S ECURING A CCREDITATION AND D EGREE G RANTING A UTHORITY

A PRIL 22, 2009

Introduction

Antioch College, as a part of Antioch University, was accredited by the Higher

Learning Commission of the North Central Association for the purpose of
awarding accredited degrees and was approved by the Ohio Board of
Regents to grant degrees in the state of Ohio. Antioch College students
enrolled in this accredited and approved institution were eligible to apply for
federal financial aid administered by the U.S. Department of Education.
Antioch College was also listed by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program
of the Department of Homeland Security as approved for international students
seeking visas to attend Antioch College.

With the closing of the College in June 2008, except for the ability of students
to complete their degrees by December 2008, accreditation has ended. Early
in its deliberations, the Board Pro Tempore of the Antioch College Continuation
Corporation decided to engage an experienced higher education administrator
to investigate what will be required for a re-opened Antioch College to regain
its accreditation and approvals.

Our purpose in posting what we have learned in some detail is to foster a

shared awareness and understanding of the initial challenges we will face if we
are to achieve our goal of re-opening an Antioch College that continues its
traditions of being a vibrant, unique, and important institution able to educate
coming generations of students to win victories for humanity.

Overview

The process of securing accreditation and approval is a lengthy one. It will

require the preparation of many documents and reliable evidence of financial
stability and sustainability in order to secure accreditation by the Higher
Learning Commission of the North Central Association (HLC) and approval to

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grant degrees from the Ohio Board of Regents (OBR). The good news is that
there is vast overlap in the materials and information required by the HLC (for
institutional accreditation) and by the Board of Regents (for authorization to
grant degrees). Notably, the HLC will judge the institution, whereas the OBR
will judge the degree program.

The sobering news is that it is our understanding that there is currently no

availability of any provisional accreditation prior to the granting of full
accreditation. Further, the HLC will not award accreditation to an institution
until at least one class has graduated. Indeed, the HLC will not schedule an
initial team visit to determine the institution’s eligibility to be a candidate for
accreditation until the first class has enrolled. How will this affect the first
graduating class if Antioch College is not accredited until after they have
graduated? HLC Handbook of Accreditation stipulates that accreditation, if
achieved within one year of the date of graduation of the first class, will apply
retroactively to their degrees. From the experience of other new institutions, we
have learned that it is possible to make contact with graduate and professional
schools to which the first graduates might apply before the College is
accredited to explain that their degrees will be retroactively accredited if the
College achieves accreditation almost immediately after these students have
graduated.

Summary for Approval from OBR and Accreditation by the HLC

As already noted, the process for securing approval to grant a degree from
the OBR, and securing accreditation from the HLC involves the submission of
many documents that give evidence that the College meets all the standards
required for approval and accreditation. The accreditation process begins with
a series of conversations and interviews with the HLC. Subsequently, Antioch
College will be required to submit a letter of intent and to provide extensive
information in the documents listed below. If the information satisfies the OBR
approval to grant degrees will be forthcoming but a candidacy visit for
accreditation will not be scheduled until the first class has been enrolled. If
candidacy is approved a formal application for accreditation will need to be
filed, and accreditation visit(s) scheduled. If there is success at each of these
steps accreditation approval will follow.

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Relationship between Steps among Different Agencies

For the HLC, at the “request for interview” stage, Antioch College must have a
certificate of incorporation from Ohio, and “permission” from the state to
operate as an institution of higher education. Evidence that Antioch College is
pursuing OBR degree-granting authority must also be presented. Accordingly,
we will be pursuing parallel tracks with these two agencies as we go forward.

Eligibility for student financial aid from the DOE is dependent upon Antioch
College submitting evidence to the satisfaction of the DOE that the College is
financially viable and this viability is sustainable. However it will not consider
granting financial aid eligibility until accreditation (or perhaps candidacy) is
achieved. It is therefore likely that the first students to enroll will not be eligible
to apply for federal student financial aid.

