Politics of degree accreditation in America

Can they find jobs with unaccredited degrees? Will the degrees be legal? If the answers to these questions are in the negative, my questioner wanted to know, what’s the point of the college?Well, accreditation of universities and colleges is a slightly complicated issue here. Different standards and rules apply in different states. For instance, in […]

Can they find jobs with unaccredited degrees? Will the degrees be legal? If the answers to these questions are in the negative, my questioner wanted to know, what’s the point of the college?
Well, accreditation of universities and colleges is a slightly complicated issue here. Different standards and rules apply in different states. For instance, in the U.S. states of Washington (not to be confused with Washington, D.C, the federal capital, which isn’t a state), Oregon, New Jersey, North Dakota, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, Texas, and Indiana, it is illegal to use an unaccredited degree for anything. In fact, in the state of Washington the penalty for using an unaccredited degree is five years in prison and a $10,000 (i.e., one million naira) fine! Worried by the proliferation of diploma or degree mills (as unaccredited schools that sell degrees are called here), many states are considering similar harsh laws.
In the state of California, where Zaytuna is located, unaccredited degrees are only invalid, but not illegal. That means you may never use the degree to seek a job, but possessing it doesn’t constitute a felony like it does in the state of Washington. However, this law is hardly enforced in California and many people get jobs, especially in the private sector, with unaccredited degrees.
It is noteworthy that in many of these states where harsh laws exist against unaccredited degrees, exceptions are made for unaccredited degrees that are issued by religious institutions (such as theology degrees, etc). However, such degrees cannot be used for public employment; they can only be used for private, religious employment.
In that wise, graduates of Zaytuna are safe. The degrees currently being offered at the college are in Islamic theology and Arabic language, although plans are under way to add secular courses.
The other problem with accreditation is that schools need to exist for some time, graduate batches of students, and generally have a record before applying for accreditation.
In other words, schools need guinea pigs for their educational experiments. Accreditation bodies need this record trail to determine whether or not a school is worthy of accreditation. That’s why other states are reluctant to be as harsh against unaccredited colleges as the above-mentioned states are. In fact, it is entirely possible for a school to be unaccredited but state-approved. That means such schools satisfy the conditions to be allowed to operate in the state and to seek regional and federal accreditation in subsequent years. Zaytuna falls in this category. So the degrees of the students of the college are perfectly legal.
The interesting thing, though, is that most of the present students at Zaytuna already have degrees and jobs and just want to deepen and systematize their Islamic knowledge. Other than this, I frankly don’t see what use an Islamic theology degree, even if it were accredited, will have in a society like America, which is seeing a growing intolerance toward Islam and Muslims. Certainly, many employers will be leery to hire anybody with an Islamic theology degree.
Zaytuna’s surest path to mainstream acceptance in the American society is to transform itself into a secular college with Islamic roots. It can have course offerings in Islamic studies, theology, the natural and social sciences, humanities, and so on but should avoid being an Islamic seminary. Well the founders of the school say their vision is to make Zaytuna the American Muslim equivalent of such prestigious universities as Georgetown University, Catholic University, Loyola University, etc which have unabashedly Christian roots.
Re: Why Nigerian men kill their wives in America
A sad but hard truth. We’ve all heard cases typifying the excesses our women engage in within the provisions of the “Oyinbo” society, and those of us with relatives out there have one such story or two close to home. Our values are our identity, we either learn to lose them and blend into the foreign culture or we live with the rage of the culture shock. East or West, Home is the Best.
Ridwan O. Coker, Lagos

Re: The strange bedfellows America makes
It shows that America is the great country with religious tolerance. Great people.
Malik Ahmed, India

Self preservation. The whole idea is multiplicity of complexities in human settings. What can we say about possible global applicability/acceptance of this concept in Africa’s plural societies, the trouble-ridden Middle East, etc?
Akinwunmi Faseikun, Lagos

Reading your article with the above title gave me a greater insight into the alignment of political and ideological forces in America. I was the person that sent you the angry email you talked about in the article. I just couldn’t understand why Muslims would align with Jews and homosexuals for any reason. Now I know why. Self-preservation is the name of the game.
But I wanted more perspectives on why a pro-Israeli lobby group in the U.S. would be actively supportive of the “ground-zero” mosque. I doubt that it’s a result of their tolerance towards Islam. Don’t you think it’s because the so-called mosque is in reality modeled like a Jewish center and because, as you wrote earlier, Imam Abdul-Rauf has said that his goal is to “Americanize Islam”? You may accuse me of being a “conspiracy theorist” but these are my impressions.
Sabiu Umar, Kano