House passes sweeping higher education bill

Brian Farkas News Editor

The U.S. House of Representatives education committee unanimously approved an omnibus bill to set federal higher-education policy for the next five years. The bill would reauthorize, or renew, the Higher Education Act (H.R. 6138), the major law governing federal aid to students and colleges, and now heads to a floor vote in the Senate, expected in December or January.

Thursday’s vote was preceded by 10 hours of debate on Wednesday, during which the committee considered more than 30 amendments, of which they approved 23, including several dealing with accreditation and college costs.

Though most of the issues in the Nov. 15 legislation are uncontroversial, certain provisions related to accreditation have drawn sharp criticism from a number of colleges and universities.
Debate was particularly heated on one of the passed amendments, offered by Representative Robert Andrews, a Democrat from New Jersey. The amendment stripped language from the bill that would have given colleges and universities responsibility for developing their own standards that accrediting agencies judge them on.

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and the Bush administration have pushed for more generic requirements that could be imposed directly through the accrediting organizations, but many schools have resisted that effort.

Since the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education released its report on the state of colleges and universities in September 2006, increased accountability in higher education has been a priority of the administration.

College lobbyists, who had not been notified of Andrews’ amendment, were vehemently opposed to the change, and claimed that such language would not allow schools to evaluate themselves on their own terms. Regional accreditors have fiercely supported this shift.

The bill also includes several other noteworthy provisions. One would restrict colleges’ use of preferred-lender lists and place limits on what lenders may offer colleges and their employees in trade for their business. The bill aims to curtail the recent growth in private lending, requiring lenders to provide multiple disclosures to borrowers about the terms and conditions of their loans. Colleges would also be required to inform borrowers of their remaining eligibility for federal loans before providing them with information about private loans.

Another amendment would require institutions to disclose their policies on the transfer of credit. The bill also aims to create a federal ombudsman’s position to oversee accreditation disputes.

Vassar is currently involved in its own self-study in order to gain reaccredidation for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. The commission accredits degree-granting colleges and universities in the Middle States region, which includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Because Vassar has already begun its reaccredidation process, it will not be subject to any changes that result from the Senate’s decision on the House bill in the coming months.

Last year, Vassar began a comprehensive self-evaluation to look at the current state of the College and to set goals for the next decade. Vassar President Catharine Bond Hill hopes that this year’s accreditation study will fit into that process.

Hill and other college presidents have been grappling with showing concrete educational results. “The process that we have been using is so tailored to our own institution that it would make little sense to duplicate and change these conversations for the sake of this study,” said Hill.

“Many schools are trying to discover ways of objectifying what they do,” she said refering to the Vassar’s vague mission statement.

“I do think that Vassar is fostering critical thinking, but proving this to an accreditation agency is difficult, especially when they are under pressure by the federal government.”