The University of Tennessee system has joined five other public university systems across the South to form the Commission for Public Higher Education. The commission will be tasked with creating a new accreditation model that will “break the ideological stronghold” of what Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the current “activist-controlled accreditation monopoly.”
At a news conference Thursday morning, DeSantis — who’s spearheading the conservative effort — argued that existing accreditors push so-called “ideological fads.”
“We care about student achievement, we care about measurable outcomes. … All those things have played second fiddle if they were even given any credence at all under these more prevailing accreditation models,” he said.
According to a news release, the new accreditation model would focus on reducing financial hurdles for member institutions while ensuring high academic standards.
“It could very well just be a way to reduce burden on institutions and not really change anything academically,” said Robert Kelchen, a professor of higher education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. “But that's also different from what Gov. DeSantis was saying in his press conference [Thursday].”
Kelchen said there hasn't been a large institutional accreditor developed in decades.
“The system that we've had of accreditors, largely sticking to colleges, universities in their own region, has been around for decades,” he said. “This is uncharted waters outside of a few smaller creditors focused on religious institutions.”
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which accredits the schools represented on the commission, does not have explicit requirements on diversity, equity and inclusion. It is unclear how the new model would affect diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which DeSantis has restricted in Florida higher education institutions.
The model still needs approval from the Department of Education. DeSantis said the commission is working with the federal government to expedite that process to avoid future administrations attempting to revoke it. Once it's approved, DeSantis said the model will go through a trial run with more universities.
“I think a lot, almost all the states in our region, are going to be favorable to this,” he said at Thursday’s news conference.
UT President Randy Boyd’s office told WUOT News in an email that the commission “reflects a shared interest in introducing more choice, accountability and transparency into the existing accreditation landscape.” They added the accreditation model could be another option for UT to look into.
