Author Profile

David Randall

David Randall is Director of Communications at the National Association of Scholars. He has taken part in both sides of the accreditation process—working to prepare his own institution (New York Studio School) for an accreditation examination, and serving on an accreditation committee to examine another institution (Academy for Jewish Religion).

Articles by David Randall

May 16, 2016 ·

Summer Reading: Most Colleges Waste an Important Educational Opportunity

A college common reading should be a book for adults, not a warmed-over book for high-school students. It should be written beautifully. It should introduce students to human beings stranger and more distant than their 25-year-old peers. It should draw students to enter into the broad world of the human mind and spirit, and not just that narrow corner that satisfies the dogmas of progressive piety and uplift.

Apr 8, 2016 ·

The Great California Accreditation War

Accreditation is like the pancreas: not very interesting, but a source of serious problems if it malfunctions. The pancreas of higher education just said “ouch.” An accrediting agency, licensed by the federal government to keep colleges in good order, just got a (temporarily suspended) death sentence.