TT Coverage...At Last

FYI: http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20111223/NEWS01/112230330/Louisiana-College-warned-about-academic-institutional-performance

"He said LC being on "warning" instead of probation is a sign SACS thinks LC is "moving in the right direction."

That may be the worst example of spin I have ever heard.

Slightly "better" spin from Searcy, who said this in a press release:
“If you look at the findings of the last meeting of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, you will find that there are many institutions that have warnings or recommendations that they are working on. This is what the process is intended to do – is to help institutions on a regular basis to take a look at what they are doing and to make sure that the quality points are being kept, to identify what is not and to correct it. The institution that goes through a 10-year review without any kind of recommendations is very rare.”

So, "many institutions" get "warnings or recommendations." To not get a "recommendation" is rare.

Oh, I see! A warning is a *lot like* a "recommendation" designed to "help institutions on a regular basis." In other words, move along folks. Nothing to see here. Nothing at all.

For more on nothing, see: http://news.lacollege.edu/?p=2000

They rely on peoples ignorance and trust. The average person doesn't know that a recommendation and a warning are very different. Almost all schools get recommendations. a warning is a type of sanction and currently 23 out of 826 SACS schools have sanctions. 2.8% is hardly the norm. Further, LC is one of only five schools being cited for not meeting a federal requirement. 

I also like how they say that it is really just a matter of monitoring things and they will be able to correct everything after the results are in in the spring. They fail to point out that this means they have not been doing their jobs previously. If it is really that easy how incompetent are they to get in this situation to start with.

Oh, and spin is a nice word for lie...this is actually a sign from SACS that they are not doing what they should not that they are. The sad part isn't so much that those who do wrong lie about it...it is that people willfully let them get away with it.