The City College of San Francisco (CCSF) is set to lose its accreditation in one year unless substantial changes are met, but a new and very odd twist could change that, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) sent a letter Tuesday to the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) stating it had violated several federal regulations in its investigation of CCSF.

In other words, the ACCJC, which plans to strip City College's accreditation, is now in hot water for its own faults. However, nobody seems to know what it means for City College's accreditation and the school's 85,000 students.

"Right now, we don't know what is happening other than that the letter was issued," Jennifer Aries, a spokeswoman for the college, said Tuesday. "We're staying focused on meeting the standards and the eligibility requirements. We have to keep our focus."

Krista Johns, the ACCJC's vice president for policy research, said the letter would not have an effect on the ruling against CCSF.

"It is not affected by this letter," she said. "This letter really examines the policies and procedures of the accrediting commission."

The investigation into the ACCJC's investigation would not have happened without the initial complaint from the American Federation of Teachers in May.

"I believe it means they need to reverse the entire decision," said Alisa Messer, an English teacher at CCSF and president of the teachers federation. "When you get a letter from the Department of Education that goes into detail, noting that there were significant policies that were violated, that means something."

In the letter authored by Kay Gilcher, director of ED's Accreditation Group, cited the ACCJC's investigation specifically for having a disproportionate amount of teachers and administrators and a conflict of interest. One of the members of the review team was the husband of ACCJC president Barbara Beno. Gilcher also said the accreditation commission allowed CCSF to violate federal regulations by not giving the school a detailed report of their findings, a federal regulation in itself.

The ACCJC now has one year to comply with these regulations or ED will strip it of its ability to pass judgment on schools.

Both City College and the accrediting commission's deadlines are within one year, so it is unclear how one will affect the other.

Beno said the ACCJC is still reviewing the letter and, with a year on the clock, both sides are able to move cautiously. If the accreditation commission violated federal regulations in its investigation, it may be hard for them to validate their vote to strip CCSF's accreditation.