After years of drafting public comments and policy proposals to the APA Commission on Accreditation, I’m pleased to note that they just adopted one of our major pushes: greater transparency about discriminatory policies and standards. A new regulation forces accredited programs that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people (e.g., some faith-based universities) to place these policies front and center on the CoA’s webpage. It also has broader implications in protecting religious minorities who could be negatively impacted by program standards that require strict adherence to a particular faith.
You can read about the changes on the APA websites accreditation newsletter.
Moving the needle on accreditation standards is a slow, complex and challenging endeavor–thus a major accomplishment for the division. In particular, I’d like to acknowledge the members of the Div. 44 Subcommittee on Higher Education Accreditation and Policy who have worked on these initiatives: Theresa Kay (cochair), Maryka Biaggio (former chair), Gregory Shrader (member), and Will Elder (member). We had significant support for this specific initiative from leadership in APAGS, NLPA (Orgullo Latinx), CCPTP, CECP, AAPA, and Divs. 1, 6, 7, 16, 17, 27, 35, 39, 45 and 51.