Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The accreditation news is very good

As most of you already know, Irvine Valley College at long last received that fax of the Accrediting Commission’s “action letter.” The letter explains that the commission has renewed IVC’s accreditation—with no strings attached.

To see the brief letter, go to letter (a small pdf file).

Saddleback College, too, received similarly good news. Their Action Letter (pdf file) explains that the “Commission took action to accept [Saddleback’s Progress] report.”

The action in Saddleback’s case, however, is slightly less clean:
The Commission noted that in its response to Recommendation 3, Saddleback College stated it had "set the goal of August 22, 2008 to have a [single] SLO {Student Learning Outcome} and method of assessment documented for every active course." Since the Commission requires full compliance with all SLO-related standards by 2012, Saddleback College must accelerate its development of multiple SLOs in all courses if it expects to comply with the Commission requirement.

At 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, members of the Irvine Valley College community gathered in the Administration Building to mark the occasion with some thank-yous, punch and donuts.

It was plain to see that some of our administrators were very relieved indeed.

4:45:

Naturally, Chancellor Mathur has spammed the world with one of his typically self-serving congratulatory emails. As per usual, he kisses trustee ass whilst patting himself firmly on the back:
I would particularly like to thank Board President Don Wagner who served on the IVC Accreditation Committee and Immediate Past President of the Board Dave Lang who served on the Saddleback College Accreditation Committee for their solid leadership and time commitment in shepherding the best interests of the students, the Colleges and the District. This was indeed a collaborative process where many of us, including me, who read and reread the reports repeatedly and provided our input. [My emphasis.]

See that last sentence? Good GAWD.

12 comments:

13 Stoploss said...

did he read repeatedly, or did he reread repeatedly? I'm not sure I understand.

at least he can read and reread. though, I'm not certain I would take his input on the re-rereading.

Anonymous said...

Can you PLEASE direct him to cease using capital letters the way he does?

It's painful.

Anonymous said...

Yet another doomsday averted. If all of you spent as much energy doing what you were hired to do instead of criticizing everyone who isn't in lock-step with your simple-minded liberalism you may just live a happier life. Good God, people. Just do your jobs and live life to its fullest.

Anonymous said...

9:27 - you don't get it. this is their life. they have been on this crusade for so long that this is all they know.

The current battle may be over, but guaranteed they're already working on the next one. We're probably going to see a resurgance of petty recriminations in the 2010 self-study - which will lead to yet another series of recommendations and progress reports.

This isn't the first time IVC has narrowly avoided loss of accreditation. Likely it won't be the last.

Enjoy the break.

Anonymous said...

8:36 and 9:27,
Just laugh. The "liberals" use humor to process the unethical crap that has been going on at the administrative level for too many years.

Exposure to the reality without humor would have many of us in even deeper despair.

This piece and the first two comments had me LMAO and I am grateful for that.

Anonymous said...

Check out OC Progressive re MBAs ruining America. Good stuff.

Anonymous said...

Red County/OC Blog remarks on our accreditation news/acc/>Accreditation News and on this blog today. --RB

Anonymous said...

Last summer, hair was on fire (finally!) when Saddleback College faculty (Ac Senate) realized that it was not taking its accreditation threat seriously--virtually nothing had been done to write the "progress report."

And who let that happen? Who said nothing?

That would be Raghu "climate of despair" Mathur, Chancellor from Hell.

Anonymous said...

8:36--petty recriminations?

Oh, you mean our noting that, according to the courts, the board and chancellor violated a law concerning the role of the faculty? Yeah, that sure is petty. After all, the board and chancellor or much better at hiring faculty. Sure they are.

Or the trustees shutting down Saddleback College's study-abroad trip (to Spain) on the grounds that Spain "has abandoned our fighting men and women"?

Yeah. Petty.

Or the board ceasing the colleges' memberships in the American Library Association on the grounds that the latter organization is a bunch of "liberal busybodies" who have the temerity to oppose Bush's clampdown on civil liberties?

So, so petty, we faculty.

These actions--and folks, they keep on coming--make our district a laughing-stock.

Some of us attempt to make a correction. Is that petty? It is not.

Anonymous said...

yep. there you have it. spoken like a true crusader. keep up the good fight - 2010 is just around the corner.

Anonymous said...

These actions--and folks, they keep on coming--make our district a laughing-stock.

Here we go again with the hyperbole - the only people who engage in your so called "lauging stock" are dunderhead leftists. Your district is so far better off than most and certainly in better financial condition than everyone. Who is responsible for that? Certainly not you dissenters and not even the academic senate. Who could it be? Maybe your chancellor and his staff or, Chunkster forbid, your trustees?

Anonymous said...

The Chancellor never shared any of his review rereads with Saddleback's teams for recommendations 3, 4, and 5. I don't think he would understand the ideas embedded in the recommendation responses.

Try reading his ED.D: it's unbelieveably bad, poorly crafted and thought out and just badly written.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...