Pima College accreditor delays crucial report

Pima Community College’s accreditor has delayed the release of a report critical to the school’s future, a snag that’s taken the leadership by surprise.

PCC expected to learn in late October the results of a recent inspection that looked at whether the school has improved enough to shed an accreditation sanction.

But officials were still in the dark as of Monday, with no idea when the findings would be forthcoming, PCC spokeswoman Libby Howell confirmed.

A related hearing also is on hold. The hearing, at which PCC officials were to plead their case for a clean bill of health, had been expected to take place Dec. 5 and 6 in Chicago.

Steve Kaufmann, a spokesman for the accreditor, the Chicago-based Higher Learning Commission, said the agency “may not follow the typical timeline as we work to ensure due diligence” in complex cases.

Once the review findings are ready, PCC will have two weeks to submit a response, he said.

Some see the delay as a possible sign that accreditation officials disagree internally on what should happen next.

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“I’ve never seen a situation like this,” said community colleges expert Zelema Harris of Tucson, an ex-commissioner with PCC’s accreditor.

“It sounds like the HLC is having a hard time figuring out what to do with Pima.”

PCC has been under sanction since 2013 because it either didn’t meet, or barely met, some of the accreditor’s standards for the proper operation of an educational institution.

The latest sanction, imposed last year, covered 11 remaining areas of deficiency such as lack of a functional complaints system and inadequate efforts to track student progress.

Since the college has already spent four years under sanction, a finding of serious deficiencies at this point could result in a dreaded show-cause order, in which a troubled school has one last year to show why it should not lose accreditation.

PCC Chancellor Lee Lambert has predicted for months that the latest sanction would be lifted. The accreditor’s delay in releasing the review team’s findings has not caused him to lose confidence.

“I remain optimistic for Pima’s future,” he said.