THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234

 

TO:

The Honorable the Members of the Board of Regents

FROM:

Johanna Duncan-Poitier

COMMITTEE:

Higher Education and Professional Practice

TITLE OF ITEM:

Conferral of Degrees: Gamla College

DATE OF SUBMISSION:

January 3, 2004

PROPOSED HANDLING:

Approval

RATIONALE FOR ITEM:

Standard Procedure:  By the terms of a provisional charter and until it is made absolute, the Regents confer the degrees

STRATEGIC GOAL:

Goal 2

AUTHORIZATION(S):

 

 

SUMMARY:

 

In November 2004, the Board of Regents was scheduled to confer degrees on graduates of Gamla College. Because Gamla College is chartered by the Regents and the Department provisionally, as opposed to permanently, the College does not have authority to confer degrees. The Regents confer degrees to graduates of institutions with provisional charters.  Members of the Committee on Higher Education and Professional Practice requested additional information on Gamla before deciding to award degrees to graduates on its behalf. The Board decided in December 2003, in its capacity as an institutional accrediting agency, to deny renewal of Gamla’s accreditation. The Board of Regents affirmed that decision in June 2004.  The conferral of degrees for Gamla was postponed until this month so that additional information concerning Gamla could be provided to the members of the Committee.

 

The Board of Regents denied an extension of Gamla College’s accreditation because the institution did not meet the accreditation standards on assessment of student achievement, including graduation rates, resources (fiscal capacity) and administration (student advisement), and was only in partial compliance with the standard on curricula. As a result, the request for accreditation extension was denied, prohibiting the institution from participating in federal student financial aid programs authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act.

 

Board of Regents – Program Registration and Voluntary Institutional Accreditation

 

The State approval process and the Regents responsibility for conferring degrees and program registration is separate from the voluntary accreditation process.  Although the institutional accreditation standards in Subpart 4-1 of the Rules of the Board of Regents and the program registration standards in Parts 50 and 52 of the Commissioner’s Regulations are similar, they are not identical.

 

§       the institutional accreditation standards focus on the quality of an institution as a whole

§       the program registration standards focus on the quality of specific programs while considering broader institutional factors that relate to support for the program.

 

Thus, it is possible for an institution to meet the registration standards but not the voluntary institutional accreditation standards.

 

Follow-Up Information on College’s Program Registration and Request to the Regents to Confer Degrees

 

Following the Regents final accreditation decision in June 2004, Assistant Commissioner Joseph Frey requested additional information from the College concerning the identified deficiencies that relate to the registration of the College’s Associate in Science (A.S.) program in Judaic Studies.  In addition, the College was specifically asked to address how it planned to respond to the State Comptroller’s final audit determination dated June 15, 2004, to disallow $968,311 in Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) funds. Following a review of Gamla’s response to this request, Department staff has determined that the College appears to be in compliance with the specific registration standards in curricula and administration.  A site visit is required to confirm compliance and will be scheduled.

 

The Department continues to have concerns about Gamla’s compliance with the registration standards requiring that it possess the financial resources necessary to accomplish its mission and the purposes of each registered curriculum. When the terms of the TAP repayment are established, the College will be required to demonstrate to the Department that it has the fiscal resources to make the repayment while maintaining the operation of its registered program. Failure to meet this standard would be a basis to begin the process to deny the registration of the College’s A.S. program in Judaic Studies, in accordance with the process set forth in Commissioner’s Regulations. 

 

Recommendation

 

So long as the Department has not found Gamla out of compliance with program registration standards, the College has the right to admit students to its A.S. program in Judaic Studies and to recommend candidates for degrees.  As an institution with a provisional charter, the College does not, however, have the authority to award its own degrees; the Board of Regents awards degrees to students who have completed programs at institutions with provisional charters.  As with all other provisionally chartered independent colleges, when students complete the program the College forwards transcripts to the Department for review.  The Department recommends that the Regents award a degree only after staff have reviewed each student’s transcript and determined that these students have completed the registered program.

 

In all cases of potential institutional closure, it has been a long established Regents policy to hold students harmless.    The Department has found that the Gamla students presented in November satisfactorily completed the registered program and thus have earned the A.S. degrees that the Regents are asked to confer.

 

Attached are recommendations with respect to conferral of degrees.  

                               

Gamla College

                                         

The Office of College and University Evaluation has determined that the candidates listed in the attachment have satisfied all of the requirements for the award indicated.

 

Recommendation:  I recommend that the Regents take the following action:

 

VOTED, that the award indicated be conferred upon the individuals as listed for Gamla College.


                                                                                                    Attachment  

 

 

 

GAMLA COLLEGE

 

Gamla College, an independent, not-for-profit institution, was granted a provisional charter by the Board of Regents on December 20, 1996 authorizing the College to offer the Associate in Science (A.S.) degree in Judaic Studies. 

 

Associate in Science

 

21.           Aber, Moshe

22.           Berstein, Eliyahu

23.           Chimmel, Yitzchok Eliezer Chaim

24.           Fasten, Elimelech

25.           Feferkorn, Solomon

26.           Fleischman, Avrum

27.           Frankel, David

28.           Fried, Avraham

29.           Gluck, Joel

30.           Grinfeld, Yosef

31.           Gross, Joel

32.           Gross, Shlomo

33.           Grossman, Shmuel

34.           Grosz, Charles

35.           Horowitz, Mordechai

36.           Horowitz, Moshe

37.           Horowitz, Moshe

38.           Iskodwitz, Yaakov

39.           Kiserman, Moshe

40.           Kiss, Joseph

41.           Kleinman, Naftali

42.           Kohn, Shia

43.           Langsam, Matias

44.           Langsam, Matias

45.           Levitan, Anna

46.           Litchman, Yehuda

47.           Machin Yevgeniy

48.           Moskowitz, Chaim

49.           Myshalova, Riva

50.           Ostreicher, Aron

51.           Ostreicher, Betzalel

52.           Polyak, Tamara

53.           Porgesz, Abraham

54.           Rabinovich, Raya

55.           Rabinowitz, Moshe

56.           Roginkina, Bela

57.           Rubin, Joseph

58.           Rubinfeld, Pinchas

59.           Rusinova, Lyubov

60.           Silver, Eliezer

61.           Sompolinsky, Alexander

62.           Steklova, Khassia

63.           Sternberg, Yechiel

64.           Stern, Shimon

65.           Teitlebaum, Chananya Y.T.L.

66.           Ungar, Aron

67.           Ungar, Mendel

68.           Ungar, Mordechai

69.           Vishnevskya, Faina

70.           Warfman, Menachem

71.           Weber, Isaac

72.           Weber, Moshe

73.           Weber, Yehuda

74.           Weinberger, Aaron

75.           Weiss, Avraham

76.           Weissmandel, Joel

77.           Wolkenfeld, Abraham