The previous governor would not fix, and only made worse, the improperly constituted board. For years. And years. And allowed a board to become completely and grossly dysfunctional, without making any attempt to fix it. And the accreditation agency thought that was just fine to have a wrongly constituted board, and one that was unable to take action because of dysfunction. And a governor that wouldn't do anything about it but make it worse.
But the minute the current governor steps in to correct that university-destroying dysfunction and also correct the makeup of the board, the agency steps in to stop that.
The agency would allow utter destruction of a university and mismanagement and dysfunctionality without any threat of sanction, while also not asking that the university follow its own procedures. What does that say about the agency? Then the agency steps in to call timeout when someone tries to come in and fix it!
The board was completely broken! It had been unable to properly function for at least two years! While Rome burned, the previous governor sat on his hands and simply installed more birds of a feather as board members.
So is it idiocy, neglect, malfeasance or politics from the agency itself? Or from the former governor? I choose to blame the former governor and the accreditation agency for chicanery, malfeasance and also for probably playing inside politics with dissident board members.
If anything the agency itself should be subject to an audit. The agency probably has rubber-stamped the accreditation of ideologically-aligned universities for decades.
An agency that allows what went on in the previous governors' term(s), looking the other way to dysfunction and imbalance, shouldn't be allowed to accredit. They should be shut down and reconstituted. They allowed a mess to exist starting years and years ago. And they sat by and watched, and chose not to do anything until a new guy came in and tried to do something.
The current governor didn't cause the accreditation issue. The previous governor did, due to both willful and benign neglect of his administration.