were offered the opportunity to transfer to the original campus in Pasadena, California. In the interim, the decision had been made by church leadership to pursue regional accreditation in California. However, in 1978 President Garner Ted Armstrong, son of college founder Herbert Armstrong, announced that everything would be moving back to the Texas campus, with the California facility becoming a graduate school. Within months, however, the younger Armstrong was ousted from all positions in the church and college owing to an unrelated scandal, and Herbert Armstrong, recovered from a heart attack, announced that Ambassador was closing its doors altogether. That stance was softened just as quickly, however, and the decision was made to continue operating Ambassador as a scaled-down academic institution more in line with a bible college. Beginning in August 1978, new incoming students were offered a one-year course ("Diploma in Biblical Studies"), with graduation thereafter, on 4 Sep.1979. Eventually, Ambassador returned to full four-year status, operating with state approval, but still without regional accreditation. Accreditation was something Armstrong did not agree with. In 1981, Herbert Armstrong decided to reopen the Texas campus, which was still owned by the church. In 1985 he decided to close that campus again. In January 1986 Armstrong died, and his successor as church leader, Joseph W. Tkach, decided to keep the Texas campus open. The roller coaster of closings and openings was possible only because Ambassador was not regionally accredited. State approval to grant degrees (a requirement in most states, including California and Texas) is all that had been sought by the institution. However, the dynamics of higher education in the United States soon began to have an effect on independent, unaccredited colleges like Ambassador. For many years, regional accreditation was not required for colleges to open in various states—only state approval was needed. By the late 1980s, however, many states began to require that a college, after having operated for a certain number of years, would have to either move from state approval to regional accreditation or be closed. Ambassador was at a crossroads, in that it had to seek regional accreditation or be reduced to a bible college offering diplomas rather than recognized degrees or else close its doors for good. The board of regents of Ambassador, still consisting of members of the Worldwide Church of God, decided to merge all operations at one location and seek regional accreditation. The decision