In a December 7 interview with American Libraries,, Hal Varian, dean of the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California/Berkeley, discussed the reasons for the university's recent decision not to seek ALA accreditation for the school. The determination, he explained, was made by Chancellor Robert Berdahl, following discussions with Vice Chancellor Carol Christ.
Varian shared the contents of a November 1 letter to the ALA Office for Accreditation, which states that the "administration is generally disenchanted with accreditation for professional programs since they are time-consuming, expensive, and have little discernable value." It goes on to say that "the decision of whether to seek some sort of accreditation for SIMS should wait until the program has matured. The time-frame suggested to me was something like 'five years from the date of graduation of the first class.'"
The school's previous accreditation ended in 1994 during a complete reorganization from the former School of Library and Information Studies.
Posted December 14, 1998.