President of Embattled Accreditor of For-Profit Colleges Resigns

The president of the embattled accreditor of many for-profit colleges, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, has resigned after seven years at the helm. In a statement on Monday, the council said Al Gray had stepped down but did not say why.

“I appreciate and respect the loyal service and dedicated leadership of Al Gray to ACICS during difficult and challenging times,” Lawrence Leak, chair of the council’s Board of Directors, said in the statement.

The resignation came shortly after 13 state attorneys general asked that the accreditor’s recognition not be renewed by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, known as Naciqi. “Even in the crowded field of accrediting failures,” the officials wrote in the scathing letter, “ACICS deserves special opprobrium.”

Among other things, the attorneys general said, the accreditor had failed in its oversight of the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges. In response, the council said that it had not seen the comments the attorneys general sent to Naciqi, but that it “looked forward” to defending its reputation.

In its statement, the council said Anthony S. Bieda, formerly the council’s vice president for external affairs, would serve as executive in charge while the accreditor searches for a new president.