Heads up! Accreds visiting this week!

He's making a list and checking it twice
Gonna find out who's naughty and nice
"Warning" clause is coming to town

s you know, the Accreditation teams are visiting our two colleges this week. On Thursday, I believe, we'll have opportunities to speak with the teams.

WHAT'S UP

Our colleges’ Accred situation is complex, for each college is on two schedules. (1) Each is going through the standard accreditation process, which involves a midterm report, due in a year or so. (2) In the meantime, each college is going through the process of responding to the Accrediting agency’s recommendations.

You’ll recall that the Accreds were impressed by instruction, etc., but they were unhappy with, and RECOMMENDED remediation of:

● continued board micromanagement (Saddleback, IVC)
● administrative instability (Saddleback)
● lack of clarity re governance groups' roles and responsibilities (IVC)
● the plague of despair (IVC/SC?)

THIS WEEK'S ACCRED VISIT CONCERNS (ONLY) THE ABOVE RECOMMENDATIONS and whether our colleges are responding to them adequately. This is not the occasion to raise other concerns.

Back in September, I had occasion to describe each college's progress report draft. I reproduce that discussion below:

Saddleback College Progress Report:

✔ Re board micromanagement:

There are some issues that still need attention. Among them are these…(2) [T]he board’s rejection of college-determined institutional memberships…In March 2006, one board member pulled the American Library Association membership…The trustees spent portions of three board meetings debating whether or not the ALA endorsed pornography for children…[T]he board now requires detailed justification each time an institutional membership is requested or renewed.

…Another perception is that the board favors other units (such as ATEP) within the district over Saddleback College.

Evaluation: …[T]he question that requires clarification is whether the college defines its own mission, goals and objectives…? Or, whether it is the district that defines its mission, goals and objectives and the college…then defines its role in response to the district mission?....

✔ Re administrative instability:

The perception remains among faculty and classified staff that the governance style of the board and district discourages college administrators from taking risks to solve difficult problems….

Irvine Valley College Progress Report:

✔ Re board micromanagement:

[During a March 27 presentation,] [t]he Chancellor … states that there is no college that has lost accreditation because of micromanagement….The Chancellor intimates that the faculty and staff may invite micromanagement by the board, as noted in the following statement:

“To the faculty and staff, please don’t invite micromanagement by going directly to the board about college issues. Please come to me as chancellor and/or go to the college presidents.”

…During [a]…discussion…, other trustees [than Mr. Fuentes] raised concerns as to whether it would be prudent to continue denying that there is a problem with board micromanagement by blaming other constituent groups. In response to those concerns, … [Fuentes] states:

“I’m saying that the problem in this district is more a macromanagement by elements who ought not to be macromanaging than it is by a couple of trustees on this board micromanaging….”

…[T]he majority of the board and the chancellor believe that the issues in the district relate to macromanagement by faculty leaders rather than micromanagement by the board….

…On January 31, 2006, in opposition to the recommendation of the chancellor, the board voted to deny the colleges’ institutional membership in the American Library Association, alleging that: 1) the ALA is comprised of “liberal busybodies…”; 2) the ALA opposed the Child Internet Protection Act and therefore favored allowing children access to pornography in public libraries; and 3) the ALA opposed the USA Patriot Act.

…Similar board involvement occurred relative to the decision by the IVC administration to discontinue intercollegiate tennis…Based on the discussion of the board and presentations by members of the community, the college administration elected to continue the intercollegiate tennis program.