Tuskegee University

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Tuskegee University's veterinary school is battling to maintain its federal accreditation. Seventy percent of all Black veterinarians in the United States are graduates of Tuskegee, according to a lawsuit against the American Veterinary Medical Association filed in November and since withdrawn.

Ever since Tuskegee University's veterinary school failed to meet what appeared to be a make-or-break accreditation standard last year regarding its students' performance on the national licensing exam, the question has loomed whether it would lose the crucial recognition.

An answer came in November. A lawsuit filed by the university against the American Veterinary Medical Association and dropped days later was the first official word that the school had been placed on what is known as "terminal accreditation," the process through which the status is withdrawn.

Accreditation of veterinary education in the United States is conferred by a third party authorized by the federal Department of Education. There are no veterinary schools in the U.S. operating without accreditation, in part because students cannot obtain federal loans to attend unaccredited programs. In addition, only graduates of accredited schools automatically qualify to take the North American Veterinary Licensing Exam (NAVLE), which is required to practice in the U.S. and Canada.

No U.S. veterinary school in recent memory has had its accreditation withdrawn for failing to meet the standards.

For most of this year, neither Tuskegee nor the U.S. accreditor, the AVMA Council on Education, made any announcements that the school had been assigned the "terminal" designation.

The last official AVMA COE communication about the program was in March, when it released a list of accreditation actions that described the Alabama-based school as being on probation — a status dating to 2022. It is AVMA COE policy not to give public notice of an adverse accreditation decision, such as terminal accreditation, until a review, including a possible appeal, is complete and the decision is final. 

A letter posted in August to Reddit, a social news-aggregation and discussion platform, fueled public speculation that Tuskegee's accreditation was in jeopardy. The six-paragraph missive, purporting to be from the university president, Dr. Mark A. Brown, to the board of trustees, said the AVMA COE had voted to put the veterinary college on terminal accreditation. It also said the school would formally appeal.

At the time, neither Brown nor a university spokesperson would confirm or deny the authenticity of the letter or whether the school faced losing accreditation.

Three months later, the school revealed in court documents that it was, in fact, on terminal accreditation. In its lawsuit filed Nov. 10, the university alleged the AVMA denied it due process in its appeal of what it called an "error-plagued decision" to put the veterinary school on terminal accreditation. According to AVMA documents included in the complaint, the accreditor had informed the university about its decision on July 14.

The suit said loss of accreditation would likely lead to the program's closure. It alleged the entire accreditation process had been opaque and unfair, particularly in its limitations on evidence and testimony that could be presented during an appeal of the decision. At the time the suit was filed, the appeal hearing had not yet taken place but was scheduled for early December.

The school also claimed that the AVMA "stonewalled every good-faith attempt" by the university to obtain information about the process and procedures leading to the accreditation decision.

On Nov. 14, Tuskegee withdrew its lawsuit. A school spokesperson did not answer VIN News Service questions on why it dropped the suit, nor did they provide any comment. But an Alabama television station reported at the time that the school issued a statement that suggested the AVMA had made accommodations regarding the appeal hearing:

We welcome the American Veterinary Medical Association's decision to reconsider its procedures and to commit to providing robust due process in Tuskegee University's upcoming hearing regarding the Veterinary College's accreditation status.

We are grateful the AVMA has responded to the concerns that prompted our action. This reconsideration is an important step toward ensuring that decisions affecting our University students and faculty are made through clear, accountable, and fair processes.

We are confident we will now be able to properly present the notable improvements we have made since the AVMA's visit to our campus in 2021.

Initially scheduled for this Friday, the hearing has since been postponed to sometime in February, a Tuskegee spokesperson told VIN News. Appeals are heard by a seven-person panel appointed by the AVMA board of directors. Panel members cannot include members of the AVMA COE or AVMA staff, according to the accreditor's policies.

Asked in late November about the lawsuit and Tuskegee's accreditation status, the AVMA provided a statement from Dr. Jim Weisman, the organization's chief of academic affairs, research and accreditation.

"We stand by the integrity of the Council on Education's peer-based accreditation process," Weisman said. "We do not comment on specific accreditation issues and therefore cannot respond to your questions. We believe the process is fair and presents a full opportunity for an accredited veterinary school to present its position in the appeal process."

Tuskegee's accreditation challenges

AVMA COE policies and procedures detail 11 standards that schools must meet to attain and maintain accreditation. The standards involve clinical resources, curriculum, facilities and equipment, finances, outcomes assessment and research programs, among other areas.

The accreditor put Tuskegee on probationary accreditation starting in 2022 due to "major deficiencies" in three standards: finances, clinical resources and outcomes assessment. According to the AVMA COE policy document, a program on probation has two years (with the possibility of a one- to two-year extension if it shows improvement) to address major deficiencies in any standard before it is moved to terminal accreditation.

The AVMA COE does not publicly divulge details about probationary programs' deficiencies. However, whether a school meets the outcomes assessment standard is publicly trackable.

The standard is that "80% or more of each college's graduating senior students sitting for the NAVLE will have passed at the time of graduation." Under the standard, colleges that fall below 80% (or an alternative method for computing a pass rate known as the exact binomial confidence interval) for four years in a row "will, for cause, be placed on Terminal Accreditation."

The accreditor requires programs to post NAVLE pass rates on their websites. Tuskegee's pass rate has been below 80% for six years straight. In 2020, 79% of students passed the exam. That rate continued dropping each following year, reaching a low of 51% in 2024. It rebounded to 72% this year. The suit argues that the pass rate improvement should earn the program a "good cause" extension from the accreditor on the outcomes standard.

In the suit, Tuskegee also said AVMA ignored "overwhelming evidence" demonstrating that the program had complied with the accreditor's directives, including that it had adequate financial resources to complete new clinical facilities in a timely manner and other requirements. Tuskegee broke ground on an $18 million, 57,000-square-foot small animal teaching hospital in September.

Following Tuskegee's appeal, the hearing panel will submit a report to the AVMA COE, which will take up the matter at a subsequent regular meeting of the group. The panel may affirm or amend the decision or identify issues that the council should reconsider. The resulting decision from the COE is considered final. 

Terminal accreditation is an off-ramp, not a cliff. In the event of an unsuccessful appeal, Tuskegee would be expected to follow procedures to maintain its terminal accreditation status to protect currently enrolled students so they graduate with the same benefits as graduates from an accredited program. These procedures include ceasing to enroll additional students, committing adequate resources to complete the education of currently enrolled students and ensuring that deficiencies don’t worsen. During this time, AVMA COE representatives would visit the school annually and report on conditions to the full council.