Ave Maria Gets Accreditation

The Eponymous Flower ^ | 06/24/2010 | Tancred

[0beron]

Tom Monaghan is ahead of the game and eager to feed at the government trough. He announced this weekend at an unofficial alumni gathering that he was fairly certain that the AVE Maria would receive accreditation from SACS. Accreditation is important because it means that the school's credits will transfer and be recognized by employers like the US Government; it also means that Ave Maria will get access to America's tax money.

There is currently not any evidence that a school's accreditation was refused due to concerns of the school not having up-to-date hiring policies, such as those that include all "qualified" individuals regardless of sexual preference. We've seen Catholic institutions have their funding threatened with that scourge before and the question isn't so much, will the Government remove funding because Ave Maria refuses to hire homosexual or pro-abort faculty, but when Tom Monahan and Dr. Nicholas Healy will cave in to these requirements because they want a professional sports program and a "world class" (modernist) university.

It's no wonder that Ave Maria is happy at this news because they've been worried about getting accreditation and federal funds. Having semi-professional athletes on campus is a big priority, after all, almost as much of a priority as having high-profile Pro-Abort Politicians visit and leave significant amounts of money behind, like Tom Golisano. Is a visit from Obama out of the question? The accreditation has long been a concern at least since 2007 when the school was put on candidacy for full recognition.

[Dr. Sivana]

I might have some issues with Ave Maria, but accreditation is about more than government funding. Christendom College and Hillsdale College do not accept funding, and yet both are fully accredited. This is important because graduating from an unaccredited school may make it difficult to go into a law school or medical school.

Accreditation is based more on the curriculum taught, credentials of the faculty, number of books in the library, things like that. It is NOT done by the government. There are also several regional and at least one national recognized (by other schools) accreditation agency. Counter-intuitively, the regional accreditation is the more desirable one.

The author of the article does the reader a disservice by imputing motives with no evidence. He doesn’t seem to understand what accreditation is about.

[Mengerian]

Hillsdale College and Grove City College are the only remaining citadels of what a genuine college should be.

[0beron]

Accreditation will significantly affect Ave’s bottom line, and it not only makes it possible for Ave credits to transfer to other colleges, but opens the school up to Federal Funding and Student Loans. It was never suggested in the article that accreditation was only about funding, but it’s a pretty big part of the enchilada, don’t you think?

TM has already made it clear what his vision for the school is, and it has very little to do with the idea of a University established by the Schoolmen.

Morover, Tom Monaghan has already indicated that he’s willing to compromise on integral tenets of the Catholic Faith by accepting money and giving honors to a pro-Abort politician and selling property to a facility doing embryonic cell research.

If Tom Monaghan weren’t so determined, I’d say this thing would sink into the swamp sooner than later, but I doubt it will outlive him. Whatever Catholic identity it was supposed to have had certainly won’t outlast him.

[Dr. Sivana]

Accreditation is important because it means that the school's credits will transfer and be recognized by employers like the US Government; it also means that Ave Maria will get access to America's tax money.

90% of accreditation has to do with credibility. That's why Christendom College and Hillsdale were VERY keen to get accredited, with absolutely NO intention of getting fed funding. When the article singles out the US Government as an employer that requires accreditation, it is misleading. Employers have to know the difference betwen a real college degree and one you can get for $199.95 with your Mastercard on the Internet. Accreditation is a tool to that end. Accreditation by itself is not sufficient for government funding. I am not even sure if it necessary, though it doesn't hurt.

I am not going to dispute the other points you made. It makes more sense to attack the school, and Mr. Monaghan for things that are wrong, rather than things that are good in and of themselves (like accreditation) and assuming a bad motive. If Fr. Fessio was running the place, accreditation would have been a huge priority for him as well.

[Dr. Sivana]

Hillsdale College and Grove City College are the only remaining citadels of what a genuine college should be.

Any reason that you omitted Christendom College from the list?

[Silent One]

Accreditation will significantly affect Ave’s bottom line, and it not only makes it possible for Ave credits to transfer to other colleges, but opens the school up to Federal Funding and Student Loans. It was never suggested in the article that accreditation was only about funding, but it’s a pretty big part of the enchilada, don’t you think?

