N. Idaho College receives final report before accreditation vote

With a vote on North Idaho College’s accreditation status expected in January, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities released its final report to the college last week. It offers a mixed view of the beleaguered community college in Coeur d’Alene, reemphasizing governance issues as the primary concern.

The Northwest Commission has done that NIC issued numerous warnings about its chaotic management, where meetings of the Supervisory Board also resulted in dramatic events personal attacks and occasional profanity. As in previous reports, the accreditor noted that, apart from administrative matters, the college is functioning well.

“All currently remaining issues relate to the governance of the board,” NIC noted in a press release.

North Idaho College has started show cause status since February last year, after a series of warnings from NWCCU. The accreditor has criticized the five-member board for repeatedly violating open meetings laws, trying to kick out the president and replace him with an interim, and bypassing a formal bidding process to hire a lawyer with no experience in higher education and financial ties to three trustees. which usually form a lockstep majority.

That could change: NWCCU said in the 14 page report released last week that “in recent months, the North Idaho College administration has taken steps to promote adherence to appropriate roles and responsibilities, expectations, professional conduct and ethics, and the handling of complaints.”

Still, the report noted that the NWCCU team “struggled to find convincing evidence that (these trends) are sustainable” and warned that “old patterns of operational overreach, occasional incivility, off-agenda topics and messy document processing” were still visible. .

NIC’s board, which is being elected, will soon see some turnover. Todd Banducci, a former board chairman who led efforts to oust university administrators, is not running for re-election, nor is current Chairman Mike Waggoner, who regularly votes with Banducci. Greg McKenzie, another former board chairman and the third member of the hyper-conservative majority voting bloc, is to run for re-election.