Olivet College Accreditation, Visas Beneath Evaluate After California Ruling

Olivet College, a California-primarily primarily based bible college with branches in six states and the District of Columbia, faces recent challenges to its ability to operate nationally. This comes as its accreditation and scholar visa-granting situation advance below scrutiny following the revocation of its permission to operate in California.

Based by South Korean cleric David Jang in 2000, the college stays the topic of a labor trafficking and visa fraud probe by Space of beginning build Security Investigations and would possibly maybe possibly well face costs, per company emails. On Sunday, a California Administrative Judge issued a resolution towards Olivet that ordered its closure in consequence of 14 training violations brought by California’s Bureau for Non-public Postsecondary Training (BPPE).

The college issued an announcement that day announcing its intent to allure and its resolution to file an application to operate below non secular exemption in California. However, vital of its ability to operate as a non secular institution stays tied to its accreditation by the Affiliation For Biblical Elevated Training (ABHE).

“[Olivet University] considerably complies with ABHE’s Institutional Accreditation Requirements, including documentation of the appropriateness, rigor, and achievement of its said scholar learning outcomes,” ABHE wrote in a February 2024 resolution that prolonged Olivet’s accreditation for a three hundred and sixty five days.

When asked how ABHE reconciles its prior findings with the resolution by California, and the design it plans to tackle the discrepancy, Lisa Beatty, executive director of ABHE’s Commission on Accreditation, pointed to the association’s standards and insurance policies handbook, which states:

“Also can amassed an institution or program preserving ABHE accreditation or candidate situation receive a negative motion on the section of one other acknowledged accrediting physique with which it has had standing, the COA will, interior 30 days of receipt of notification by the opposite company or the institution, provoke a review of the institution’s or program’s candidate or accreditation situation to resolve if it continues to conform satisfactorily with the COA’s accreditation Requirements.”

“Also can amassed the COA, upon completion of destructive motion by one other company or instruct, invent a resolution varied from that of the opposite physique, this can, interior 30 days of its motion, provide the USDE Secretary and other affected bodies a rationale for its resolution, to consist of an reason the scenario(s) that triggered destructive motion by the opposite accreditor was once no longer sufficiently compelling to forestall the COA from coming to a distinct resolution.”

ABHE and Olivet exhibited a shut public relationship within the future of the years right thru which the latter confronted appropriate and administrative disaster. Present Olivet Vice President Walker Tzeng — who’s maintained a relationship with the college since he graduated from its Ph.D. program in 2010 — served as a member of ABHE’s leadership within the future of the same three hundred and sixty five days the college was once below probation. In Also can of 2023, Olivet touted its role in ABHE’s “Flagship Establishments” match.

The Council for Elevated Training Accreditation, which accredits ABHE, acknowledged receiving Newsweek’s seek recordsdata from for observation however would possibly maybe possibly well no longer answer in time for e-newsletter. The U.S. Department of Training equally acknowledged the seek recordsdata from however was once no longer ready to answer in time. Newsweek contacted Olivet after trade hours and can replace if any observation is bought.

Olivet, which attracts its scholar physique heavily from foreign nations, faces severe dangers to its mannequin if nationwide authorities act towards it. In an announcement to Newsweek, a spokesperson for the Scholar and Trade Visitor Program, which operates below the Department of Space of beginning build Security and facilitates the student visa direction of, acknowledged this system is “awake of and is reviewing the latest Board of Non-public Postsecondary Training resolution.”

Along with its flagship campus within the excessive barren region city of Anza, California, Olivet continues to operate extension campuses in Florida, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, and D.C. The Elevated Training Licensure Commission, which oversees D.C., acknowledged Newsweek’s seek recordsdata from however was once unable to answer to e-newsletter. Florida’s Department of Training did no longer answer as properly.

The training authorities overseeing Olivet in Missouri, Indiana and Texas told Newsweek that Olivet’s non secular exemptions enable it to proceed running, with some relating to ABHE for observation. The Tennessee Elevated Training Commission said that or no longer it is “currently reviewing the latest resolution by California, communicating with Olivet College officers, and can act precisely.”

Olivet has lengthy focused its efforts on rising its reach across the U.S. In Florida, it purchased a historical lodge within the city the build it operates its extension campus no topic protests from residents and city workers, per reporting by the Orlando Sentinel. In an analogous design, residents who are residing shut to the college’s Missouri campuses expressed disaster about the college, per Fox 4 Kansas Metropolis.

California’s attorney general, acting on behalf of the BPPE, petitioned the instruct’s Department of Client Affairs to shut Olivet College — or revoke its permission to operate — over the alleged violations of coaching guidelines. Judge Debra Nye-Perkins who presided over the listening to, acknowledged Olivet demonstrated a “cavalier perspective” in direction of the guidelines. She gave the college until January 10 to point out a knowing to enable its closing students to whole their stories.

This effort to shut the college started when California training investigators made an unannounced visit to the Anza campus on November 15, 2022. Investigators remark they found proof that Olivet was once instructing spoiled packages with unqualified teachers to a scholar physique that matched neither instructional records reported to regulators nor the college’s like financial knowledge. The same allegations maintain already led regulators in eight states and territories to shutter Olivet campuses or begin reviews of the college.

Newsweek previously lined the issues of Anza residents who expressed anguish over the allegations surrounding the college and its role of their community. These residents declined to make utilize of their names when speaking to Newsweek out of disaster of retaliation. Republican Congressman Ken Calvert, who represents the district containing Olivet and previously known as for it to be fully investigated, acknowledged the California ruling demonstrates Olivet’s unsatisfactory performance as an institution of higher learning.

“All American colleges and universities must be held accountable for the usual of coaching they’re providing for students,” he told Newsweek in an announcement. “The ruling within the Olivet College case signifies they were falling looking the standards we anticipate our universities to uphold.”