COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — It's April 1, 2024, which means the North Idaho College (NIC) Board of Trustees has exactly one year to get back in good standing with its accrediting agency.
The Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) decided last July that NIC will remain accredited for at least the next year. Five months after the NWCCU said the board has made "little to no progress" on the recommendations it needs to address in order to avoid losing accreditation, the board now has one year left to make more progress.
In its finding last year, the NWCCU said there are three areas in which the college is compliant but needs to improve, including presidential procedures and retention, complying with shared governance structures in place and financial transparency.
There are nine recommendations that the college needs to address, which can be found here.
A 19-page NWCCU report released last November stated the board hasn't made much progress on the recommendations it needs to address in order to avoid losing accreditation. The report shows the board of trustees is still actively hoping to terminate the contract for current NIC President Nick Swayne, despite a failed attempt to fire him in 2022 and a judge's order to reinstate him.
The report also said trustees have repeatedly overstepped their own boundaries, and have failed to adequately address 13 votes of no confidence from faculty, staff and students.
Earlier this month, NIC received a formal notification letter and plan of action from the NWCCU outlining steps the college needs to take in order to return to full compliance. NWCCU also decided it will have a single Show Cause visit in October 2024, rather than the previously scheduled April and fall visit.
“NWCCU recognizes the good work of the faculty, staff, and administrators throughout this process, but we are approaching the end of the three-year time period for the deficiencies that led to the initial Sanction of Warning to be corrected,” according to the Plan document approved and sent by the NWCCU Board of Commissioners.
The plan is requiring NIC to develop "Teach-Out-Agreements" with other institutions for all its academic programs, which need to be submitted to NWCCU by Aug. 31, 2024. Those agreements reportedly add details to the "Teach-Out" plans that NIC was required to create in 2023.
Other recommendations in the plan include documenting the Board of Trustees' participation in training, providing evidence that the board is following policies and documenting success from the board working with the president to reach its goals.
The college remains under a "show cause sanction," which means it could still lose accreditation if certain things aren't corrected by next year. NIC now has until April 1, 2025 to get back in good standing with NWCCU.
If the college's status does not change, its accreditation will be taken away.
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