Trump signs order targeting college accreditation amid SU’s process
President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday directing changes to the federal accreditation process for colleges and universities nationwide. The order pushes for greater federal control over accreditation agencies. Courtesy of Clair Sapilewski
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday directing changes to the federal accreditation process for colleges and universities nationwide.
The order will overhaul the current system, citing the freedom of colleges and universities from the “unlawful discrimination and ideological overreach” of the former review process. The order asserts that accreditors have misused their authority by enforcing “discriminatory” diversity, equity and inclusion standards, thereby violating federal law.
The president is also criticizing previous accreditation standards that have “failed” students, families and taxpayers due to a lack of “quality.” The White House’s information page cited a low undergraduate graduation rate of 64% in 2020 as evidence of this decline.
“America’s higher education accreditation system is broken,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a release Wednesday. “The existing accreditation monopoly raises costs, contributes to the ever-increasing tuition and fees faced by American families, favors legacy four-year institutions, blocks new accreditors from the market, and interferes with states’ governing board decisions.”
Trump’s overhaul comes during Syracuse University’s current reaccreditation process. Last accredited in 2017, SU is currently in the “self-study” phase of the review. During the self-study stage, university administrators create a detailed self-assessment and a strategic plan based on input from students, staff, faculty and administrators.
SU has been accredited by the Middle States Commission of Higher Education since 1910, Jerry Edmonds, SU’s chief of staff for academic affairs, previously told the Daily Orange. After earning accreditation in 2017, the review period block changed from 10 to 8 years.
After Trump’s order, the future of SU’s ongoing review is unclear.
The president instructed McMahon to hold university faculty involved in accreditation “accountable” for their actions, including any poor performance or violations of federal civil rights laws. This includes the authority to deny, monitor, suspend or terminate recognition of accrediting agencies.
It also directs McMahon to realign the accreditation process with “student-focused principles,” including:
- Resuming recognition of new accreditors to foster competition.
- Requiring institutions to use program-level student outcome data to improve results, without reference to race, ethnicity, or sex.
- Requiring high-quality, high-value academic programs.
- Prioritizing intellectual diversity among faculty in order to advance academic freedom, intellectual inquiry and student learning.
- Launching an experimental site to test innovative quality assurance pathways.
- Increasing the consistency, efficiency and effectiveness of the accreditor recognition review process.
- Streamlining accreditor recognition and institutional transitions between accreditors.
On its current trajectory, SU is set to renew its accreditation by June 2027.
