[Vision2020] NSA's Accreditation Agency

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

Dale Courtney has posted this anonymous message on New West and on his own website. I'm puzzled why these self-proclaimed Christians are so ashamed of their Christian names.

If Nick Gier's argument is, in part, that NSA couldn't possibly be a top 50 "All-American" school because there are some lesser institutions accredited by our own accrediting body, TRACS, then that same standard should be applied equally to the UI, WSU and other Northwest regionally accredited schools.

To use Gier's standards and terminology, then, the UI may be a Research I university, but it's "true peers" are Bates Technical College, Chief Dull Knife College (in Lame Deer, MT), Eastern Idaho Technical College, Heritage University, LDS Business College, the National College of Natural Medicine, the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, and Stone Child College. 

Here is my answer, which should be obvious to anyone in their"right mind."

It's Dale's friend that lacks logic, not me.

First, the UI became a Research I University by going beyond the requirements of its accrediting agency. This is a title that is earned the hard way rather then being bestowed by the likes of Phyllis Schlafley.

Second, the crux of the comparison is that every school in the UI's category has met much higher standards than the TRACS schools. If NSA is so hot, why didn't NSA try this agency rather than TRACS?

NSA has the money to hire PhDs, and with patience it could have made it with a more prestigious accrediting agency. In a May 23, 2003 letter to the "Moscow-Pullman Daily News," Roy Atwood disguised his unaccredited status with TRACS and referred to an accrediting agency that he would really like on his side.

But NSA has now locked itself into a position where many of their MAs will never get PhDs, and Wilson will keep everyone one staff, including his brother, son, and son-in-law. Only TRACS would have allowed such blatant nepotism.

Every time NSA crows about its achievements, we can always bring up TRACS, we can always remind NSA of the its deception and lies about its pre-accreditation claims, and NSA will forever regret its hubristic grap for academic respectibility.

And Dale, stop digging that big hole and you are sinking into!

Nick Gier