A reader took me to task for my entry earlier this week noting Republican Senate candidate Cam Cavasso’s ties to Pacific Christian University.

Submitted on 2010/06/08 at 6:14pm

So, he has a connection with Pacific Christian… What’s the big deal about that?? In this article you single out three specific courses which are taught at the University in an attempt to paint Cavasso as a Christian weirdo. Yet ALL Universities have courses which different groups of people will find weird, extreme, or flat out ridiculous. As a former student of Brown University, an Ivy League institution, I can fully attest that we had courses which dealt with the supernatural – from Christian and non-Christian perspectives, as well as other courses which were totally outlandish. Harvard, Yale, Stanford… same thing. Would you discredit Cavasso as a radical Christian if he had connections to Brown just because of some of the courses they offer?

Perhaps I was too flippant, but Pacific Christian is not Brown University. By a long shot.

Although Pacific Christian claims to be “accredited by the esteemed Transworld Accrediting Commission,” it does not appear to meet the standard for legal accreditation under state law, which sets requirements for degree-granting colleges and universities in order to control so-called “degree mills”.

The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has a detailed summary of its regulations of post-secondary degree granting institutions. According to DCCA, an accredited institution must be meet certain standards.

In the State of Hawaii, degree granting institutions fall into one of two categories: accredited or unaccredited. State law specifically defines unaccredited institutions as “degree granting institutions that are not accredited or a candidate for accreditation by at least one nationally recognized accrediting agency that is listed by the United States Secretary of Education.” It is important to understand that not all so-called accrediting agencies enjoy such recognition. Further information concerning accreditation in the United States, including a list of the nationally recognized accrediting agencies can be found online at the United States Department of Education website.

The Transworld Accrediting Commission is not one of these “nationally recognized accrediting agencies.”

This seems to mean that Pacific Christian University is operating in a grey area. It appears to operate under an exemption to state law (Section 446E-1.6(9)), which exempts “Schools and educational programs conducted by religious organizations solely for the religious instruction of their members.”

However, since PCU says it is open to students from outside the ranks of its sponsoring organization, there would appear to be questions about whether it really can claim to fall under the quoted exemption.

More information on unaccredited colleges and universities is available from DCCA.