Arkansas Baptist College -- once at risk of losing its accreditation in part because of its debt -- has retained its status but will still be subject to monitoring because of concerns about teaching and planning.
In August, the Higher Learning Commission, a Chicago-based national accrediting agency, issued a "show cause" order to the private Little Rock college after it found the school in violation of four accreditation and component standards. The order forced the college to explain to the commission's board of trustees why it should keep its accreditation status, which the federal government uses to give out student financial aid.
"The Commission has performed its due diligence and has concluded that Arkansas Baptist College has met all of the Criteria for Accreditation including Assumed Practices and Federal Compliance," the college's new president, Joseph Jones, said in a statement Thursday. "Although this past year has been taxing for the campus, we were always confident that we were in compliance with all HLC accreditation standards. Now that this process has come to a close, we look forward to getting back to the business of providing our students a quality education and collegiate experience."
The commission's trustees said at a Nov. 3 meeting that the college "has shown it now meets" the accreditation criteria originally identified in last year's order, according to a public notice posted Thursday.
"However, the Board determined that the College meets the following Criteria for Accreditation but with concerns and requires ongoing monitoring," the notice states.
The areas of concern, according to the notice, are that the institution must show:
• A responsibility for the quality of its educational programs.
• A commitment to educational achievement and improvement through ongoing assessment of student learning.
• A commitment to educational improvement through ongoing attention to retention, persistence, and completion rates.
The board was also concerned about the school engaging "in systematic and integrated planning."
The historically black college has a lower six-year graduation rate and "success rate" than its private and independent school peers in the state, according to data from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
Of the 219 first-time students entering the college in fall 2009, about 11.4 percent graduated six years later from Arkansas Baptist, 3.7 percent graduated six years later from another institution, 4.1 percent were still enrolled at the college and 8.2 percent were enrolled at another school, data show. More than two-thirds of the first-time entering students dropped out, data show.
On average, about half of the 3,126 students who enrolled in fall 2009 in one of the state's 11 private and independent schools graduated in six years from the school in which they started.
Jones said in an interview Thursday evening that the college is embarking on a new strategic planning process, part of which includes the start of new key performance indicators. The indicators will help the college gather the right data on students and measure progress, he said.
There's a misconception that Arkansas Baptist College is a junior college, he added, because the school awards many associate degrees. But many times, he said students transfer to another school because Arkansas Baptist does not offer the major they want to study.
Another part of the strategic planning process will look at adding more areas of study for bachelor's degrees.
The monitoring means the college must host a "focused evaluation" no later than fall 2017 and a "comprehensive evaluation" to reaffirm its accreditation in 2020-2021, showing it has made progress in the areas of concern. If the school does not make enough progress, the commission's board will decide whether to sanction it, the notice states.
The school was originally on "show cause" order in part because of questions on whether the college could meet its financial obligations and whether its leaders could fulfill its institutional mission.
For several years, the college faced what its former president, Fitz Hill, called "cash flow problems." The commission had received complaints from students and staff about delays in receiving financial-aid checks and paychecks from the college. Vendors had also complained about the college's outstanding debts.
Those debts led to several civil lawsuits, in which companies demanded payment.
But those were later dropped when the college in December 2014 received a $30 million federal loan guaranteed through the U.S. Department of Education. The college used part of the loan to pay its two biggest debts, totaling $25.6 million, to two local banks. Revenue from student tuition and future capital campaigns will repay the federal loan, the college's officials have said.
As of September, the federal Education Department still listed the college on Heightened Cash Monitoring Status because of "administrative capability."
Typically, higher education institutions receive federal student aid funds on an "advance pay" or "direct reimbursement" basis from the federal Education Department. If an institution has been placed on "Heightened Cash Monitoring 2," the funds are released to the school after it has made the disbursement to the student or parent borrower, and the school must submit manual reports, slowing down the college's cash-flow process.
Metro on 11/18/2016