Accreditation Officials Revisit Troubled Colleges

As part of their long-running efforts to earn re-accreditation, Irvine Valley and Saddleback community colleges have received yet another round of visits from their respective inspection teams.

In addition to progress reports from the presidents of both schools, the re-accreditation commission also received the results of a recent survey of the Irvine Valley College faculty that reveals their striking dissatisfaction with the school and district administrations.

The colleges, which make up the South Orange County Community College District, are fully accredited but were placed on warning status by the accrediting commission of the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges at the beginning of the year.

The schools were granted renewed accreditation in February despite a scathing critique by the commission, which blamed the district’s Board of Trustees for meddling too directly with college affairs and described the district as “wracked by malfunction.”

After a full year of follow-up visits, the commission will make its final recommendations in January.

Chancellor Cedric Sampson said he was pleased with the schools’ progress. The reports both colleges presented to the commission “demonstrated progress in budgeting and planning processes, in addition to a sincere effort by the Board of Trustees and the administration to resolve governance concerns,” Sampson said in a written statement.

Yet a survey by the faculty senate at Irvine Valley College, in which 78% of the college’s 107 full-time faculty members participated, painted quite a different picture:

* Only 8% of the full-time faculty members who responded said they felt they could express their opinions about issues at the college without fear of retribution or retaliation.

* Only 7% indicated a belief that the college was capably managed and administered--the same number of respondents who said college President Raghu Mathur provides effective leadership. Ten percent said they think the chancellor provides effective leadership.

* Fourteen percent of the faculty, 12 professors in total, said they thought that the college has made genuine progress in addressing the concerns identified by the accreditation commission.

“We found the results of the survey to be quite disturbing,” said professor Peter Morrison, president of the faculty senate, the governing group for instructors. “I think the heart and soul of these concerns get to the issue of leadership at the district and college. . . . I think the survey amounts to a plea to find some way to resolve these differences.”

In a letter to the accreditation team, Morrison said the survey reflected a decline in faculty confidence. In a similar survey only last year, at least 19% of the faculty said they believed the college to be managed effectively, and 17% said they were basically satisfied with the conditions at the college.

“We’re still hopeful that the college will receive its full accreditation,” Morrison said. “The faculty remain profoundly dedicated and committed to their students and the educational program.”