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The Accreditation Review Committee is one step closer to completing its charge.
Jeff Hunt, co-chair of the committee, charged by Chancellor Bruce Leslie to explore the pros and cons of the district becoming a single, accredited institution, said Monday the three subcommittees examining the costs associated with single accreditation, the impact on grants to the colleges and the process by which the Alamo Community College District would become accredited are preparing their individual reports to present to the full committee Oct. 16.
Hunt said although the committee faces a December deadline to have the facts members gathered presented to the board of trustees, he thinks the committee will be ready with a final report before then.
He said the committee was set up to gather facts and not to make recommendations to the board. The plan is to present the committee’s findings to Leslie, who will make recommendations to the board based on the facts, Hunt said.
However, Hunt said he has received no assurances that Leslie will be faithful to the committee’s findings when making his recommendations to the board.
“All I’m left with is my hope that this will be legitimate,” he said, adding that he would like to trust that Leslie will confine his recommendations to the facts the committee gathers and not ignore them in favor of his own preferences.
The committee will meet with the board, he said, and the committee will be able to clarify points to the board.
Leo Zuniga, associate vice chancellor of communications, said Monday the board also will invite the community to hearings so further input is given in the debate.
Dr. Eric Reno, president of Northeast Lakeview College, which is seeking its own accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, told The Ranger previously that Northeast Lakeview should hear from SACS about its application for candidacy in December.
The question of the district becoming an accredited institution was precipitated partly by hurdles Northeast Lakeview had to overcome in seeking accreditation, namely new rules set up by SACS requiring the college to provide an audit separate from the district’s.
Board Chair Denver McClendon, who raised the idea of exploring single accreditation during a June board meeting, said roadblocks in Northeast Lakeview’s accreditation are part of a larger priority of creating more efficiency in the district.
The committee was set up with the idea of exploring how either becoming a single institution or remaining five colleges will help the district become more efficient, he said.
McClendon said Monday he would like to see the committee come back with a report “sooner rather than later,” and said discussion of single accreditation does not affect Northeast Lakeview while it is still going through its own accreditation.
The college is “still pressing on,” he said, and Northeast Lakeview still needs to go forward with its accreditation regardless of what the district decides.
Dr. Ann Chard, vice president of the Commission on Colleges at SACS, said in an e-mail Northeast Lakeview College would not be “grandfathered” into the district should it become an accredited school like the other district colleges would.
“Should the district seek to become one accredited entity, a process would be developed whereby that could be accomplished and there would be a process by which Northeast Lakeview College would become a part of that accredited entity,” Chard said. “It is premature to address this question, since the district would have to describe its intent to become one entity, and the process would then have to be developed to allow that to occur.”
Indeed, the facts gathered by the committee are yet to point toward one direction or the other, and McClendon said he is ready to use the facts and Leslie’s recommendations to reach a decision.
“The board does not have a predisposed position one way or another,” McClendon said, adding that there are many ways to achieve the goal of making district more efficient, accreditation being only one of those possible methods.
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