News noted

College accreditation requirements and procedures may be destined for significant changes in the near future, according to the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

"Right now, accreditation ... is largely focused on inputs, more on how many books are in a college library, than whether students can actually understand them," Ms. Spellings said in a speech here in September after the report's release. "Institutions are asked, 'Are you measuring student learning?' And they check yes or no. That must change. Whether students are learning is not a yes or no question. It's how? How much? And to what effect?"

Will this lead to more colleges & universities consigning their libraries to the dumpster in favor of administrative happy-talk about "student learning outcomes"?

Should higher education be judged solely on whether its current crop of students can pass this year's professional licensing exams? Or is there also a responsibility to maintain access to the whole body of intellectually & historically significant material?

Also from the Chronicle: the Georgia Baptist Convention has severed ties with Mercer University, apparently in reaction to a gay/lesbian symposium that was held there last year. Usually it's the Baptist-affiliated colleges and universities that want to break loose from fundamentalist-controlled state Baptist associations, rather than the other way around.