Questionable Dealings of AALE & AMU
AALE's sanctions are not the result of the Department of Education's new (2007) standards to beef-up student outcome assessments tracked by accrediting agencies. AALE is not a victim of new standards. Back in Fall 2001, the DOE cited AALE for not being in compliance with the then-Secretary's criterion for the standard on "success with respect to student achievements". After years of still not being in compliance despite repeated requests by the DOE, AALE finally submitted a plan in 2004 to use three new criteria involving quantitative and qualitative data that would be collected and analyzed by AALE from its prospective schools. The DOE accepted AALE's idea and asked for a progress report in 2005. Again, prior to any new 2007 standards, the DOE notified AALE that it "failed to provide any documentation or evidence that it has implemented the very policies devised to satisfy" the old standard.
It must be emphasized that AALE devised and agreed to a method to meet the standard back in 2004. Jeff Wallin, President of AALE, admits this in testimony before the DOE in December 2006:
"We were told to come up with numerical benchmarks which allow us to say that School A passes and School B doesn't, something like 91 to 100 is an A, 80 up is a B, and below this you flunk. Well, we did object to that, and we would certainly object to it if it came up again, but that is not the case. We're not being asked to do that, and I appreciate that, and I mentioned that the last time I was here. I appreciate that. ...But we have done our best to try to comply with these demands and we consider the demands legitimate."
When not in front of the DOE, however, AALE repeatedly claims that their problems stem from the DOE unfairly implementing a system of new standards without prior notice.
AveWatch takes no position in debating the merits of the new DOE standards. Suffice it to say, AW fully supports liberal arts education, recognizes that not all learning can be reduced to a single quantitative number, and believes that less government intervention is usually better.
That said, it was AALE who chose to get into the business of serving as a gatekeeper to those who wish to access Title IV money. If AALE can no longer, in good conscience, uphold the banner of the liberal arts along with the government's requirements to access Title IV money, then AALE is free to put one of those banners down, as Hillsdale College in Michigan chose to do. Keep in mind that an agency's ability to accredit and ability to give access to federal Title IV money is not necessarily bound together. Regardless, the issue at hand from AW's perspective is not new DOE standards, but rather, AALE's interaction with Ave Maria University (AMU).
It is AW's understanding that the Department of Education initiated a separate program review of AALE in mid 2004. Part of that review found that Ave Maria could not document federal aid for some of its students during the years from 2001-2003, during which Nick Healy served as a President. Another part of that review took interest in AMU-AALE interactions involving Nick Healy, Deal Hudson (former AALE Board Chairman), and Jeff Wallin. There was concern about AMU's persistent interest in securing AMC's AALE accreditation. That is, AMU wanted to force the transfer of the Michigan College's accreditation to the Florida University by having AMC "incorporated into AMU".
Email excerpt from AMU President Nick Healy, Dec. 9, 2003:
I spoke at length with Deal Hudson this afternoon. It is clear that as far as he is concerned (and I assume his view would carry the AALE Board) AALE should not grant full accreditation to AMC with the planned four year phase out unless AMC were committed to being incorporated into AMU. ...Deal will tell Jeff Wallin [AALE President] that there is no need for today's conference call.
Email excerpt from AMU President Nick Healy, Jan. 15, 2004
to AMC President Ron Muller, copied to Tom Monaghan:
It is AMU's expectation that with a merger with AMC, AMU would have the provisional (and possibly full) accreditation of AALE. Indeed, AALE has been told for over a year that a merger (or some comparable arrangement) between AMU and AMC would be occurring, and the recent confusion or uncertainty over that was perhaps the main reason AALE's Board declined the full accreditation at its meeting in November. We need to rectify that.
It is incomprehensible that AALE did not immediately object to these interactions with AMU based on:
1) ... the obvious coercion involved with making one institution's current accreditation contingent upon that institution agreeing to close/merge in the future with some other wholly independent institution;
2) ... the DOE's prohibition of accreditation transfers from one institution to another:
[The following excerpt is from the deposition of Katherine M. Ernsting, under oath, on March 9, 2005. Ernsting was fired from Ave Maria College shortly after she reported the misappropriation of federal student financial aid to the Department of Education.]
I said, well, you know there's plans to merge the two institutions and transfer the accreditation to Ave Maria University? I saw a number of emails where Nick Healy was involved in conversations with Jeffrey Wallin of AALE, president of the AALE, and Deal Hudson, chairman of the board of the AALE, where Nick Healy describes how we are going to merge the two institutions. ...And [the DOE investigator's] reaction immediately made me realize it was not a positive reaction. He said that if the AALE does that, we will go after them and we may kick them out of being able to certify anyone for Title IV aid. And he said if you try to merge we will not recognize the merger. We will not recognize the change of -- this kind of transfer of accreditation.
3) ... Florida's Nick Healy having discussions with AALE about/for a Michigan school that Healy is not the president of;
4) ... Nick Healy's prohibiting Michigan College administrators from talking to AALE about the College's own accreditation
[excerpt from Ernsting deposition:]
They [the AMC Board] had reiterated this decision [to pursue full accreditation with AALE] just in their board meeting of November 2003.And there was Nick Healy saying, no, let's not do that. Let's not give them final accreditation. Let's transfer the accreditation to the university. And I consider that to go against a board decision of Ave Maria College board.I also learned... that they [AMC's Dean of Students, AMC's VP for Planning & Evaluation, and AMC's President] were ordered by Nick Healy, and I believe Father Fessio, not to talk to AALE beginning in January of 2004. ... to me, the interference in -- egregious interference in the operation of a contract between an accredting agency and Ave Maria College.
[excerpt from Ernsting deposition after being asked to read from an Exhibit:]
All of the conversations with AALE involved Nick Healy or staff of Ave Maria University, not Ron Muller [AMC President] or staff of Ave Maria College. However, Ave Maria College is the only institution accredited by AALE and the only one which had a site visit.
Is all this simply much ado about nothing? Did any harm come from the interactions between AALE & AMU?
[excerpt from Ernsting deposition after being asked if she was successful in heading off anything improper from happening:]
Yes. I think we were successful, except one improper thing that did happen -- may have happeneded, and I believe did happen as a result of Nicholas Healy's activities with Deal Hudson of AALE, is that we [AMC] should have gotten final accreditation in late November. We did not get it, even though it was recommended by AALE. And I believe that was because -- it was stopped because they already had in mind the transfer of accreditation scheme.And as a result the students that graduated from Ave Maria College in 2004 did not have accredited degrees. And I think that created harm for them.
When these kinds of interactions are coupled with the now-exposed for-profit businesses that Tom Monaghan has orbiting AMU, it raises suspicion that other shell games might exist.
[excerpt from Ernsting deposition:]
I also think, though, that there was a plan from the beginning to merge the identities, to do kind of a shell game, you know, we're Ave Maria College to the Department of Ed, we're Ave Maria College to North Central, but to AALE we're the university and I'm Nick and I'm in charge. You know, it's kind of a shell game of identities.
AALE is accountable for answering why it dealt with AMU's Nick Healy as it did (#1 through #4 above).