The New Year brings a new set of challenges for students, particularly those who are set to graduate from high school and who are attending college. Getting the classes needed for graduation, deciding what university or community college to attend and if you are an area college student, how to pay for your education, choosing a major and budgeting time are some of the main concerns. But when you live with the possibility that your college courses in the future may not be well-received from other institutes of higher learning, that can cause extra anxiety.

Such are the sentiments that some Compton Community College students are feeling as they enroll for the winter semester this week. While all of the classes at CCC are fully accredited and the college still maintains its certification, an accreditation board ruled against them in their bid to reverse an earlier decision by the same entity last November, which recommended that the beloved institution be stripped of its certification.

A state team of educators from Sacramento has been on campus since 2004, when state Chancellor Marshall “Mark” Drummond, in an effort to rescue the school from financial disarray, sent them to Compton to assess the school’s viability. The team is working with the college’s board of trustees to bring financial solvency and stability to the institution, although the trustees have relinquished the day-to-day operations to the state team, led by Charles Ratliff and Jamillah Moore.

The college will now formally appeal to the Western Ass. of Schools and Colleges, an independent entity that determines a high school or community college’s certification.

Since 2004, numerous improvements have been implemented regarding financial systems and administrative policies, says Cheryl Fong, a spokesperson in the chancellor’s office. When the accreditation board acknowledged these upgrades, the administrative staff at the college was hopeful that it would rescind its prior ruling. “We were stunned when we heard the board’s decision,” Fong related. “Given where the college is today, and given the changes that have been made, we feel that we had complied with all that was asked of us,” she said.

Fong told the Bulletin now that written notification has been sent to WASC, the appeals process will begin again. She and the administrative staff are disheartened by the board’s ruling, but have vowed to exhaust all efforts to keep the college open. The chancellor’s spokesperson did acknowledge that she and other members of the state team, along with the students, faculty and administrative personnel were troubled by the panel’s reluctance to inform them of what they would require in order to become complainant with state guidelines. “There is a certain level of frustration, because although the board has acknowledged that there have been substantial improvements, they have not provided a specific outline of (targeted) areas that are needed to be addressed,” Fong lamented. “We were looking for (the accreditation board) to specifically provide guidance toward the benchmarks that are required for maintaining our accreditation.”

“The remaining areas of concern do not warrant having our accreditation taken away,” she asserted.

Others have accused the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior College, the board that recommended the revocation of CCC’S accreditation, of being an entity that is unfair and at times abusive. Greg Gilbert, Secretary of the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges, in a November article Academic Senate Rostrum wrote, “In a recent discussion about Compton College, someone compared the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) saying that what we have with Compton is an economically depressed and diverse community whose needs have been disregarded by a powerful agency entrusted with the people’s welfare.”

“Of course, this analogy is inadequate because unlike the situation with the ACCJC and Compton, FEMA did not blow up the remaining levies and attempt to scuttle all opportunities for recovery.”

Fong told the Bulletin that there will be a hearing this month regarding the college’s certification. The date is still unknown.

Maintaining the college’s certification is of paramount concern to all involved, especially the students who attend CCC. If WASC chooses to revoke the school’s accreditation, no coursework would be honored by any of California’s other community colleges or universities. In addition, financial aid would no longer be available to students at the campus. More than 60% of those enrolled at CCC receive financial aid of some form.

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