Sam Spade's San Francisco

The following story was first published Wednesday, February 27, 2008 by San Francisco Business Times. The story was written by Sarah Duxbury:

New College of California has lost its WASC accreditation.

The 36-year-old progressive, nontraditional college has faced charges of fiscal and operational mismanagement and has undergone a lengthy review by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. That body notified New College's acting president, Luis Molina, in a letter dated Feb. 26 that it was withdrawing its accreditation of the university.

This is the final blow in an investigation that has lasted almost one year.

The San Francisco school has been on probation since June 2007, aware that it must make massive changes to its administrative, financial and academic systems if it was to retain accreditation. Its president, Martin Hamilton, resigned in July 2007, and Molina, a former New College board member, has served as acting president since September 2007. Molina has tried to implement a turnaround strategy which included closing New College's North Bay campus last fall and selling off property it owned.

Federal financial aid funds were held during the investigation, which contributed to the current fiscal crisis, and enrollment has plummeted.

WASC visited the school in November 2007 to investigate the school's deteriorating financial situation as well as compliance and ethical issues.

The WASC investigators found that the school is insolvent, according to the letter. Even its effort to sell off real estate has helped reduce debt, but generated little revenue. New College has not been able to meet its payroll since November 2007, and it delayed indefinitely the spring semester for most of its programs.

On the operational side, WASC found that New College had no systems in place, such as a standardized semester schedule, to meet basic standards for accreditation.

New College will have to wait a full year should it wish to reapply for WASC accreditation.

In the meantime, there's not much point in registering or attending classes at New College. Try City College of San Francisco or San Francisco State University for a legitimate and fully accredited college education.

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