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WASC Info. Page for New College

WASC, the accrediting agency for colleges in the western states, has created an information page for New College of California students and alumni. It has information on teach outs, transfers, correcting your transcripts, and requesting transcripts from New College. Thank you WASC! According to the transcript request forms below, JFK University will be handling New College transcripts after June 15, 2008.

Request Transcripts

Mail-in form
Fax form
Correction of Transcript Error Form May 30 Deadline!

Lawsuits Against New College

Inevitably, students, alumni/ae, faculty and staff are suing New College for: back wages, lack of health insurance, financial hardship, emotional suffering, inability to get a job or go to grad school due to incomplete/incorrect transcripts, etc. Two lawyers have expressed interest in representing claims against New College.

Mandy Leigh, Esq. Masters Education Law, Leigh Law Group

Many Leigh specializes in education law and litigation. She will need:

types of financial loss incurred
whether you have proof of loss or not (receipts, landlord statements, unpaid bills, court judgments, credit card fees, incurred interest etc.)
days and times that are best to schedule a meeting.

Email mleigh@leighlawgroup.com

MAIN OFFICE:
870 Market Street, Suite 1161
San Francisco, CA 94102

PHONE:
415-399-9155

FAX:
415-399-9608

MAIN E-MAIL:
info@leighlawgroup.com

WEBSITE:
http://www.leighlawgroup.com

Daniel Stern, Esq.

Anyone who is interested in becoming a member of a class action suit against New College of California, Inc. et al for damages incurred by the loss of WASC accreditation (including loss of Student Financial Aid, eviction, dropping-out, high interest debt, emotional distress, etc.),please contact:

Daniel Stern, Esquire

2960 Van Ness Ave., Suite A

San Francisco, CA 94109

Office: (415) 567-9600

Fax: (415) 567-9696

Website: http://www.wassermanstern.com/

Transfer Fair for New College Students Tues. March 18

[Correction: The Women's Spirituality program is now at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology. We regret the error.]

New College and several colleges and universities are joining together on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 to hold a Transfer Fair for New College students. Because you have inquired at WASC about New College, we are sending you information on this important event in the hope that you will attend or will pass the word to students who need help in deciding where to transfer so that they can continue their education.

The information below is also posted on our website at wascsenrior.org and will be updated as we learn more about the institutions that will attend this event and facilitate the transfer of New College students.

Location: New College Cultural Center
766 Valencia Street (between 18th-19th), San Francisco

Date and Time: March 18, 2008
11 am - 3 pm

Admissions counselors will be present to provide information and answer questions about all their programs. Students should bring copies of transcripts, if possible, to help facilitate the application process.

New College Transcript Request Form

Participating colleges and universities are:

John F. Kennedy University (future home of the Law School)

Argosy University (future home of Grad Psych)

Goddard College

Dominican University of California(current home of the Green MBA program)

San Francisco Art Institute

California Institute of Integral Studies(future home of the Writing and Consciousness program)

(For more information about these institutions, please visit their websites and or contact them directly.)

Application fees will be waived for any New College student interested in applying to one of these institutions.

For more information, please check the Announcements at wascsenior.org

or email wascsr@wascsenior.org

JFK University sent additional information:

Admissions Counselors will be present to provide information and answer questions about all of our programs including:

Bachelor Completion Program
Teacher Credential Program - Single and Multiple Subject
Graduate Programs
- Arts & Consciousness
- Counseling Psychology
- Holistic Health
- MBA
- Sports Psychology
- PsyD

Representatives from our Financial Aid Office will also be at the event to answer questions.

Application fees will be waived for any New College student interested in applying to JFK University.

Spring Quarter starts March 31 for many programs.

There is still time to apply! (Bring copies of your transcripts and we will fast-track your application process.)

For more information about JFKU's programs, applications and financial aid: http://www.jfku.edu/newcollege/ or call 925-969-3528.

