Possible Conflict Cited in Pierce Accreditation Review

The appointment of a former Pierce College president to head the private agency that accredits two-year colleges in California has raised the question of whether he can participate in an accreditation review of his troubled former school.

David Wolf, president of Pierce from 1985 to 1988, has been named executive director of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which is reviewing a penalty it levied against Pierce College last June.

Wolf said Monday he did not plan to excuse himself from discussions about Pierce, but would do so if requested to.

Other commission officials said they planned to consider that issue.

“If in the minds of any important players in the process, a problem is perceived by my participating, I would be happy to recuse myself,” said Wolf. Despite expressing a “warm and positive feeling” toward his former campus, Wolf said he “really hadn’t thought about” the conflict issue before.

Under the commission’s ethics guidelines, commissioners authorized to vote on whether to grant or renew accreditation abstain when their current campuses are involved, and usually also on issues related to their former campuses, officials said.

Because the executive director does not vote or make formal recommendations regarding accreditations, previous directors have not followed those rules, said John Petersen, the panel’s departing executive director. But he said the executive director still can help shape the commission’s decisions.

Pierce administrators, meanwhile, said Wolf’s appointment will neither help nor hurt the campus’ standing.

“The ultimate decision is really going to be made by the commission. I don’t see [Wolf’s hiring] as good or bad,” said Bob Garber, Pierce’s dean of student services.

Accreditation is a widely recognized educational seal of approval establishing that an institution has met minimum standards of academic achievement and that its class credits and degrees are acceptable to other schools.

The commission oversees 138 public and private two-year colleges in California, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands as part of the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges.

In June, citing a series of financial, enrollment and leadership problems plaguing Pierce College, the commission imposed a rarely used penalty on the campus by deferring a renewal of its until November 1997. In the meantime, the college retains its accreditation.

But at the commission’s June 9-11 meeting in San Francisco--where Wolf is due to sit in--the panel is scheduled to consider a status report from the college. And when Wolf formally begins work July 1, he will handle all communication between the commission and the college.

The commission’s chairwoman, Carmen Maldonado Decker, said the panel had not considered the possible conflict issue involving Wolf during the hiring process that led to his appointment March 22 to the $110,000-a-year job. But she added that it “might not be the best thing” for Wolf to deal with Pierce.

“We are so super careful about even the appearance of any conflict of interest,” said Maldonado Decker, head of the English Department at Cypress College. She said she planned to discuss the issue with other commission members before the Pierce report is considered at the June meeting.

Wolf began his 15-year career with the Los Angeles Community College district by helping found Mission College in the mid-1970s, and later worked at Harbor College and West Los Angeles College. He left Pierce to become vice president at Santa Rosa Junior College, and recently has been provost at the California Maritime Academy at Vallejo.