Documents Required Prior to Seeking Approval & Accreditation

Before embarking on the formal applications to either OBR or the HLC, Antioch
College will be required to assemble a whole range of documents – some of
which already exist and/or can be modified, others that will need to be
developed. The major documents required include the Articles of
Incorporation, By-laws, a Faculty Handbook, a Student Handbook, a Catalog
(courses, majors, academic programs, faculty, policies, a Bulletin (listing such
time-specific elements as course offerings for the coming year, and a calendar),
a Staff handbook and an Administrative Handbook (i.e. personnel policies and
procedures for administrators, parallel to faculty handbook), Admissions
materials, a Mission Statement and Statements of Goals and Institutional
Policies, Governance Statements about the Role of Faculty, information about
the College’s administrative structure and reporting relationships and
responsibility, evaluation procedures (of the institution, educational outcomes,
faculty and staff), policies, and documents, a detailed description of work-
partner and off-campus-study arrangements, reporting relationships, staff
qualifications, academic record-keeping policies and procedures, faculty and
staff recruiting and appointment policies and procedures, a detailed
assessment of readiness of physical facilities, detailed financial reports, audits,
projections, and budgets, a description of library, laboratory and other
instructional space readiness, a description of instructional materials and
supplies adequate to the program, and position descriptions for all
administrative positions. Other narratives and documents will also be needed
but they are not as significant or time consuming as the ones listed here.

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Timetable

Constructing a timetable for achieving approval to offer degrees from OBR and
accreditation from the HLC requires us to first determine when we will aim to
admit the first class and, having done that, to achieve accreditation by the HLC
one year after the graduation of that first class. To accept the first class with
OBR approval to grant degrees, Antioch College will need to have raised the
funds to enable it to renovate all the facilities it plans to use so that they meet
required codes and is considered attractive to potential students prior to the
matriculation of the first class of students. Antioch College will also need to
have, in hand, sufficient resources to operate the institution for the duration of
the years it will take for the first admitted students to earn their degrees. As
well, all the major documents described above must have been submitted to
OBR and accepted in order for OBR to approve Antioch College to grant
degrees.

For illustrative purposes, we assume the initial plan holds for Antioch College
to grant bachelor degrees after three years of a round the year program of full
time study alternating with full time work. Accordingly, if the first class is to be
admitted in fall, 2011, in the best scenario of fully accepted documentation
and approving site visits, the granting of accredited degrees will first be
possible in 2015 with retroactive accreditation provided to the students who
graduated in 2014. If the first class is admitted in the fall of 2012 and all
documents and visits receive approval, the granting of accredited degrees will
first be possible in 2016 with retroactive accreditation provided to the students
who graduated in 2015.

The Challenges in Perspective

While it may seem that the tasks ahead of us to accomplish our goals of
reviving and reopening Antioch College are daunting they are, in reality, all
achievable if we: Raise sufficient resources to renovate the facilities and to
support the operation of the College; secure excellent leadership; assemble an
initially small cadre of faculty, staff, administrators, and advisers to plan
curricula, to prepare the necessary documents, and to envision the future.

As noted above, our purpose in posting all this information is to engender a

shared understanding of the magnitude of the efforts we will need to undertake
to revive and re-open a new Antioch College that will be able to carry on its

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unique role in American higher education fitted to the needs of students who
will win victories for humanity in the 21st century.

There is understandable impatience at the thought that it will be a minimum of

two years before we can admit the first students, perhaps three. However the
Board Pro-Tem is convinced that it is imperative that we ‘get it right’ – from the
beginning. We need to insure that the presence of sound and sustainable
financial resources, an attractive student-friendly campus, fine and dedicated
faculty and staff match the considerable excitement of the ideas for a new era
for Antioch College. We need to be able to recruit and select those special
students who care to be effective, life-long change agents in whatever they
choose to do. We need to be able to nurture over many years an Antioch
College that is deeply committed to the vision of the possibilities inherent in the
three Cs for learning: classroom, co-op, and community.

Antioch College was founded more than 150 years ago. Across these years
the College closed twice. In some ways, each time it re-opened it began anew
while carrying forward its commitment to progressive education and to
innovation. This time, daunting as the challenges are, it must be our goal to
insure that Antioch College will not only re-open but will endure for another
150 years.