Jen Miller-Hogg

Director of Admissions

John F. Kennedy University

925-969-3528

Loan Discharge Information for New College Students

from a faculty member

For those of you who do not want to finish a NCOC degree or transfer any units to a different program, you may be able to get your loans dismissed. I spoke with Renee Gullotto from EdFund about loan dismissals and here is some information that will hopefully help some of you. I told her that there are students who were last enrolled in Spring 07 and who, for various reasons, might not be able to produce a Leave of Absence form for Fall 07 . She told me that the Loan Discharge Application Form is a self certified form. As I understand it, this means that you provide the information necessary and do not need NC to certify it. Renee, the EdFund, and probably most of the world are aware that the mechanisms to ensure the processing of your forms were not in place and/or functioning at New College. She said that they just need to know that the student was enrolled recently and she said that Spring 07 is recent enough. Please know that loan discharge is only an option if you never use any of your NC credits. Renee also said that you have a long time (years she said) to apply for the discharge. So you can pursue transfer options first, and then if that doesn't work out you have recourse to loan discharge.

Scot Williams is the Ombudsman at EdFund who can address student concerns. His phone number is 916 526 8275 and his email is swilliam@edfund.org (this is what Renee wrote down for me, but given that his name ends with an "s", it might be swilliams@edfund.org)

Also, this website has more information on loan discharge/cancellation.

http://studentaid.ed.gov

New College in Chaos As Community Meeting Cancelled Without Notice

New College's administration is suffering a total meltdown, sources inside New College say. [Read the following emails and judge for yourself.] First, a community meeting planned for Tues. afternoon was cancelled shortly before it began, with no adequate notice. There was a messasge on the school's website Tuesday, and selected faculty members received an email. They were not asked to notify their students that the meeting was cancelled. Representatives of the Independent Alumni/ae Association were not notified. This writer was about to leave for the meeting, which involves a two hour trip from the East Bay, when an undisclosed source contacted her with the information.

New College Closing?

Kathy Voutyras, Director of Alumni Relations, sent two contradictory emails to an alumni list. They were quickly leaked to several lists and this website. The first one is notification that New College is closing:

After nearly 38 years,New College of California is closing, just after having its accreditation terminated by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and Department of Education's approval for our Title IV funding withdrawn. The closing of New College was precipitated by the devastating intervention of our accrediting agency (WASC) in the college's operations, beginning in February of last year, after several Humanities faculty and staff wrote complaints to WASC and the President, Martin Hamilton, was compelled by WASC to resign.

She went on to blame "the Bush Administration's Department of Education" and to beg for money to keep the school going through the end of the semester. Voutyras said the mortgage and utilities aren't being paid. The college's website will also be allowed to lapse due to nonpayment, according to Voutyras.

The Future

Graduate Psychology and the Law School are negotiating to move to other colleges. ASC students attempted to transfer to SF State, which refused to accept New College credits, according to ASC students. Some humanities programs will teach out at New College. WASC has requested a teach out plan from New College by March 15. Closed School Student Guide by the Dept. of Education

WASC Revokes Accreditation

On Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008, WASC informed New College that accreditation is revoked. Here's the PDF:
Accreditation Terminated

Community Meeting with Board of Trustees about WASC, DOE

2 PM Thursday, February 21
Cultural Center, 766 Valencia St., SF

Here's the email from Board member Jane Swan. Note the board is down to four members. Apparently Phillip Knowlton is back from Egypt after an extended absence.

From: je_swan@yahoo.com
Date: Feb 20, 2008 5:33 PM
Subject: Re: Community meeting
To: [various faculty]

We are on for 2:00 invitation to students, staff and faculty to meet with the board (Luis,Tedd, Phillip and me). We will review our assessment of the WASC meeting, our continued communication with the DOE, and possibilities for financial contingency planning on back pay and fall 2007 financial aid.

Please distribute this announcement as widely as possible within the student, staff, faculty. I do not currently have Gardner's email address, so please send to him as well.

Thank you, and see you all (I hope) in the morning.

