I’m a fan of quotes from smart people, and one of my favorites is from Eric Hoffer, about how worthy causes degenerate. Keep reading and you will discover the quote.
When my friend Alan Russell and I used to perform at mystery and writers’ conferences and bookstores, he usually came well prepared and bawled me out because I favored winging it. In my defense, as a teacher I had often noted that the more I prepared to lecture, the more tongue-tied I became.
Still, when I got invited to guest on EdUp, a podcast all about the business of Higher Education, as I hoped to convince some listeners to join me lobbying for changes in the racket called accreditation, I over-prepared.
And then the host -- who clearly knew zip about me or Perelandra College, whom I represent -- kept asking for my opinions on issues about which I knew virtually nothing, such as the state of health care education in California.
In all, from being somewhat tongue-tied and often sidetracked, I was a bust.
But you readers of Rats will get the benefit of all my preparation in the following rant, which uses the history of Perelandra College as an example of why I find the current accreditation industry a disgrace.
Perelandra College opened online 20 years ago this coming June. My wife Pam and I had spent a few years teaching in a Christian college and become sorely discouraged by the quality of contemporary Christian arts in general and of our field, creative writing, in particular. So, with the enthusiastic encouragement of some students who were looking for graduate programs, and from the pastor of the small church we attended, we decided to create a school.
We began with the support the the little church and one other most generous donor, a renowned Bible scholar. But after the five years required to earn State approval and accreditation, our pastor moved on, the church disbanded, and that most generous donor died.
When we earned accreditation, the status didn’t guarantee access to federal grants or loans, which was fine with us as we hardly felt called to entrap our students in debt. But some months before our five-year renewal, I was informed that accreditation and approval to access federal student aid were going to become integrated, so all accredited schools would essentially become FAFSA approved. This meant the U.S. Department of Education would get more strict on accreditors, especially about financial issues, which in turn made accreditors more concerned about the financial status of the colleges they accredited. And though we had grown, we weren’t able to meet their new definition of financial security.
So we let go of the accreditation and for about ten years survived by offering single classes and certificate programs. And then, after changing the emphasis of the college from writing to Christian wisdom, we got a waiver of State licensing requirements, since we are a non-profit religious corporation.
Now we can grant degrees even though they aren’t accredited. We reasoned that nobody asks writers or pastors about their degree accreditation. But so far, we haven’t recruited many students.
Though we still survive on an absolutely minimal budget, we carry on because we still believe in our mission.
When the EdUp moderator asked what I thought about the future of higher education, I tried to explain that without a whole lot of changes, I believe most of higher education doomed to become simply a cartel of trade schools.
If change is possible, I propose, it will be driven by entrepreneurs who dare to create new colleges based upon their visions, not to make money but to help build a better, wiser world.
I’m quite a fan of small colleges, and I would love for new ones to spring up and grow. But I can’t see that happening unless a given start-up possesses a fortune or if it is strictly vocational or aimed at an exclusive niche audience, like some religious schools. Anybody else naive enough to try to create a small college crashes into the need for accreditation.
From what I have read and experienced, accreditation has gradually wandered farther and farther from the original mission of ensuring educational quality. In fact, it has morphed into a racket that thrives by assuring conformity and excluding most newcomers.
Here is the Eric Hoffer quote I promised: “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
A ballpark estimate of what a new college should expect to pay for accreditation would range between a bare minimum of $50,000 to start and $20,000 annually thereafter. And even more difficult is surviving as a school by recruiting and keeping students through the five years the accrediting process commonly takes.
An example of what new colleges face, from Inside Higher Ed, July 8, 2021: “A new arts college in Connecticut has a long way to go before it becomes a sustainable four-year institution. It must operate for two years before it can even begin the accreditation process. The conservatory cannot grant degrees while it awaits accreditation and will offer two-year certificates to undergraduates and one-year graduate certificates in the interim.”
This start-up may survive the process by using their emphasis in performing arts and their Broadway contacts as recruiting tools. But not so for colleges that lack such enticements.
So, some may ask, why do we need new small colleges? Here’s one of many reasons: During my lifetime, colleges have in general become less concerned with helping to create an educated citizenry than with preparing students for lucrative careers. The most lucrative fields rely on science or the manipulation of consumers. Meanwhile, commentators lament that technological progress keeps getting farther ahead of progress in our ability to deal with life’s demands and to work with and relate to other people and other cultures. So we find ourselves in need of answers and ideas that don’t involve making a more sophisticated weapon or widget or selling yet another brand of underwear.
Pam and I founded Perelandra College with the goal of helping Christian writers become more skilled, honest, and thought-provoking. No doubt other people feel just as passionate about world mythology, the integration of math and physics, ecological preservation, or any of a host of other fields. And many of these people would be willing to devote tremendous effort to creating a small alternative institution.
Now should be a time of entrepreneurial innovation, powered by the need to rescue students from the slavery of debt, and by the multitude of highly qualified yet underappreciated academics. Who could guess how many of them might have already banded together and created new colleges with original visions if not for the roadblock called accreditation, without which they can’t begin to interest students?
If ten prospects query Perelandra College, nine will ask right away, “Are you accredited?” If we say no, it doesn’t matter what else we say. If we ran a college that specialized in motorcycle repair, we could argue that certain vocational skills can lead to good jobs no matter the accreditation. But one can’t honestly make that claim for programs in humanities, classics, writing, or fine arts.
So, as I attempted to explain to the EdUp host, my prediction for the future of higher education is a gradual or rapid descent into a world foretold by a couple wise folksingers:
Malvina Reynolds sang; “The children go to summer camp and then to the university where they all get put in boxes and they all come out the same.”
Bob Dylan lamented, “They bring them to the factory where the heart attack machine is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene is brought down from the castle by insurance men who go check to see that nobody is escaping . . .“
The only chance I envision for escaping that future -- wherein the labels university and trade school are synonyms -- is a revolution within the accrediting racket.
Whoever would care to see my list of sensible but revolutionary changes, please ask.
Or, if you have any other issues regarding higher education you would like me to address, I’m at ken@kenkuhlken.net.
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