5. The National Commission and another organization of regional accrediting bodies
(the Federation of Regional Accrediting Commissions of Higher Education) merged
in 1975 to form a new Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA). COPA was
designed to recognize, regulate and represent all types of accrediting organizations
and serve as counterweight to the growing power of the U.S. Office of Education. Its
board of 36 members was unwieldy and was soon replaced by a much smaller board.
The broad constituency became three subgroups, often at odds. In 1993, three of the
regional commissions stopped collecting dues for COPA and it disbanded. A small
interim Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation (CORPA) was
hurriedly developed to maintain recognition, the function designed to review accrediting
organizations for quality based on standards that had been developed for this purpose. It
functioned until 1996.