The politicization of higher ed accreditation has become a new front in the right’s national war on quality higher education. Little understood by the typical person, accreditation is the process that sets standards of quality across all forms of higher education and determines access to some forms of federal funding (see this wiki entry).
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other movement conservatives in the south have directed their statewide higher ed governing boards to support a new conservative accreditation body, the Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE), to replace the current independent accreditor, SACSCOC (the “Southern Association”). Their plan is to make CPHE the model for politicized higher ed accreditation nationally, forcing all institutions to conform.
Faculty from AAUP and United Campus Workers in several southern states have joined HELU to sponsor a webinar on October 6 on the dangers of the CPHE. The webiar will explore the historic importance of independent accreditation systems for maintaining professional norms and standards for public higher education and will examine the threats a politicized accreditation system poses to academic freedom, faculty voice in curriculum, and shared governance.
– Mike Budd, United Faculty of Florida (UFF)
Join us Monday, October 6 at 7 PM ET / 6 CT / 5 MT / 4 PT. Register here.
