Last month, Peter Hans, president of the University of North Carolina Systems, casually announced that the system and others were negotiating to launch new endorsements.
“We have had a lot of discussions with several other major public university systems and we are exploring the idea of creating a certified person who can provide reasonable supervision,” Hans said at a UNC Systems Committee meeting last month. News & Observer Report.
Since then, no other details have appeared, despite Hans laughing at the July update.
But the public records obtained Internal Advanced ED Showcase UNC system officials have quietly participated in conversations with new accreditors for at least one year, including discussions with unnamed collaborators in Florida, where efforts can be set up at headquarters. UNC officials also spoke with U.S. Department of Education officials and could even look at the Trump administration’s April 23 execution order on certification.
This is what these files show.
“Florida Project”
In early April, UNC officials seemed ready to speak to the world about their new certification program, which is that “will be openly responsible, based on results, and more effective in their review,” a draft statement that has never been published publicly.
“We think it’s time to build new authors “About the unique needs of public universities and universities. Over the past year, we have collaborated to explore and develop this transnational partnership.”
Hans’ senior adviser Andrew Kelly sent a draft statement to other UNC officials. The statement argues that brokers “have great power but often have opaque and counterintuitive governance” and fail to “focus on what is important to students.” He noted in the statement that the current model “creates unnecessary duplication and costs, conflicts with the authority of the state government and does not help ensure the quality of education.”
An unknown number According to the draft, the national higher education system should sign the statement.
Kelly drafted the statement in response to the Trump administration’s expected changes in certification, which include simplifying procedures for ED accreditation accreditors and institutions to switch agencies, as well as other changes to the system that are gatekeepers for federal financial aid.
But until Hans spoke at the board meeting in May, the public had not heard that the UNC system quietly launched new endorsements.
Other emails generate some insights with which UNC systems may be working.
Daniel Harrison, vice president of academic affairs for UNC systems, sent an email to other officials on April 23, a call to the U.S. Department of Education’s convening, and what you can expect in the upcoming certification executive order (which was released shortly after his email).
In that email, Harrison also pointed out potential partners in the certification efforts.
“Latest news about the Florida project – we meet with new entities [sic] Attorneys and made significant progress to determine the legal structure of the new accreditors. It is likely to be a member of the Florida nonprofit. Florida will be the sole member, but delegates all authorization powers to the board of directors composed of participating states. ” Harrison wrote.
However, despite meeting with potential partners, UNC is considering taking its own approach.
In response to Harrison, Hans asked him to call up several system officials to weigh the pros and cons of joining the effort involved [a] Multi-state alliances” or “forming NC entities”. Email records obtained Internal Advanced ED Don’t state the group’s recommendations, but Hans’ remarks at the May meeting suggest that the system chose the alliance approach.
UNC system officials did not respond from Internal Advanced ED.
System leaders also appear to have discussed the effort with private state legislators. On May 15, Hans asked Bart Goodson, senior vice president of government relations, to meet with Senate Majority Leader Michael Lee, the Republican-led Legislature. When Goodson asked about this topic, Hans replied: “Certification updates and good news.”
Lee did not respond from Internal Advanced ED.
Potential partners?
Like their UNC counterparts, other public systems are working hard to keep quiet.
Internal Advanced ED More than a dozen public university systems in the Red State were contacted to ask if they are working with UNC or others to launch new accreditors, or if they have participated in such discussions. There are only two answers: the Arkansas State University System and the University of Alabama System. Both parties pointed out that they were not involved in these certification discussions.
The Florida State University system did not respond to media inquiries, given the details in Harrison’s email and the governor’s recent political anger with his consenters.
In 2022, Florida’s crimson legislature passed a law requiring state agencies to regularly convert authorized persons. The move comes after the Southern College and Schools Commission accredited all 40 colleges in Florida public institutions, inquired about potential conflicts of interest in Florida State University, despite his role as the presidency on the Florida Commission. (He now leads the new Florida college.)
SACS also raised efforts to testify against the state in legal cases that challenged voting rights restrictions in legal cases. (UF later removed the policy in a torrent of criticism.) Both events took place in 2021.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been a voice critic of the federal certification system.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Following the 2022 law, some institutions have begun the process of converting authoritatives. Despite state officials arguing that the Biden administration slowed the effort, Florida’s attempt to make federal judges rule the current certification system unconstitutional.
Outside Florida, North Carolina is the only state with similar laws. In 2023, lawmakers quietly split a provision into a national budget bill that requires state agencies to change their accreditors every cycle. The law passed by North Carolina lawmakers did not debate. This change happened after the conflict with co-governance and SAC in early 2023.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not confirmed Internal Advanced ED Whether the state is launching new endorsements, but the latest remarks from Republican Firebrand show that, although vaguely, something is in progress.
“For a long time, academic accreditors have taken our college hostage,” DeSantis said in an emailed statement. “These certification cartels work behind the scenes to shape the behavior of the university, embedding ideological concepts such as diversity, equity and exclusion indoctrination into the certification process. If you do not meet the criteria of politically motivated, such as enthusiastic participation in DEI, such as enthusiastic participation in DEI, they will hinder your certification and visit in Florida, we will compete in Florida. Academic excellence.”
DeSantis also promised “more” of recognition at an educational event Wednesday.
The way forward
The reaction to Hans’ announcement was mixed.
Wade Maki, the chairman of the Faculty Council and a philosophy professor at the UNC in Greensboro, recently met with system officials to share their thoughts on the program.
“We had a very open conversation with the Systems Office and shared our hope that we have obtained an independent certified that maintains the good reputation of the UNC system and helps keep politics away from higher education and curriculum, whether from politicians or the accreditors themselves,” Maki said. “Over the years, we’ve seen it come from two directions.”
He also believes that the narrow focus of such recognized people may be positive.
“My leadership team, the Executive Committee of the Faculty Council and the faculty staff we talk to on campus, we see the potential benefit of trying something like this is to have a certified person who only looks at the state-supported public institutions,” Maki said.
External observers are even more critical of the UNC system’s plans.
Certified expert Paul Gaston III, an honorary trustee professor at Kent State University, believes that establishing a recognized person composed of only public institutions will ignore valuable views during the review process. He believes that universities that receive certification reviews benefit from the diversity of assessors working in a wide range of institutions.
“What are the advantages of separating the institutional hierarchy in a sense to get certification? I think one of the advantages of certification is that it brings a variety of perspectives to the assessment of a particular institution,” Gaston said.
Then there is a daunting process, even if the new certification body is up and running. It will take years to get the required federal approval. While Trump’s executive order to certification promises a smoother path to recognition of new entrants, it has not replaced federal regulations.
“It is usually a process of federal recognition for more than five years,” said Edward Conroy, senior policy manager for New America, a left-leaning think tank. Under current federal regulations, Conroy expects that new endorsements will not be confirmed until around 2030.
Conroy also questioned the efforts to create new certifications are about institutional quality assurance or political control.
“Everything Florida has done over the past few years is politically and ideologically driving, not best for students and making sure they go to high-quality institutions and get a good education when they pay a lot of money for it, and when taxpayers invest a lot of money in higher education, they get a lot of money.”
Conroy is concerned that state legislators in Florida or North Carolina will require public universities in their state to receive new accreditors. This will undermine the current requirement that the university can choose its own term.
“This weakens the principles of the Higher Education Accountability Triad, where states, accreditors and the Ministry of Education are all aiming to do different things,” Conroy said. “If your status becomes an accreditor to some extent or another, and a state-mandated entity, we combine the two legs of a three-legged stool together.”
