California Community Colleges as an integral and effective element in the structure of public higher education in the state. The work of the board of governors shall at all times be directed to maintaining and continuing, to the maximum degree permissible, local authority and control in the administration of the California Community Colleges.
By investing in a particular accreditor that imposes its values on colleges (as the ACCJC does), the BOG is not following its own requirement to allow districts maximum control and authority. The ACCJC seeks to dominate local districts by requiring excessively large reserves, attempting to force districts to use measurable student outcomes to evaluate faculty, insisting on prefunding of retirement benefits, and imposing sanctions on colleges that they believe give too much power to the locally elected trustees rather than letting the college president unilaterally run the college.

October 14, 2014: CCSF Submits Accreditation Self Evaluation Report

On October 14, 2014 Chancellor Arthur Tyler submitted San Francisco’s Self Evaluation Report

in application for Restoration Status. The Self-Evaluation Report “demonstrates that the College meets Standard I (Institutional Mission and Effectiveness), and substantially meets Standard II (Student Learning Programs and Services), Standard III (Resources), and Standard IV (Leadership and Governance). Where compliance with a subpart within a subsection has not been achieved, the College has used the term partial compliance. These are the areas that require the most improvement during the restoration period and have been noted with appropriate action improvement plans.”
“Substantially meets” is the standard that all colleges but CCSF must meet in order to receive accreditation. CCSF must reach the higher standard of “meets” a standard in order to receive full accreditation status under the rules of the Restoration process.
A Self-Evaluation Team, appointed by the ACCJC, will visit the CCSF campus from November 16 -20, 2014. The Team has twenty-seven members as opposed to the typical visiting team number of from 2 members to fourteen members. Of the 27 members for the November 16 - 20 visit, six are faculty members (23%). One member of the team, Norval Wellsfry, is a member of the ACCJC Staff (Associate Vice-President).
The team is supposed to report back to the ACCJC whether CCSF has met or seems to have the ability to “meet or sustain compliance and whether the College can come into compliance and sustain compliance with each of the standards and Commission policies within the two years of Restoration Status.”
No identification of the fortune-teller status of any of the members of the Visiting Team has been noted.

Community College Consultation recommends removal of ACCJC in Board of Governors Regulations

On October 16, 2014, the Community College Consultation approved a recommendation that the Board of Governors remove the reference to ACCJC as the accrediting agency for community colleges in California and allow the Chancellor to appoint a new accrediting agency with the approval of the Board of Governors. The Board of Governors will consider the recommendation at its November 17, 2014 meeting at the Foothill-DeAnza Community College District.