How can the art institutes keep any accreditation when they have cut significant numbers of their faculty, reduced student support and most recently cut student contact hours from four hours per class to just three so they can pay adjuncts less? Oh, and they reduced adjunct pay too! Doesn't seem legal? Where is the department of education?
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The dirty secret is the accreditation body that is supposed to regulate them is partially paid for by them so they let things slide by. There is a loophole for everything. Like they say 90% of the instructors must have a Masters degree, but the loophole is, but the school can exempt anyone they want if they feel that person is experienced enough. They use this to lie to students and get rid of instructors they just dont like at the same time. See how it works, it's another dirty little game they play. It's NOT the same accreditation that a public university or college has to go through. That is the reason most classes dont transfer and students get so mad. EDMC or AI tells them "oh yes we are accredited" but they dont tell them is not the same. It's like the meat industry being inspected by their own meet industry experts vs the US government.
I work at the Houston campus and our accreditation (and subsequently our branch campuses) is currently on "warning" status. We have until December to get it together or we lose it. But of course when SACS was here a while back we were told that things were great and they loved us and blah blah blah.
I am a former faculty member. I left this year after a decade of working with an Art Institute. When I started I was very proud of our department. Now, I'm horrified at what I see happening. I don't want any schools to close but what is happening now is clearly fraud. I really feel for the students who are in the middle of the corporate greed. There are still some faculty members but with adjunct pay so poor who could afford to stay on a sinking ship?
Who cares? It won't change and no one here wants to make a difference so you all might as well enjoy the ride while the Hindenburg goes down! All that occurs here is trolls and complaints. So why even bother?
They are systematically destroying schools to squeeze every last drop of $$$$ they can before it all collapses. Hopefully student debt will be forgiven, and these assholes will end up in chains.
Relax, they are working to get into a better position to help students.