The Trump Administration, which has unlawfully fired Democrat-appointed officials across numerous federal agencies in its first six months, now claims that the appointment earlier this year of Zakiya Smith Ellis, a Democratic appointee, as chair of a key Department of Education advisory committee was “erroneous.”

As the Wall Street Journal reported last week, the Department also has delayed, to October, a meeting that was set to be held this month of that panel, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). 

Federal law provides that NACIQI meetings shall be held “at the call of the Chairperson.” Yet the Department did not consult Smith Ellis before declaring the meeting postponement.

NACIQI, consisting of outside higher education experts, meets twice a year to review the performance of the non-profit accrediting bodies that in turn oversee educational quality at America’s colleges and universities. NACIQI makes non-binding recommendations as to whether each accreditor should be recognized by the Department.  These decisions are crucial, because only schools approved by such recognized accreditors are eligible to receive federal student grants and loans from the Department.

The agenda for the NACIQI meeting set for this month included review of the accreditor Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which accredits, among many other schools, Columbia University. The Trump administration has attacked Columbia over its handling of protest activity in support of Palestinian rights. On June 4, the Department of Education wrote to Middle States that Columbia had violated federal anti-discrimination laws and thus was also in violation of accreditation standards.

The next day, June 5, the Department sent a memo to NACIQI members stating that the July meeting would be held instead in October.

NACIQI has 18 member slots, six of which, by law, are filled by the U.S. Secretary of Education, six by congressional Republicans, and six by congressional Democrats.

On September 30, the terms of six NACIQI members will expire. All six appointees with expiring terms are in slots to be appointed by the Trump Education Department.  Four were appointed by previous Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos, and two by Biden secretary Miguel Cardona. So the Trump team has the opportunity to alter the ideological makeup of the panel by the time of an October meeting. 

Smith Ellis, whose NACIQI term is set to expire in 2028, is a former chief policy advisor to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) and was also previously New Jersey’s Secretary of Higher Education. She was appointed to NACIQI in 2022 by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. In 2023, she was unanimously elected vice chair of NACIQI by her fellow members, and Claude Pressnell, a Tennessee education association executive, was unanimously elected chair. 

At the end of the NACIQI meeting held in February, Pressnell, who was appointed to NACIQI by then-Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, announced his retirement and his resignation from the panel. Pressnell said, “I am so happy to hand the gavel over to Zakiya, who is incredibly capable.”  George Smith, a career Department official charged with coordinating NACIQI, responded, according to the meeting transcript posted on the Department’s website, “Zakiya as Vice Chair will assume the rest of your term, so for the Summer Meeting, Zakiya will definitely serve as Chair, and at that meeting we will hold an election for Vice Chair.”

Smith continued, “And it’s quite possible, depending on when the Winter 2026 meeting occurs, that Zakiya could possibly also Chair that meeting, depending on whether or not it’s before February the 27th, when your position or term would expire. So, that’s what we have now. Zakiya will fill the rest of Claude’s term….”

The page on the Department of Education’s website listing NACIQI members as of this morning still identifies Smith Ellis as the chair. [Update 07-08-25 3:25 pm: By this afternoon, the Department had changed the web page to identify Smith Ellis as vice chair.]

Yet a spokesperson for the Department of Education, Savannah Newhouse, told the Journal that the naming of Smith Ellis as NACIQI chair was “erroneous,”

In the past decade, heated debates at NACIQI have focused on whether accreditors under review have done enough to hold accountable schools that have engaged in deceptive and predatory practices against students. Now that Donald Trump has declared accreditation his “secret weapon” in efforts to wage war against diversity programs, campus protests, and alleged left-wing bias at schools, the accreditation debate has shifted.  

The Journal writes that an unnamed “administration official” told it that the meeting delay was not politically motivated.

But Smith Ellis told the Journal she is concerned that the Trump administration is “trying to take over this advisory group that is supposed to be in place for our expertise in higher education, not to push a certain political agenda.”

And NACIQI member Michael Poliakoff, president of the conservative American Council of Trustees and Alumni, is quoted by the Journal as saying, “What we fear is the possibility of governmental capture of agencies that are private and independent.”