From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: AAUP Criticizes Accreditation of Jones International U (
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 09:35:44 -0600
Professors' Group Criticizes Accreditation of a Virtual Institution
By KELLY McCOLLUM
The accreditation earlier this month of Jones International University,
a first for a virtual institution, has come under fire from the American
Association of University Professors.
In a March 19 letter to Steven D. Crow, executive director of the North
Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the A.A.U.P. said: "By all
public accounts, this virtual institution presents a very weak case for
accreditation. Indeed it embodies most of our major worries about the
denigration of quality that could follow this apparently inexorable
march toward on-line education."
Although the letter expresses the A.A.U.P.'s "shock and dismay" at the
North Central Association's choice, officials of the accrediting agency
said the objections would not affect their decision to grant
accreditation. And Pamela S. Pease, the university's president, said she
didn't expect the letter to have much impact on her institution.
The letter was written by James E. Perley, chairman of the A.A.U.P.'s
committee on accrediting. In an interview Wednesday, he called it "a
response to a tendency to define any kind of institution as a
higher-education institution." He added: "We're very concerned about
accrediting agencies' being willing to grant any institution
accreditation, regardless of what kind of standard there is for quality
of education."
"The bottom line issue for me personally is one of quality," said Mr.
Perley.
In his letter, he cited what he said was an apparent lack of quality in
the university, including the small number of full-time professors --
Jones has 56 faculty members, but 54 of those are adjuncts who hold
full-time jobs elsewhere. He also cited the brevity of the university's
courses, its lack of learning resources, such as libraries and research
laboratories, and the small proportion of students who seek degrees from
the institution.
According to Mr. Perley, many of those shortcomings violate the North
Central Association's own criteria for accreditation.
But Mr. Crow, the accrediting agency's director, said the A.A.U.P. was
misinformed about Jones International. "Some of the statements they make
about the institution, I don't think are well founded in fact," he said.
"They don't know much about Jones International University." He said the
A.A.U.P. did not have access to the research done by the accrediting
team and was evidently "informed not by real study, but by what they've
read."
Mr. Crow acknowledged that someone comparing Jones with a traditional
university might think that the former falls short of North Central's
requirements. But, he said, Jones International meets the intent of
those requirements in other ways.
For example, an institution must have a library to be accredited; Jones
has an on-line library and a reference librarian on call to help
students. In his letter, however, Mr. Perley called the Jones solution
"clearly no substitute for exploring a university library on one's own."
Mr. Crow said the A.A.U.P.'s complaints may be partially based on
objections to on-line institutions in general, but Mr. Perley disagreed.
He said Jones was representative of a growing number of for-profit
institutions that focus their efforts on courses that provide students
with industry-specific skills. "To include them under the umbrella of
traditionally defined higher education is an insult."
Mr. Perley said the A.A.U.P. had no objections to on-line education
itself. "If faculty members choose to use distance education as a means
to do a better job of delivering education, then there isn't any problem
with that," he said. "And we're not defending turf necessarily. Many of
my colleagues, including me, use technology and distance education."
And he said the A.A.U.P. would not necessarily object to a virtual
university's gaining accreditation. "It would be possible to see such an
institution develop, but I sure would like to see faculty members
involved in helping formulate that, and I'd like to see it be based on
something other than a profit motive," he said. "I'd like it to be based
on what is in the best interest of the student educationally."
Ms. Pease, the university's president, was not upset by the A.A.U.P.'s
letter. "I really don't think for our student body it will have a huge
impact," she said Wednesday, "because once somebody takes a course and
reviews what we're doing, they are very happy and satisfied with our
quality."
Ms. Pease said she was confident that Jones's accreditation was
justified. "It's not like we haven't been scrutinized very highly," she
said. In the accreditation process, a team of accreditors visited and
conducted interviews at the university's offices, and also met on-line
with students and faculty members. Mr. Crow said his association looked
specifically at many of the issues later raised by the A.A.U.P.
Jones passed the accreditation process "without any special
considerations," said Ms. Pease. "It's the same kind of accreditation
that any kind of institution would have."
Background story from The Chronicle:
"In a First, the North Central Association Accredits an On-Line
University," 3/10/99
Copyright © 1999 by The Chronicle of Higher Education