Accreditation Anxiety

UTRGV biology senior Maricruz Lopez is not only concerned about getting a job after graduation, she also worries that employers will not consider her for a position because of the school’s accreditation status.

“It really worries me because it makes me [rethink] the quality of education of the university and how is it going to affect my future when I graduate,” said Lopez, who will graduate in May. “It really affects me, I guess, thinking, ‘Well, what’s going to happen if the university [is not accredited]? What’s going to happen with everything I have worked for?’”

In December, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges placed UTRGV under a yearlong probation for failure to demonstrate compliance with several accreditation standards.

SACSCOC is the regional body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the Southern states.

A disclosure statement issued by SACSCOC on Dec. 15 regarding the status of UTRGV states, “Probation is the most serious sanction imposed by SACSCOC’s Board of Trustees short of loss of accreditation. It can be imposed on an institution for failure to correct deficiencies of significant non-compliance with the Core Requirements, Comprehensive Standards, or Federal Requirements of the Principles of Accreditation of the Commission; failure to make timely and significant progress toward correcting the deficiencies; or failure to comply with Commission policies and procedures.”

Last Wednesday, SACSCOC mailed a formal letter, which the university expects to receive some time this week, explaining the results of its board meeting and detailing the specifics of the violations.

The violations are the following:

–Integrity (Principle 1.1)

–Acceptance of academic credits (Comprehensive standard 3.4.4)

–Consortial relationships/contractual agreements (Comprehensive standard 3.4.7)

–Institutional credits for a degree (Comprehensive standard 3.5.2)

–Institutional credits for a graduate degree (Comprehensive standard 3.6.3)

–Financial aid audits (Comprehensive standard 3.10.2)

–Substantive change (Comprehensive standard 3.12.1)

–Advertising, Student Recruitment, and Representation of Accredited Status policy compliance, (Comprehensive standard 3.13)

–Publication of accreditation status (Comprehensive standard 3.14.1)

–Recruitment materials (Federal requirement 4.6)

Pamela Cravey, SACSCOC coordinator of Communications and External Affairs, said she could not speak on the details pertaining to the integrity violation, but an Integrity and Accuracy in Institutional Representation Policy Statement states:

“Integrity, essential to the purpose of higher education, functions as the basic contract defining the relationship between the Commission and each of its member and candidate institutions. It is a relationship in which all parties agree to deal honestly and openly with their constituencies and with one another. Without this commitment, no relationship can exist or be sustained between the Commission and its accredited and candidate institutions.”

In December 2017, UTRGV will be reviewed by SACSCOC’s board of trustees, which will consider the accreditation status of the university following review of a monitoring report submitted by the institution addressing the standards cited for non-compliance, and the report of a special committee that will visit the institution in Fall 2017.

UTRGV President Guy Bailey has experience dealing with a university placed on probation. When Bailey became president of Texas Tech in 2008, the university was in the middle of serving a yearlong probation. In December of that year, SACSCOC removed Texas Tech from probation.

“Well, the most important thing you have to do is work carefully one on one with SACSCOC,” he said. “The issues here are technical issues, really, that have to deal with the transition to UTRGV and the split of UT Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. We’ll work carefully with SACSCOC and make sure we get done what needs to be done. Until that happens, we’re fully accredited and anticipate never being in any other state.”

Bailey met the UTRGV Faculty Senate executive committee last month to discuss the school’s probationary status.

Faculty President Bobbette Morgan told The Rider Bailey was up-front with the faculty in their Dec. 9 meeting.

“In fact, as we started the meeting, he just said, ‘Well, let me share with you what I have so far.’” Morgan said. “There were handouts prepared for us with the exact notes [UTRGV] had received from [SACSCOC]. … He was very open with us and just shared material right up-front.”

The Rider asked for a copy of the notes and timeline of the creation of UTRGV Bailey shared with the Faculty Senate, but as of press time, the newspaper had not received the material.

Morgan said she and the executive committee members discussed their meeting with Bailey and all agreed he was being transparent and honest with them.

She told The Rider that not all members of the Faculty Senate share the same opinion about UTRGV’s probationary status.

“Just because the officers are unanimous on something doesn’t mean that everybody agrees. … Everyone has their own opinion,” Morgan said. “There are folks who are watching very carefully, as they should be, to see how the administration reacts and handles this.”

After the meeting with the Faculty Senate, Bailey said it was rightfully concerned but remained helpful and supportive.

“They were very helpful and supportive. Like everybody, they’re concerned, but not unduly so,” Bailey said. “They’re well aware that these kinds of things happen all the time. The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill got off probation the day we went on probation, University of Louisville went on probation, so it’s not uncommon, so  faculty understand that. They’ve been very helpful.”

Morgan said the Faculty Senate will help the UTRGV administration in any way it can with the probation issue.

“We’re certainly open to whatever is asked from us to help,” she said.

Morgan also mentioned that Steven Leslie, UT System executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, will assist UTRGV.

“My role is just to support the campus in ways the president, the provost need,” Leslie said in an interview last Tuesday.

He said he believes Bailey, UTRGV Provost Havidán Rodríguez, and the rest of the school’s administrators are fully capable of handling and addressing the probation issue.

“From the University of Texas System, we’re very proud of how the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has opened its doors. They have put together strong foundations. The first year has been quite successful. … We all need to stay behind this university. We have a very strong president and his team is strong.”

Leslie will also receive a copy of the formal letter SACSCOC mailed to UTRGV.

On Jan. 5, Bailey met with local officials to discuss campus issues, including UTRGV’s accreditation.

About 100 Brownsville leaders attended the address, which was held at the PlainsCapital Bank El Gran Salón in Brownsville.

Among the attendees was Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez, who said he is not concerned about the probation status of UTRGV.

“I am not concerned about that. I was very familiar with what they were doing to begin with the accreditation,” Martinez said after the meeting. “The process seems to be the issue and you can correct procedure.”

Asked what he would say to the campus community regarding the recent news of the probationary status, Bailey replied it will be taken care of in a year and UTRGV will remain a high-quality institution.

“First, UTRGV remains fully accredited. There were some issues involved in the transition that need to be dealt with and we intend to deal with them over the next year,” Bailey said. “We think this is just a blip on the screen and within a year this will all be taken care of. For right now, nobody’s degree is affected, nobody’s education; we’re still the same high-quality institution we were and it’s something we’ll get through.”

Lopez said she would like UTRGV administrators to be transparent about any updates regarding the school’s probationary status.

“[Administrators] should have students more informed of what’s really going on, I guess, like the process, you know, and everything that is happening right now and what’s going to happen later on,” she said. “If something bad happens, let’s say hopefully not, it’s going to come back to us and we’re, in a way, the ones that sustain the university because it’s the students that pay for it.”

–Jesus Sanchez contributed to this report.