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Accreditation
December 13, 2007
Texas Tech put on probation
Texas Tech University received the higher education equivalent of a lump of coal this week: The agency that accredits colleges in 11 Southern states placed the university on probation.
The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools cited Tech for failing to collect sufficient data in an assessment of whether students had attained the expected learning competencies.
University officials said the data would be collected in the spring semester, analyzed in the summer and reported to the accrediting organization by September. They expect probation to be lifted in December 2008, when the accrediting organization meets again.
Belle Wheelan, president of the Commission on Colleges, said the agency has been monitoring Tech since reaffirming its accreditation two years ago.
“Probation is always serious, but I have all the faith that they’ll be able to clean it up in the next year,” Wheelan said.
Failure to correct the problem could endanger Texas Tech’s accreditation. Loss of accreditation would eliminate federal grants and federal student aid and would be a severe blow to the university’s reputation.
“We are currently accredited by SACS and a host of other agencies, and we will continue to retain our accreditation with all of them,” said Tech President Jon Whitmore.
“Texas Tech University remains an excellent institution for undergraduate education and we will continue to move forward, satisfying this issue of insufficient data and educating our students to be both professionally competent adults and well-educated, good citizens who reflect positively on this institution and this state.”
The Associated Press reports that Texas Southern University in Houston has also been placed on probation. In Texas Southern’s case, the concern was over the school’s finances.
Glenn Lewis, chairman of Texas Southern’s governing board, told the the Houston Chronicle that the commission’s action was not a surprise. The accrediting agency had launched an unscheduled probe into the school’s finances, leadership and management controls in August. Texas Southern has a year to rectify the problems.
