Latest NIC accreditation report: Progress has been made, but the university is not yet out of the woods

COEUR d’ALENE – A new report says governance at North Idaho College has improved, but accreditors warn the improvements may not last.

A team from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities conducted a site visit to NIC on Oct. 14 and 15 and prepared a 14-page peer evaluation report, which the college made public Thursday afternoon.

Read the full report at cdapress.com.

The site visit was the last before NIC’s deadline to return to good standing. Since the beginning of last year, NIC has been operating under a show-cause sanction, the last step before losing accreditation. Federal regulations provide that the college has until April 1, 2025, to resolve remaining issues identified by the accrediting agency, most of which relate to college governance and trustee conduct.

Reviewers said they heard many compliments about board Chairman Mike Waggoner’s “respectful and professional” leadership. The report said Wagoner “appears to have internalized specific (Association of Community College Trustees) training and the results have helped heal the NIC.”

While the tenor of board meetings has become more professional and respectful in recent months, the assessors said they were presented with recent examples of “negative and unproductive” interactions between NIC president Nick Swayne and individual trustees.

“Despite past experiences, the president has been serious about building a positive relationship with the board chairman and other board members, as well as the ACCT consultants,” the report said. “Yet, forging a truly unified, mutually supportive presidential and administration-wide relationship remains a work in progress and will take effort, more time and respectful authentic communication.”

Overall, the assessors found evidence of improvements in governance at NIC, although the sustainability of the positive changes remains to be seen.

“First, their history itself is too short – perhaps a few months at best – to provide convincing assurance that the shifts are permanent, especially in light of the more than two years that have passed since the initial sanctions of the NWCCU,” the report said. . “Furthermore, during on-site interviews, no one expressed much confidence in the sustainability of the administration’s current trajectory.”

The evaluators also pointed out a budgetary risk for NIC.

Although NIC has reduced the “fiscal impact of litigation, governance and accreditation issues arising from board actions in recent years,” evaluators pointed to the college’s return to the National Junior College Athletic Association and associated costs as a financial concern.

The board’s 3-2 decisions to switch athletic conferences and cover all expenses for student athletes have placed “a multi-million dollar burden on NIC’s budget and a substantial hidden burden on NIC’s academic and student support services,” the report said.

NIC’s athletics budget has increased from approximately $2.2 million to approximately $6 million. This includes $1.6 million, budgeted to cover tuition, room and board, books and round-trip airfare for all student-athletes playing sports associated with the Scenic West Athletic Conference.

NIC is expected to spend just $1.3 million on tuition and fees for student athletes in fiscal year 2025.

“NIC’s current budget model, which focuses on athletics, remains a risk to the college and is not sustainable in terms of governance, finances and personnel,” the report said.

Faculty have noted an increase in demand for “online, hybrid, or athlete-driven course scheduling to accommodate class absences due to increased travel, which poses a particularly difficult challenge for hands-on courses such as laboratory science.”

The staff and faculty have also done their best to provide adequate academic support services to meet students’ needs.

“For international recruits in particular, services needed include language assistance, legal travel support (visa, passport, basic transportation), personal care needs, weekend and holiday housing/meals, and general community connection. These efforts come at a cost that is not reflected in the athletics budget or faculty/staff workload,” the report said.

Evaluators said an adjustment to the budget model could ensure sustainability by restructuring a “practical long-term athletics budget,” restoring annual capital reserve funds used to fill the gap in athletics funding and address personnel changes.

“Ideally, the work can re-engage faculty and staff in a way that honors their expertise and professionalism, restoring trust and returning collective focus to NIC’s mission,” the report said.

NIC representatives will appear before the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities in Seattle in January. The accreditors will meet there to decide on the status of NIC.