by Tony Waters
“Together we WASC” has been the tagline coming from the Chico State administration in recent months. It is even featured at the bottom of some emails.
This refers to the accreditation process of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, a private organization from Oakland, which is given the right to accredit all schools and colleges in the western United States by the U.S. Department of Education. Everything from Stanford University to universities in the South Pacific to secondary schools in Myanmar are reviewed.
Subjects covered range from engineering to theology. The schools are public, private for-profit, and private not-for-profit. All seek WASC’s imprimatur because it awards legitimacy in the eyes of students and donors. And most importantly to universities like Chico State, federal grant makers and federal student loan programs demand WASC accreditation. But very few are denied, or even put on probation.