Is it time for an alternative accrediting agency in the South? SACS is the only accrediting agency in the country with this stringent financial requirement. You think this is a coincedence?

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August 24, 2007

Accreditor to Scrutinize Texas Southern U. as Ex-President Goes on Trial

In the same week in which Texas Southern University’s former president went on trial on charges of using $500,000 of its money on personal expenses, the university learned that its chief accreditor planned to make an early and searching examination of its business affairs, the Houston Chronicle reported.

A jury was selected this week for the trial of the former president, Priscilla D. Slade, and the case is scheduled to begin today. She was fired last year after an audit found she had spent university money on golf lessons, expensive china, travel, spa visits, and her posh home. Last spring the university’s board resigned and a key aide to Ms. Slade was convicted of abetting her alleged misuse of university funds.

The accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, or SACS, has asked the university to turn over a host of documents by October 1, to allow an inquiry into its finances and leadership. Texas Southern would not ordinarily be subjected to scrutiny by SACS for another three years, when its current accreditation expires. —Andrew Mytelka

Agree with your vision, but WE must be accountable fron A-Z>.But I hear you loud and clear.

Dreamer,

A schools finances should be between them and their creditors. Particularly, if they are able to still able to hold up the academic end of the bargin.

Remember, it was SACS new financial rules that sunk Morris Brown and not academics. MoB had been carrying large debt for years before the new rules and making payments on that debt.

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out:

Published on Tuesday, August 28, 2007


St. Andrews files suit to fight accreditation ruling

By Jennifer Calhoun
Staff writer

LAURINBURG — St. Andrews Presbyterian College has lost the first battle in what could be a long fight to preserve its accreditation.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools — an organization responsible for ensuring that colleges and universities meet approved standards — denied St. Andrews’ appeal of the decision to yank its accreditation.

The college entered its appeal at the association’s College Delegate Assembly in Atlanta on Wednesday. The decision to deny the appeal came a day later.

St. Andrews President Paul Baldasare and the college’s board of trustees has promised to fight the decision. The school will seek an injunction in federal court. An injunction would stop the college from losing its accreditation during a court fight to reverse the decision.

If the accreditation is lost, students at the $26,000-a-year liberal arts college could lose access to federal financial aid. About 68 percent of the college’s students use federal financial aid.

In June, the association notified St. Andrews that it would lose its accreditation because the college has too much debt — about $18 million — and a poor financial plan. The association said the financial instability eventually could hurt academic programs at the school of about 800 students.

St. Andrews has denied that, saying the association has affirmed the college’s academic programs “in a more than adequate way.”

Since the June decision, St. Andrews officials have raised $4.1 million and have been assured by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that the school’s debt to the agency will be reduced by $3 million.

The association’s appeals board would not consider the new financial developments, said David Burns, chairman of the college’s board of trustees.

“They would not hear any new information after June 1 of this year, which would make a considerable difference,” Burns said.

According to the St. Andrews Web site, the college filed a lawsuit Friday in federal court in Greensboro.

The lawsuit seeks to reverse the association’s decision, stop the association from removing the college’s accreditation and award monetary damages for any losses St. Andrews may suffer as a result of the decision.

A hearing on the request for the injunction is scheduled for Wednesday. If the injunction is granted, the college will keep its accreditation until a final court decision has been made. Baldasare has said that process could take years.

Baldasare was not available for comment Monday, but said in a message on the Web site that he was “confident that this disagreement will be favorably resolved, either through a negotiated settlement or in the courts.”