By Khalida Sarwari
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges has reaffirmed West Valley College’s accreditation for the next five years after giving the college a warning last year.
Following a site visit in March 2014, the accrediting body of 13 volunteer reviewers from other colleges and universities said West Valley, which enrolls about 12,000 students, had failed to comply with academic and administrative standards. The commission said West Valley had shown “deficiencies in college policies, procedures and practices.”
But the commission rescinded the warning and reaffirmed accreditation at its June meeting after the college submitted a 44-page followup report detailing the steps it took to comply and hosted a second site visit by the accreditation team in March.
The reaffirmation process is a six-year review cycle during which the college conducts and publishes several reports, a comprehensive institutional self-study and an evaluation review.
Accreditation means that West Valley is “a fully sanctioned college … that all the courses that our students take are transferable,” said Scott Ludwig, a spokesman for the college.
“It validates everything we do as legitimate,” he added.
WVC president Brad Davis said the decision, announced on July 6, is a credit to the campus community.
“In reaching this decision, the ACCJC has reaffirmed not only our accreditation but confirmed that our faculty are routinely excellent teachers who inspire our students and cultivate the life of the college, that our classified staff are innovative and passionate about their work, and that our administrative team is thoughtful and committed to serving this community,” Davis said.
The college won’t be resting on its laurels; in a few years it will have to submit a midterm report demonstrating how it is continuing to make progress on accreditation standards.
“It’s kind of a constant review: What are you doing, what is the college doing? You can’t just sit back and say we’re good for six years,” said Ludwig. “We have to show policies and practices in place that’s good for our students.”
When the commission places an institution on “warn” status, that gives the school a year to resolve its problems. A warning is the lightest measure the commission can take against a college; a recommendation to cease accreditation is the most punitive. That was the fate City College of San Francisco faced in 2013, when the commission voted to revoke its accreditation. CCSF consequently was embroiled in a lawsuit that claimed the commission’s accreditation decision was unfair; it since has been given an extended deadline of January 2017 to address its deficiencies.
This was the first time in recent years that the WVC received a warning from the commission. At its last review in 2008, the college received accreditation right away.
Part of the reason for that, Ludwig said, is that the accreditation process has become more strict over the years and schools are being held to a higher level of accountability based on different state and federal mandates than in the past.
Accreditation documents submitted by the college and the ACCJC are available atbit.ly/wvcaccreditationoverview.
Link: West Valley College’s accreditation is reaffirmed after earlier warning
