<p>Texas Tech Accreditation is in trouble. Here is the article that appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education on December 11,2007:</p>
<p>The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, one of the nation's six regional accrediting organizations, put Texas Southern University, Texas Tech University, and the University of the Americas-Puebla on probation at its annual meeting on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Other institutions, including American InterContinental University and LeMoyne-Owen College, were taken off probation. Randolph College was taken off warning status. But Florida A&M University was left on probation and will remain there for at least six more months.</p>
<p>The accrediting association held its annual meeting in New Orleans, where officials evaluated the progress and problems of its member institutions. Colleges that are on probation risk losing their accreditation, which threatens the legitimacy and credibility of the institution. Unaccredited institutions in the United States also cannot participate in federal financial-aid programs.</p>
<p>Texas Southern University has been in the news for the past year with financial troubles, including accusations against a former president for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in university money on personal expenses. The institution's former president, Priscilla D. Slade, who was fired last year, was recently spared conviction of financial-mismanagement by a hung jury.</p>
<p>Belle S. Wheelan, president of the accrediting association's Commission on Colleges, said it was those financial problems that led to Texas Southern being put on probation.</p>
<p>The association put the University of the Americas-Puebla, an elite, private, liberal-arts institution in Mexico, on probation for one year for failing to rectify concerns over governance and financial stability (The Chronicle, December 14).</p>
<p>Over the past two years, and under the tenure of the now-former rector Pedro ?ngel Palou Garc?a (he resigned in late November), critics say control over the university has become concentrated in the hands of the Mary Street Jenkins Foundation. The private, family-run organization owns the university's land and has long provided financial support for the institution. However, academics at the university say the organization's new generation of leaders is running the university as a corporate venture and not a research institution. </p>
<p>"The hope is the university will accept the judgment as a challenge to rectify the problems," said Mark Ryan, a former international-relations professor and a founder of the residential-college systems at the university.</p>
<p>Ms. Wheelan said the move to put the university on probation came automatically because the institution had already been on warning status for one year. "They were making some progress, but not enough," she said.</p>
<p>Texas Tech was put on probation for failing to show that its curriculum met college-level competencies, Ms. Wheelan said. The federal government is putting new emphasis on student-learning outcomes, she said, and colleges must show what students are getting out of their classes. "Somewhere along the line, they failed to demonstrate that," she said.</p>
<p>Margaret S. Lutherer, executive director of communications at Texas Tech, said the university had put in place just last year a program to make those assessments. Because the program is so new, the university did not have the results ready for the association in time, she said.</p>
<p>"We had to have documented evidence," Ms. Lutherer said. "Since we just implemented this last year, we don't have enough evidence."</p>
<p>Texas Tech now has until September to collect that evidence, and Ms. Lutherer said university officials expect to have everything ready by then and to have the institution's accreditation reaffirmed next year.</p>
<p>Institutions that were taken off probation are now faced with the task of making sure they are not put back on that status. American InterContinental University, for example, had been put on probation for problems with institutional effectiveness, including integrity of academic records and honesty in recruiting and admissions practices.</p>
<p>Jeffrey M. Silber, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, a financial-services company, said getting off probation is certainly a good thing for American InterContinental, but a lot of damage has already been done to its reputation.</p>
<p>"A lot of the school's competition used it against them," Mr. Silber said. "It's been losing students and has been a lot less profitable than it ever has been."</p>
<p>George P. Miller III, chief executive officer of American InterContinental, said officials were planning a new advertising kick to improve the institution's image.</p>
<p>"The probation has certainly had an impact on enrollments and the reputation of the university," Mr. Miller said. "We are going to reposition the brand early next year."</p>
<p>LeMoyne-Owen College, on the other hand, had been put on probation for financial troubles. The college was able to raise money from its surrounding community, including $3-million from the City of Memphis, to get out of debt and become financially solvent.</p>
<p>Johnnie B. Watson, interim president of the college, said the money raised help turn $1.5-million in debt into $2.3-million in surplus. "The community really got involved to save this historically black college," he said, "the only one in the area."</p>