THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407020618
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Commonwealth College has been rejected for a higher academic rating by the region's leading accreditation agency.
The decision, by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, deals a blow to the business school's effort to increase its prestige and attract more students.
If the Southern Association had approved Commonwealth's request, its students would have been able to transfer their credits to colleges such as Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University and Tidewater Community College.
The school's president, Maritza Samoorian, said in a statement Friday that Commonwealth planned to appeal the decision. ``The reasons cited for denial were technical and not quality or academically related,'' she said.
Commonwealth got its first shot at a higher accreditation rating in 1992, when it was approved as a ``candidate'' for admission into the the Southern Association's Commission on Colleges. The commission's members include ODU, NSU and TCC.
The agency has four years to make its final decision. But last week, the commission removed the school as a candidate. Jean Walker, the commission's associate executive director, said Commonwealth had failed to comply with guidelines regarding its governing board and finances. She refused to elaborate.
The decision will not affect Commonwealth's membership in the Southern Association's other division, the Commission on Occupational Educational Institutions, which primarily oversees vocational schools.
Most four-year and community colleges have said they will not accept credits from Commonwealth students until the school wins entry into the Commission on Colleges.
But dozens of students complained in the late 1980s and early 1990s that Commonwealth led them to believe that such colleges already accepted the credits. So they enrolled in Commonwealth, they said, but after spending 1 1/2 years in school and $10,000 in tuition, they were no closer to a bachelor's degree.
Last year, the state attorney general's office sued Commonwealth, alleging fraudulent business practices. School officials have repeatedly denied the charges. Last fall, a team from the State Council of Higher Education investigated the school and found that it had added enough safeguards to avoid confusing students.
``In our opinion,'' Samoorian said in the statement, ``the pending Commonwealth of Virginia attorney general's suit is the principal reason for denial.''
KEYWORDS: ACCREDITATION COMMONWEALTH COLLEGE by CNB