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"The Greek American" - June 27, 1998
Boston School Keeps Accreditation Despite Problems
By George Sarrinikolaou
Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology will remain
an accredited institution of higher learning despite findings that the school
failed to meet several accreditation standards when it dismissed four professors
last summer.
The two agencies that accredit the school, the New England Association of
Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and the Association of Theological Schools (ATS),
have made the decision after a year-long investigation prompted by a complaint
they received in July 1997.
The complaint was filed by Valerie A. Karras, a professor whose position at
the school also involved reporting to the accrediting agencies. In a letter to
NEASC and ATS, she had outlined the dismissals of Rev. Dr. Alkiviadis Calivas,
then the president of the school and a faculty member since 1978, Rev. Dr.
Emmanuel Clapsis, an untenured professor who had taught at Holy Cross since 1985
and who was "reassigned" to parish work, the Rev. Dr. George Papademetriou, who
was removed as director of the library after 16 years, but who remains an
associate professor, and Rev. Dr. Theodore Stylianopoulos, a tenured professor
also assigned to parish work.
"The justification of the Archbishop for these actions and others equally
illegitimate," had written Dr. Karras, "is his demand for absolute and
unquestioning obedience from his clergy, which makes all academic policies and
procedures irrelevant and collides with the philosophical foundation of academic
life..."
Now, both agencies have admonished the school, not for dismissing those
faculty members, but for the way those personnel decisions were made. But rather
than place the school on probation, NEASC and ATS have decided to review the
case again in six months. Hellenic College and Holy Cross are expected to use
the time to rework their governance policies and their implementation. "It must
be noted," says a letter from NEASC, "that failure to effectively respond to our
concerns will lead to an adverse action." In a similar decision, ATS, which
accredits only Holy Cross, has placed the seminary in "warning." If "major
inadequacies with regard to one or more standards" are not addressed, then ATS
could place the school on probation. The two agencies ultimately have the power
to revoke accreditation, a sanction that would severely damage the school's
academic reputation. Hellenic College and Holy Cross, in Brookline, Mass., are
the only Greek American institutions of higher learning.
Archbishop Spyridon, who exercises authority over the school, welcomed the
decision to defer judgement. "We owe a debt of gratitude to both agencies for
their professional standards of fairness and their willingness to cooperate with
the School to improve our methodology of operation," said the Archbishop in a
written statement.
For any improvements to be made, a new governing policy must be developed
that defines the Archbishop's ecclesiastical authority over an institution that
shares both religious and secular characteristics. For instance, the school
employs faculty who are clergymen bound to obey the authority of the Archbishop.
As faculty, however, those clergymen are also afforded the freedoms and
protections of higher education. A new policy must now be developed to help the
school deal with cases where the ecclesiastical and the institutional come into
conflict.
That was the case last summer when the Archbishop dismissed the four
professors, who were also members of the clergy. The dismissals came after those
faculty members sought to investigate an alleged altercation between a priest
and a student on campus. Although the Archbishop has declined to speak about his
reasons for dismissing the professors, it is clear that their handling of the
alleged incident displeased him. Exercising his ecclesiastical authority as well
as his influence as head of the school's board of trustees, the Archbishop
dismissed them.
The move created controversy and became a point of contention between the
Archbishop and a number of influential lay Greek Americans who have served the
Greek Orthodox Church in the United States. Later, some of those Greek Americans
would form the Greek Orthodox American Leaders organization (GOAL), which has
called for the removal of Archbishop Spyridon.
A year later, both NEASC and ATS agree that the school failed to implement
its own guidelines in making those personnel decisions. But they have also found
that the guidelines are "flawed" and open to various interpretations.
Ultimately, say letters from the accrediting agencies, much of the difficulty
stems from governing policies that fail to clarify how ecclesiastical authority
figures in the administration of the school.
To comply with their accreditation standards, NEASC and ATS ask that the
school clarify this point. "This is admittedly a difficult, but we believe not
an impossible, task, given the need to preserve the institution as an instrument
of the Greek Orthodox Church, which we recognize and accept, while also wishing
to safeguard accepted values of American higher education," says the letter from
NEASC.
Although the Archdiocese has accepted responsibility for clarifying this
issue, it has also maintained that the vagueness of the current policy is
something it inherited from the administration of the previous archbishop. In a
written statement circulated in response to the accrediting agencies' findings,
the Archdiocese characterizes the problems as "historical," while Archbishop
Spyridon is quoted as saying that these issues "have been present for many
years."
A spokesman for the Archdiocese, Fr. Mark Arey, argued that the school has
undergone so many changes in administration (17 in 60 years) exactly because of
the role of ecclesiastical authority over the institution has never been spelled
out. Fr. Arey pointed to the dismissal of the school's president during the
final years of the administration of Archbishop Iakovos. The president then was
Bishop Methodios of Boston, who was fired from his post directly by the
Patriarchate, according to Fr. Arey. The case of Bishop Methodios, suggested Fr.
Arey, would have also raised concerns about ecclesiastical authority over an
academic institution. But the difference between such cases and the dismissals
last summer, he argued, is that no one complained to the accrediting agencies
before. Fr. Arey also said the dismissals would have been justified no matter
how clear the policy guidelines were.
The process to clarify and rewrite policy is expected to begin once the
school has hired a new president, but must be completed by January 1999, the
deadline set by ATS. Fr. Mark Arey said the guidelines would be developed by
studying the policies of other seminaries in the United States. The process, he
said, would be completed on time, assuring that Hellenic College and Holy Cross
would maintain its accreditation.
[ EKKLISIA | www.ekklisia.org/etyp-6-27.htm - June 27, 1998 ]
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