News Articles on CCSF versus ACCJC Trial

The San Francisco Gate reports that the panel that rejected the CCSF appeal had ties to the ACCJC.  This is information that came from the trial.  The article states:  

A biased appeals panel was one of several allegations the city’s attorneys tried to prove Friday to show that the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges broke the state law prohibiting illegal and unfair business practices, and that it violated federal regulations in its attempt to revoke accreditation from City College. Revocation is on hold pending the outcome of the trial.

Live testimony has concluded and the final arguments are scheduled to occur on December 9, 2014.  The San Francisco Examiner reports:

On Dec. 9, the City Attorney's Office and the ACCJC's attorneys will deliver their closing arguments.

The crux of the City Attorney's Office arguments are the alleged biases and unfair manner in which CCSF was evaluated. City attorneys have argued that ACCJC's evaluation team lacked enough teachers, and itself allegedly had biased members, including commission President Barbara Beno. In Beno's testimony last week, city attorneys questioned edits she made in CCSF's evaluation report that led to the decision to revoke the accreditation.

Not all are in favor of CCSF to prevail.  In fact, the article states that:

 Some in the higher education community said they worry if the City Attorney's Office wins this case, it could ripple across the college world for the worse. 

Bob Shireman, executive director of California Competes, and U.S. education undersecretary, said he worries that a successful lawsuit would create case law creating loopholes for for-profit colleges with low job-placement rates to combat their own accreditors.

"The big winners in that situation would be owners of predatory for-profit colleges," he said.

But the stakes are also high for San Francisco, as CCSF has over 70,000 students enrolled.

It must be noted that Shireman is not a big fan of shared governance, as he roundly attacked El Camino College's Academic Senate in the Huffington Post.