“It has achieved a lot of visibility and the issues are complicated,” said Barbara Brittingham, president of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, referring to Gordon College. “(The commission) will talk about the issues and decide if the issues, that are raised and what is publicly available, is at odds in any way with standards and policies.”

Gordon College President D. Michael Lindsay thrust the college into the spotlight a week ago by signing a letter to President Barack Obama requesting that he exclude religious institutions from an executive order barring organizations that take federal money from discrimination in hiring based on sexual orientation.

Now the Christian college on the North Shore faces scrutiny from the body that accredits colleges and universities in New England.

Gordon’s action — and the ensuing media coverage — has put the college on the agenda for the September meeting of the New England Association of School and College’s higher education commission.

The commission is a peer-review group composed of 27 members, most of them representing colleges and universities in New England and all of them coming from the highest levels of their institutions.

“It has achieved a lot of visibility and the issues are complicated,” said Barbara Brittingham, president of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, referring to Gordon College. “(The commission) will talk about the issues and decide if the issues, that are raised and what is publicly available, is at odds in any way with standards and policies.”

The meeting is scheduled for Sept.17 and 18, she said, and it is not open to the public. The commission also is not required to make public the results of the meeting, she said.

If the commission decided to take action as a result of its September meeting, Brittingham said, it would first send a letter to Gordon College and lay out the concerns and the college would be given a chance to respond. Gordon College officials also could be asked to attend a commission meeting to discuss the matter.

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