Recent controversy has struck Puerto Rico upon the fact that the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is on probation with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). The institution’s probation status has been ongoing for several years. However, tensions are rising because the UPR has failed to meet several of the Commission’s standards for accreditation. Consequently, the UPR, the only public university on the Island, has been placed on show-cause status by the MSCHE.
What this means, according to the Middle States, is “The Commission may take an act of show- cause if it has identified one or more areas in which an institution does not meet Commission standards for accreditation, requirements of affiliation, policies, and procedures, or federal compliance requirements.”
One of the main elements that contributed to the UPR’s probation is the extreme austerity measures that the university has suffered. Within the last year, the institution’s budget has been reduced by hundreds of millions of dollars. After suffering such a drastic budget cut, the 11 institutions that comprise the UPR system were due to submit an audited financial statement of the past year by January 2nd, 2019. The purpose of this report was for the university to prove its capability to maintain financial stability despite budget cuts. However, it failed at handing in the financial statement by the given date.
An extended due date was provided by the Middle States for January 25th, 2019. The 11 UPR institutions reported their respective audited statements on this exact date. As part of the show-cause status, the university was also required to submit a “teach-out plan.” Basically, this document is proof that the university has a plan to relocate all of its students in case of failing to meet the MSCHE’s standards for maintaining its accreditation. If this were to happen, it would take place in 2021. Although this does not mean that the University of Puerto Rico would close, it would no longer be an accredited institution.
The Middle States’ request for a teach-out plan caused rumors on the Island that the UPR was no longer an accredited institution. University president Jorge Haddock assured that these rumors were untruthful: “It is completely false that the UPR is executing any closing plan. We have been educating the Puerto Rican people for 115 years and we will continue doing so. The request for a teach-out plan is a routine process of the show-cause”.
Although the University of Puerto Rico is currently facing a tense and precarious situation, it is still an accredited institution and will definitely continue being so until 2021.