NCCU program put grads in limbo

DURHAM -- The 25 graduates of N.C. Central University's unauthorized satellite campus in suburban Atlanta would have a hard time getting into at least one North Carolina graduate school.

Since the now-defunct program and its degrees aren't recognized by the commission on colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, those graduates wouldn't even get a look from UNC-Charlotte's graduate admissions officials.

"They would not be able to get their foot in the door," said Johnna Watson, associate dean for enrollment management and information systems at UNCC's graduate school. "For us, the accreditation is just a key component."

For many graduate programs, a degree from an accredited institution is an assurance of academic preparedness. Don't have it? Don't bother.

That's the hurdle the graduates of NCCU's satellite campus in Lithonia, Ga., may now face. The program, housed for four years at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church -- whose pastor is NCCU trustee Eddie Long -- was shut down this summer after the accrediting agency declined to authorize it. The reason: NCCU never told the accrediting agency about the satellite campus when it was created in 2004.

Now, NCCU and UNC system officials are scrambling to determine the value of the degrees already granted and what to do with the 39 New Birth students whose college careers have been interrupted.

"It's not a situation you would seek out," said Judith Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation in Washington. "You're making your life harder without [accreditation]. Accreditation is a clear indicator that the college or university has passed muster."

Degrees thought valid

Since 2004, NCCU offered bachelor's degree programs in criminal justice, hospitality and tourism, and business administration at the New Birth campus. In shutting down the program, university officials said they thought the degrees were valid because NCCU remains fully accredited.

But an official at the accrediting agency subsequently said it could not recognize degrees earned through the New Birth program because the agency did not know of its existence when it last reaccredited NCCU.

Several New Birth students reached in recent weeks have declined to comment.

NCCU has considered those graduates of the New Birth program the same as graduates of the Durham campus, and there is no designation on the diplomas or grade transcripts making a distinction, an NCCU spokeswoman said.

For some graduates of the program, the accreditation fiasco may not have any lingering effect because few employers or graduate school officials explicitly ask whether a degree from a known institution is accredited, said Duane Larick, interim dean of the Graduate School at N.C. State University.

"We know NCCU as an institution is accredited by [the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools], so quite honestly we wouldn't go back and search out each individual degree," Larick said. "The assumption we all make when we accept a transcript is that the institution has done all its due diligence."