February 27, 2008
New College of California Finally Loses Its Accreditation?
We just received word, via a former student who has asked to remain anonymous, that New College of California has allegedly lost its accreditation. It should be noted that we have yet to confirm the validity of this letter from either WASC and New College But the full letter that was sent to SFist can be found after the jump.
Does the school have a plan if they lose accreditation? Yes, and it's a bad one. A few months ago, they said this might happen; and they said they might appeal the decision. This looks like it could drag on for months and months even though, at least as far as we can tell, it's inevitable that the place will get shut down.
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those idiots at new college. why did they not get it together earlier? they should have aligned themselves with a community college in another city,
and voila, transformed themselves. I used to live near there, and it reeked of the knee-jerk anti establishment BS that one hears in the mission all the time. well this time they really are anti-establishment.
Well, that decision was inevitable.
Right after moving to SF I was driving down Valencia Street and saw a bunch of seemingly strung out individuals hanging around what I thought was a methadone clinic. Having previously worked up state with addicts I thought I'd go home and get my resume to drop off in case they had any job openings.
When I returned to Valencia Street I found out what I thought was a methadone clinic was in fact New College.
This business of losing accreditation is less than surprising.
too bad it's not the academy of art- assuming they even have a credential outside of a real estate license.
From the linked FAQ on newcollege.edu:
So apparently, New College -- a four-year, degree-granting institution of higher education -- employs as a PR person someone who doesn't know the difference between quotation marks and italics. This raises a very important question: how did they get accredited in the first place?Mariconsoy FTW, as usual.
@icbalaam:
I can't help wondering what a resume for a job at a methadone clinic looks like.
As a New College alum, I'm really saddened by this news. I'll be the first to admit that the administration there was dreadful. I've yet to receive my diploma, nearly a year after graduating. The fact that I had to hear all this news second hand from friends is one example of the lack of communication and transparency that goes on.
However, I'll also be the first to defend the education I received there. While not every class was a winner, there were many that were extremely challenging -- particularly in the Education program -- and I worked harder there than I had at any other institution I attended. Many of their adjuncts teach at Berkeley and other reputable schools.
New College was a tremendous asset to me as a working adult to take classes in the evening and complete a degree it had taken me years to work on. Every single student I knew attending there did not have the luxury of having college paid for them straight out of school, and it was a place for nontraditional students to thrive.
To say that we all look like meth addicts is insulting and ignorant. I know many graduates who are out there working in nonprofits, teaching, and doing some great things to make the world a little better. Please do not mistake a faulty administration as a reflection of the hard-working students -- many of whom will now be displaced.
From the linked "plan" on newcollege.edu:
So apparently, New College -- a four-year, degree-granting institution of higher education -- employs for the purpose of PR work someone who doesn't know what quotation marks are supposed to be used for. The question isn't why they're getting de-accredited. The question is how they achieved accreditation in the first place.They've been around for a while, so it's obviously false advertising for the school to be called "New". It should just be "College".
(dear SFist: I know that your comments system warns people that new comments may take a little while to show up, but 2 hours is a little unreasonable, eh?)
Why did this article show up in my RSS reader like 5 times since last night??
Wow! It always amazes me to see how much some people enjoy the suffering of others. I guess jaded cynicism is a lot cooler than compassion these days.
RIP New College. A cool place with unfortunately a handful of really foolish people in charge.