By Elisabetta Silvestro
Though City College of San Francisco scored dubious victories last month in the battle over its accreditation, those victories have left many questions unanswered and its own future uncertain.
Judge Curtis Karnow issued a tentative ruling on Jan. 16, in which he stated that the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) acted unlawfully while evaluating CCSF. Yet Karnow didn’t suggest revoking the commission’s decision, as the City Attorney Dennis Herrera had sought.
“Karnow’s decision vindicated the process has been unfair,” said CCSF Board of Trustees President Rafael Mandelman. “Already the existence of a lawsuit showed how important City College was.”
However, Mandelman doesn’t see re-evaluation as a possibility as, he said, the judge couldn’t get into the matter of how ACCJC evaluated CCSF. Mandelman claimed Karnow was looking at whether the commission broke its own rules.
Karnow is expected to issue a final ruling later this month.
Two days prior to the judge’s tentative ruling however, the ACCJC granted CCSF “restoration status,” giving the school until January 2017 to comply with the accreditation standards. However, this new restoration policy, created by the commission exclusively for City College, had already raised some concerns.
“CCSF is participating in this process because it simply has no other administrative option at this time,” Chancellor Arthur Tyler wrote in a letter to ACCJC President Barbara Beno in July 2014.
In order to maintain its accreditation with this restoration process, the college needs to “fully meet” all eligibility requirements, accreditation standards and commission policies, without any exception. If found non-compliant, the school can be stripped of its accreditation without possibility or right to appeal.
“It would suggest that the slightest variation from compliance on any substandard or policy would be grounds for immediate termination,” Tyler wrote. “CCSF finds this to be unreasonable and raises the potential for arbitrary and capricious action in the future.”
The City Attorney’s Office and CCSF are asking the judge to ensure fairness during the evaluation process of the restoration. Particularly, Mandelman said, they are asking that CCSF be evaluated like an accredited college (as opposed to one that has had its accreditation terminated), which seems to be an exceptionally strict condition.
So unless Karnow’s final ruling brings about a re-evaluation or changes to the restoration process, CCSF will have to struggle to keep its accreditation, and its fate will be in ACCJC’s hands, again.
The commission has been under fire since 2013, when it took action to terminate City College’s accreditation. It was taken to court when AFT Local 2121 and City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed lawsuits against the commission. It later emerged that the commission had a conflict of interest and broke rules in selecting members of the visiting team who evaluated the college; it failed to communicate about some deficiencies it had found and also failed to properly notify CCSF about accreditation termination.
Just four days after the preliminary decision, the California Community Colleges Board of Governors changed regulations allowing new accrediting commissions to be formed from the next accreditation cycle. The move basically nullifies ACCJC’s longstanding monopoly over community college accreditation in California. Though the new accrediting commission won’t probably play a role in saving CCSF, it’s still seen as a victory.
“This was the right decision by the Board of Governors,” said Fred Glass, California Federation of Teachers communications director. “The ACCJC has shown that it is not fit to be the sole accreditor of community colleges in California.”
[su_box title=”Special Trustee Robert Agrella to Retire” box_color=”#131212″]To conclude a month full of significant events for CCSF, California Community Colleges chancellor Brice Harris on Jan. 30 announced CCSF Special Trustee Robert Agrella’s retirement via Twitter.
“Heartfelt thanks to Dr. Robert Agrella for all he has done to support #CCSF in its recovery and best wishes for a well deserved retirement,” he wrote.
Agrella has been vastly criticized since he was appointed special trustee with extraordinary powers by Harris in 2013 to save CCSF from termination.
“Given the job he had to do, he has done it well,” Mandelman said.[/su_box]