Best,
Jane

ABC 7 News: "Local College Suddenly Shuts Down"

Video here

By Matt Keller

SAN FRANCISCO -- Students who've paid thousands of dollars in tuition at San Francisco's New College are wondering when -- or even if classes will resume. The spring semester was supposed to start a month ago. The New College of California was founded in 1971 and describes itself as the most progressive school in San Francisco. But on Thursday, it's closed and students and faculty are in limbo.

Dorothy Joo is a second year master's student at the New College of California. "We were supposed to start school again on January 8th and we're just waiting around," said Joo.

Dorothy is one of about 300 students waiting for the gates to open at New College. She was scheduled to graduate in June with a master's in psychology. Her student loan that pays for her $5,500 dollar a trimester tuition and living expenses was put on hold.

"I Moved in with my sister and it takes me an hour and a half to get to my internship now," said Joo.

Money is the reason for the shut down of New College.

"It is our understanding that the Department of Education is holding out several million dollars in financial aid," said Ralph Wolff from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

The dispute between the Department of Education and the college is over record keeping for financial aid. Without the money from the student loans, the school is as good as closed. The non-profit Western Association of Schools and Colleges gives accreditation to colleges and universities like U.C. Berkeley, San Francisco State, as well as New College.

ABC7's Matt Keller: "Why wouldn't they come to you for help?"

Ralph Wolff: "Well, all I can say is at this point in time, they have not."

A lack of communication seems to be a problem here at the new college of California. Students say they sent a certified letter to the acting president and he has not responded. The accreditation service says the communication here is troubling. And faculty and staff haven't been paid in several months.

"We have lawyers say, it's not like you went to Harvard or Yale. What did you expect?," said Joo.

Students are hoping for a teach out. That's where an outside agency pays professors with financial aid, to teach students to graduation. But until New College decides what to do, everyone is in limbo.

"I think at this point the only thing that students can do is wait, but I can understand if their patience is wearing thin," said Wolff.

The acting chair of the Board of Trustees Tedd Corman said New College is working with the Department of Education to get the financial aid money. The Western Association of Schools and colleges will meet with the acting president and trustees on February 20th to review the school's accreditation. If that falls through, New College will not be able to receive any future financial aid.

1 comments Post A Comment 1

hollyharwood

2/8/08 8:32 AM EST WASC says New College has a "broad culture of error and poor judgment" also rampant cronyism. Read the WASC reports at http://savenewcollege.org or http://stopsilence.net. If you are an alumni/ae, please contact the Independent Alumni/ae Assn. http://newcollegealumni.net
Holly Harwood ASC BA

WASC Report Released

Jan.16, 2008

This is the report from the November 2007 WASC visit to New College's Valencia St. campus.

WASC Report

Peter Gabel and Colleen O'Neal Resign from New College Board of Trustees

Jan.15, 2008
It was announced at today's faculty meeting that Peter Gabel and Colleen O'Neal have resigned from the Board of Trustees of New College. Faculty sources say Peter Gabel will teach a course at the New College School of Law this semester. Faculty sources also say the Faculty Council voted to delay registration for a week as the school is not ready to begin classes.

UPDATE A Message from the New College of California Board of Trustees

http://www.newcollege.edu/board_message

As many of you may now know, Peter Gabel and Colleen O'Neal have resigned from the New College Board of Trustees after many years of service. On behalf of the Board, I send along sincerest thanks and deep gratitude in recognition of the dedication, service, wise counsel, spirit, and other vital contributions offered by Colleen and Peter to New College over the years and of current efforts to gain financial and other public support to assure the College's survival and recovery. With the intensity of their commitment, Peter and Colleen performed outstanding work for the College, often under difficult conditions; we worked cooperatively and with mutual respect during their tenure as Board members. We thank them, and we look forward to upcoming occasions to join together to celebrate the College's past and future accomplishments in continuing pursuit of a just, sacred, and sustainable world.

Tedd Corman
Acting Chair, New College of California Board of Trustees

We are re-building this site for the New Year.
In the meantime, please visit The Committee to Save New College.

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