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Group's Call to Action for Accreditors

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June 25, 2015

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) has summoned regional and national accreditors to a July meeting that Judith Eaton, the group's president, described as an urgent "call to action."

Eaton, speaking at the group's summer workshop, said a U.S. Senate hearing and a Wall Street Journal article -- both last week -- contributed to the impetus for the meeting. During the hearing, Senators questioned why accreditors had not shut down Corinthian Colleges, a controversial for-profit that disintegrated during the last year. The Wall Street Journal article used public information requests to detail how accreditors continue to recognize hundreds of colleges with low graduation rates and high student loan default rates. "Last week was a game changer," said Eaton.

CHEA does not represent accreditors, but describes itself as a "national advocate and institutional voice for self-regulation of academic quality through accreditation." Eaton said the July meeting would feature a discussion by the accreditors it recognizes about graduation rates and student debt and defaults.

"We're being called on to do something more and different about protecting students," she said.

Paul Fain

Paul Fain, Contributing Editor, came to Inside Higher Ed in September 2011, after a six-year stint covering leadership and finance for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Paul has also worked in higher ed P.R., with Widmeyer Communications, but couldn't stay away from reporting. A former staff writer for C-VILLE Weekly, a newspaper in Charlottesville, Va., Paul has written for The New York Times, Washington City Paper and Mother Jones. He's won a few journalism awards, including one for beat reporting from the Education Writers Association and the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award. Paul got hooked on journalism while working too many hours at The Review, the student newspaper at the University of Delaware, where he earned a degree in political science in 1996. A native of Dayton, Ohio, and a long-suffering fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, Fain plays guitar in a band with more possible names than polished songs.