AMU Accreditor Still Fumbling
Mon, Oct01, 2007 - Category: University
The American Academy for Liberal Education, Ave Maria
University's lone accrediting agency, seems incapable
of getting its act together.
AveWatch documented AALE's six years of non-compliance with the Department of Education as well as AALE's highly irregular 2004 dealings with AMU President Nick Healy. AveWatch recently asked whether AMU's governance structure violates AALE's standards for independence. We also reported on AMU's offer to financially help AALE with its federal woes in the midst of AALE's accreditation review of AMU, which is a clear COI.
Ave Maria University's second and final bout of temporary accreditation with AALE ends in November 2007. AALE's website states that their next board meeting "has been tentatively scheduled for the week of November 26, 2007. Any programs or colleges to be reviewed at that time will be posted here approximately 60 days before the meeting takes place".
So, why is Ave Maria University not listed for the November meeting? In fact, nobody is listed.
AALE states that it "invites third-party comment regarding the qualifications of applicant institutions". Here's the problem (emphasis added): "third-party comments must be received in writing sixty (60) days prior to the expected date of formal action by the Academy's Board of Trustees, and institutions or programs under review shall have the opportunity to respond in writing to all comments received". How does AALE expect to fulfill this stated "invitation" to entertain public comments if AALE does not even bother to list the institutions under review before the 60 days deadline?
It is little wonder that the Department of Education cited AALE for their inability to execute on their own statements. In December 2005, a Department of Education accreditation subcommittee member said "I can recall during my time on this body no other agency which has so blatantly and arrogantly spurned our requests for information that we are pursuing only in the pursuit of our [the committee's] responsibility." One year later, in 2006, another subcommittee member said "AALE has provided no evidence that it has complied with its own criteria or implemented its policies or reviewed any of the information it received or made any comment at all about what it did receive."
AveWatch is not against AALE. We are for transparency. The liberal arts deserve better than the failed accountability of AALE and AMU.
AveWatch recently contacted Dominic Aquila, who was named Vice Chairman of AALE's Council of Scholars. As a former Ave Maria College employee, we asked Aquila to investigate AMU's offer to donate to AALE in the midst of AMU's own AALE accreditation. Aquila said he was "too busy" to look into the matter. Aquila, however, was not too busy to accept an award in June from NAPCIS (photo below) - an accrediting association for private Catholic grade schools that is now located at AMU, is significantly influenced by Ave Maria Foundation employee Dan Guernsey, and is funded by Tom Monaghan (per IRS 990s, NAPCIS received $174,931 from AMF 2002 to 2005; 2004 = $55,450; 2005 = $51,950). Aquila was "too busy" to even attempt to consider credible evidence of a gross conflict of interest within an organization for which he now serves as a Council Vice Chairman? It reminds us of the Chair of AMU's Board of Regents, Dr. Candace de Russy, who could not even tell AveWatch with certainty if her Board made AMU policy or was simply advisory to Tom Monaghan; she advised us to go ask AMU President Nick Healy. Again, AveWatch is not against Dominic Aquila. We are for non-profit Board and committee members who take their fiduciary duties seriously.
AveWatch documented AALE's six years of non-compliance with the Department of Education as well as AALE's highly irregular 2004 dealings with AMU President Nick Healy. AveWatch recently asked whether AMU's governance structure violates AALE's standards for independence. We also reported on AMU's offer to financially help AALE with its federal woes in the midst of AALE's accreditation review of AMU, which is a clear COI.
Ave Maria University's second and final bout of temporary accreditation with AALE ends in November 2007. AALE's website states that their next board meeting "has been tentatively scheduled for the week of November 26, 2007. Any programs or colleges to be reviewed at that time will be posted here approximately 60 days before the meeting takes place".
So, why is Ave Maria University not listed for the November meeting? In fact, nobody is listed.
AALE states that it "invites third-party comment regarding the qualifications of applicant institutions". Here's the problem (emphasis added): "third-party comments must be received in writing sixty (60) days prior to the expected date of formal action by the Academy's Board of Trustees, and institutions or programs under review shall have the opportunity to respond in writing to all comments received". How does AALE expect to fulfill this stated "invitation" to entertain public comments if AALE does not even bother to list the institutions under review before the 60 days deadline?
It is little wonder that the Department of Education cited AALE for their inability to execute on their own statements. In December 2005, a Department of Education accreditation subcommittee member said "I can recall during my time on this body no other agency which has so blatantly and arrogantly spurned our requests for information that we are pursuing only in the pursuit of our [the committee's] responsibility." One year later, in 2006, another subcommittee member said "AALE has provided no evidence that it has complied with its own criteria or implemented its policies or reviewed any of the information it received or made any comment at all about what it did receive."
AveWatch is not against AALE. We are for transparency. The liberal arts deserve better than the failed accountability of AALE and AMU.
AveWatch recently contacted Dominic Aquila, who was named Vice Chairman of AALE's Council of Scholars. As a former Ave Maria College employee, we asked Aquila to investigate AMU's offer to donate to AALE in the midst of AMU's own AALE accreditation. Aquila said he was "too busy" to look into the matter. Aquila, however, was not too busy to accept an award in June from NAPCIS (photo below) - an accrediting association for private Catholic grade schools that is now located at AMU, is significantly influenced by Ave Maria Foundation employee Dan Guernsey, and is funded by Tom Monaghan (per IRS 990s, NAPCIS received $174,931 from AMF 2002 to 2005; 2004 = $55,450; 2005 = $51,950). Aquila was "too busy" to even attempt to consider credible evidence of a gross conflict of interest within an organization for which he now serves as a Council Vice Chairman? It reminds us of the Chair of AMU's Board of Regents, Dr. Candace de Russy, who could not even tell AveWatch with certainty if her Board made AMU policy or was simply advisory to Tom Monaghan; she advised us to go ask AMU President Nick Healy. Again, AveWatch is not against Dominic Aquila. We are for non-profit Board and committee members who take their fiduciary duties seriously.
Instructions for submitting third party comment to AALE can be found here. We trust that submissions from the public will still be accepted by AALE, lest complaints be filed with the Department of Education.