In one scenario, he imagined the council returning in a year as “heroes,” an example of best practices in college accreditation. “The other possibility is you come back and you’re not heroes and those of us on [the advisory committee] look at best like morons and at worst like we’re complicit,” Wu said.

Earlier this year, the accrediting council fended off a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigation, convincing a federal judge that the college accreditation process falls outside the watchdog agency’s scope. The consumer agency is challenging the decision on appeal.