Partially true, yet not really that important. As you have indicated, SACS lends uniformity to institutions so that credits can be transferred. Most "soft" or government monies are gained by grants and state support to commonwealth type colleges. This is why it costs about 3X more to go to an out of state college rather than stay in-state. As far as loans, there are many vocational, non-accredited, two year schools offering associate degrees which can find funding/loans. So, money in conjunction with SACS is not much of an issue - unless you are applying for grants. Then you get into the good ol' boy system.

[0beron]

I am not going to dispute the other points you made. It makes more sense to attack the school, and Mr. Monaghan for things that are wrong, rather than things that are good in and of themselves (like accreditation) and assuming a bad motive. If Fr. Fessio was running the place, accreditation would have been a huge priority for him as well. Fair enough. I think Ave has a poor track record with credibillity and so things like this bear more scrutiny. It wouldn't be so much of an issue if they weren't hosting Jackson Laboratories and being so dishonest about it, or accepting huge donations from Tom Golisano or cozying up to other political leaders with dubious connections. One wonders if acceditation might not be up on the table for them if they weren't willing to play ball with Tom Golisano and their Mad Scientist Laboratories. It looks and is very dishonest. You know this sort of thing might work effectively when you're putting up a highly processed subtandard food item for mass consumption, but we're talking about the education of children. They're not made of pizza dough.

[0beron]

LOL give Hillsdale another four years and it will be Catholic and then he can remove it from his list. :)

[Mengerian]

Hey now 0beron! Don't cast aspersions on me:)

My omission of Christendom was not a rejection of it. I'd merely include Hillsdale and Grove City in the pantheon of true, genuine colleges.

I'm no Catholic hater. Christendom's willingness to close its doors to lead the largest student contingent at the March for Life in DC speaks volumes. It's an exceptional school, as is Ave Maria and its law school.

Here is YAF’s list (in alpha order):

The 2009-2010 Top Conservative College list includes Christendom College, College of the Ozarks, Franciscan University, Grove City College, Harding University, Hillsdale College, The King's College, Liberty University, Patrick Henry College, Regent University, Saint Vincent College, Thomas Aquinas College, Thomas More College, and Wisconsin Lutheran College.

[iowamark]

Ave Maria U is certainly getting trashed for such terrible crimes as having athletic teams and being accredited, aren’t they?

Makes one wonder about the real agenda of the trash talkers.

[Dr. Sivana]

They're not made of pizza dough.

Neither is Domino's pizza!

[vladimir998]

Actually Thomas Aquinas College makes Hillsdale and Grove City College look like really good high schools.

[Mengerian]

“Actually Thomas Aquinas College makes Hillsdale and Grove City College look like really good high schools.”

Not too sure about that one.

Exclusively, Hillsdale and Grove City are the only colleges in the United States to reject federal funds.

Hillsdale is home to the Russell Kirk American Studies program, Ludwig von Mises’ personal library, and is the repository for the collected writings and works of William F. Buckley.

Hillsdale is an intellectual powerhouse compared to Thomas Aquinas - an exceptional school - but not close to the academic caliber of Grove City or Hillsdale.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“Exclusively, Hillsdale and Grove City are the only colleges in the United States to reject federal funds.”

Which in no way matters to the quality of the school one way or the other.

“Hillsdale is home to the Russell Kirk American Studies program, Ludwig von Mises’ personal library, and is the repository for the collected writings and works of William F. Buckley.”

All of which is irrelevant to the real worth of the college or university for most undergraduates. Take Ludwig von Mises’ personal library, for instance. How many undergraduates will use it? Probably none. Perhaps a tiny few. Many of the books will be in languages they can’t read. I’m not kidding. I taught at a university with an excellent special collections library. We had the personal libraries of a number of scholars. Undergraduates - even from our scholars’ program - never used them. The archivists had a fit when I sent undergraduates there to read centuries old English mss. They never heard of such a thing! Undergraduates doing graduate level work in an archives library? Unthinkable! (Or so they said).

“Hillsdale is an intellectual powerhouse compared to Thomas Aquinas - an exceptional school - but not close to the academic caliber of Grove City or Hillsdale.”

Sorry, but I think Aquinas leaves Hillsdale in the dust. And remember, Aquinas is less than 40 years old, and about one-fifth the size of Hillsdale if I recall correctly. Also, Aquinas is truly the intellectual powerhouse in that it relies entirely on a unified and fully integrated Great Books program.