When the State Rubber-Stamped UB’s Accreditation, 1993

In February 1993, the Board of Governors of Higher Education of the State of Connecticut approved continuation of the University of Bridgeport’s accreditation as an independent secular institution, even though it had just been bought out by a cult, the Unification Church. Only days before the Board’s landmark vote, two Russian students came forward at a press conference in the State Capitol to assert that they had been recruited by the Church in Russia and promised scholarships to UB if they first attended a Unification Church indoctrination camp in California (which they did). There is no evidence that the Board of Governors ever investigated this claim or factored it in their decision to grant re-accreditation.

A couple weeks later, I hosted a news-discussion show on cable TV with Prof. Robert Bard of UConn Law School and members of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens, who were attempting to stop the re-accreditation, about some of the many thorny issues of oversight and academic freedom that were raised–but never addressed–by the state’s decision.

To see the video, click on the Metroline News Talk Show item in the Blogroll, at right.