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Local College Put On Probation

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- In the face of serious academic violations, a local college was put on probation.

Mary Bubala has a look at what that means for students and faculty at Baltimore City Community College.

BCCC serves 20,000 students, but the group that accredits colleges and universities, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, has put the school on probation, saying the school is not in compliance with how it assesses student learning.

"Even though it's not good news, I wouldn't sound the alarm because it's something that the faculty and the staff, we've been working very diligently on," said Dr. Caroline Williams.  "Middle States feels like we really need to tighten up that process a little more, fine tune it and get some more of our improvements under our belt."

The warning for BCCC came just as the Baltimore International College lost its entire accreditation and people seemed to confuse what was going on at both schools.  While the Baltimore International College was stripped of its accreditation after years of failed reviews, Baltimore City Community College remains fully accredited.

"Because of what's happening at the Culinary Institute, it raises a red flag so students have to understand our programs will continue with our accreditation intact and that we are still open for business and still doing great things," Williams said.

BCCC has to have corrections in place and a plan submitted to the Middle States Commission by March.  School leaders say they expect to have this complete even earlier, by January.

A team from the Middle States Commission will visit BCCC in March to lift the probation, if improvements are seen.

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