Feds cite faults with CCSF accreditation panel - SFGate

Feds cite faults with CCSF accreditation panel - SFGate:

Feds cite faults with CCSF accreditation panel

Will Kane

Updated 11:09 pm, Wednesday, August 14, 2013

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  Alisa Messer, president of the CCSF faculty union, says the accreditation commission's decision should be overturned. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle
  The commission that decided to revoke City College of San Francisco's accreditation next year did not adhere to several federal regulations when it investigated the school system, the U.S. Department of Education said in a letter to the body on Tuesday.

  It is not immediately clear what impact the federal letter will have, if any, on the 85,000-student college, which is set to lose its accreditation - and probably close - a year from now unless administrators make substantial progress in reforming the school.

  "Right now, we don't know what is happening other than that the letter was issued,"Jennifer Aries, a spokeswoman for the college, said Tuesday. "We're staying focused on meeting the standards and the eligibility requirements. We have to keep our focus."

  Krista Johns, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges' vice president for policy research, stressed that the letter would have no impact on the ruling against City College.

  "It is not affected by this letter," she said. "This letter really examines the policies and procedures of the accrediting commission."

  Union complaint

  But a leader of the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121, which represents faculty at the school, said she thinks the accrediting commission's ruling should be overturned.

  "I believe it means they need to reverse the entire decision," said Alisa Messer, an English teacher at the school and president of the teachers federation, which filed the complaint with the Department of Education in May that prompted the investigation of the accrediting commission. "When you get a letter from the Department of Education that