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Imperial Valley College has been notified that it is one of six community colleges in the state that has been issued a "Warning" as the result of the comprehensive accreditation evaluation conducted on campus last March.
"While this is officially a 'sanction,' it is basically what we had hoped for given the fiscal challenges we have faced over the past several years," said IVC President Victor Jaime." Jaime said the status is the lowest sanction that is issued and really does not come as a surprise.
"IVC remains fully accredited," said Jaime, and will continue to work on the fiscal issues that have faced the campus. "The fact that a Vice President of the ACCJC was part of our evaluation is unprecedented and truly shows the confidence the commission has on our ability to provide quality education," said Jaime.
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges took the action at its June 5 to 7 meeting. Colleges can be reaffirmed with no sanctions, issued a warning, placed on probation or given a "show cause" status which is the step before losing accreditation.
Of the 13 colleges that received full accreditation reviews, six were reaffirmed, six were issued warnings and one was placed on probation. The commission also voted to terminate accreditation of the City College of San Francisco which had been placed on "Show Cause" status last year.
An eight-person accreditation team spent three days on campus evaluating the college in March. The team was led by Susan Clifford, a commission vice president.
In the team's exit interview, Clifford commended IVC on the quality of student learning and its partnership with San Diego State University–Imperial Valley campus in Calexico.
The team was critical of IVC on fiscal planning issues, stating the college could do a better job of balancing its expenses and revenues to keep from using its reserve fund.
It also praised IVC for recognizing the problem early and proactively dealing with it by voluntarily calling in the state's Fiscal Crisis and Management Assessment team (FCMAT) last year. Since that group's report, IVC has taken a number of steps to correct the fiscal situation that was created by the state's budget crisis.