Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 21, 1991 TAG: 9104210113
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
To the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, a regional accrediting body, it is an issue of cultural diversity.
The issue: Should there be at least one woman on the governing board of the school, a conservative Presbyterian seminary outside Philadelphia?
Middle States, based in Philadelphia, has argued that women should be represented on the school's board and has threatened to revoke the seminary's accreditation because of its all-male board. Besides signifying academic quality, accreditation can affect students' access to federal aid.
The conservative Presbyterian tradition that the seminary follows does not ordain women as ministers.
Samuel Logan, the academic dean, said the seminary's constitution requires board members to be ordained. "You end up in a situation - no women can be on our board," he explained.
In a recent memorandum, Alexander appeared to side with the seminary, saying Middle States's action "raises serious questions regarding religious as well as academic freedom." He asked an Education Department advisory board to review Middle States' standards.
Logan said Middle States first hinted of its concern about women on the school's board during an accreditation review in 1985. A year ago, the organization formally notified the seminary that its accreditation might be revoked, "and the one issue specified was we have no women on our board," Logan said.
After the school prepared a legal challenge to the ruling, Middle States suspended its notice of possible revocation of accreditation and scheduled another team to visit the seminary in November.
The seminary in Glenside, Pa., founded in 1929, has 550 graduate-level students. About 10 percent are women who are training to be lay teachers, counselors or missionaries.
Students cannot use federally guaranteed loans to attend post-secondary institutions unless they are accredited by agencies recognized by the Education Department, such as Middle States. Logan acknowledged that the seminary actually was not threatened with a loss of federal funding because it also is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, a recognized accrediting body.
But the prospect of losing Middle States accreditation poses another financial problem, Logan said: Pennsylvania would bar the school's students from receiving state aid if the seminary loses accreditation from any agency.
by CNB