Rosemont College gets a warning from Middle States Commission, its accrediting body

Rosemont College, a small, private Catholic school in Lower Merion Township, got a warning this month that its accreditation “may be in jeopardy” because it does not appear to be meeting requirements around planning, budget and academic assessment.

The school has until July to provide a report to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, its accrediting body, on how it will rectify the issues. Schools typically have 36 months to correct problems. Middle States decided to take the action at its meeting last week and publicly announced the decision on its website Monday.

Rosemont in a statement said it was confident that it would be able to provide the additional information to Middle States to show it is in compliance with the standards in question.

“Rosemont greatly values the Middle States accreditation process and appreciates the feedback from our recent evaluation,” said spokesperson Katie DuBoff.

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Colleges need accreditation to keep their students eligible for state and financial aid. A warning is the lowest level of action that the commission takes when it has concerns.

The next step would be probation and then “show cause,” in which schools must prove they should keep their accreditation. Valley Forge Military College in Wayne was under “show cause” but got its accreditation reaffirmed by the commission at last week’s meeting. Meanwhile, the American College of Financial Services, a private school in King of Prussia that educates financial advisers, was placed on probation.

On its website, Middle States said Rosemont may be in violation of standards dealing with “planning, resources and institutional improvement” and a “requirement of affiliation” with Middle States.

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The school must document “coherent institutional and unit objectives with evidence of the implementation of a systematic, organized, and sustained assessment process demonstrating that institutional and unit stakeholders have considered and used assessment results in planning, budgeting, and the improvement of institutional and unit effectiveness,” the commission said on its website.

It also must show that it is properly assessing student achievement and using results to improve “educational effectiveness,” the commission said.

The commission declined to comment further on what problems it saw at Rosemont.

The college, which enrolls 772 undergraduate and graduate students, last month announced that former Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, who had been interim president since June, would get the permanent post.

The commission earlier this month asked Cabrini University to submit a report on its plans to cut senior academic leadership positions, including that of the provost, to help stem a mounting deficit. That report was due Nov. 16. The commission did not take any further action regarding Cabrini at its meeting last week.