Could North Idaho College Really Lose Its Accreditation?

Abolish race-conscious practices. Finish “leftist indoctrination.” Repair what’s fallacious with increased schooling in America. These have been the long-stated targets of Republican governors, lawmakers, and activists who, empowered by voters and working below state legislation, have for many years sought to remake the ideological local weather on school campuses by taking management of the boards that govern public establishments.

However what occurs when the actions of those boards violate long-established guidelines and norms concerning institutional governance, and in flip start to imperil a public college or school’s monetary and operational well-being?

That’s what may occur at North Idaho Faculty, a 4,500-student neighborhood school that sits 13 miles from the state’s northwestern border. After three years of board interference and dysfunction, it now finds itself dealing with down a menace from its accreditor of a “show-cause” sanction — which might functionally be a closing warning to the school to form up or danger termination of its accreditation from the Northwest Fee on Faculties and Universities.

And it’s the board itself that has put the school’s accreditation at higher danger. In a Dec. 17 letter, the fee warned that “current and subsequent public actions” of the school’s board “seem to position the establishment at vital danger of being out of compliance with plenty of NWCCU Eligibility Necessities and Requirements.”

With out accreditation, college students enrolled on the school can be ineligible to take part in federal financial-aid packages to pay for his or her schooling there. For many establishments, this lack of entry to federal {dollars} functionally serves as a demise sentence. The “show-cause” menace follows a warning letter from NWCCU final April.

Since 2016, solely two public establishments of upper schooling within the mainland U.S. have ever been focused with a “show-cause” sanction by their institutional accreditor, based on a Chronicle evaluation.

Now, uncertainty abounds. Will the specter of accreditor motion curtail the board’s penchant for casting apart presidents? And, if not, will the fee really withdraw the establishment’s accreditation, even when it means the tip of North Idaho Faculty? And the way will different events — like state regulators and legislators, future insurers, crediting-rating companies, the U.S. Division of Schooling, and even different accreditors — think about?

What increased ed can depend on, mentioned Sondra Barringer, an assistant professor of upper schooling at Southern Methodist College, are extra standoffs just like the one at North Idaho Faculty between activist-minded boards at public schools and the organizations that accredit these establishments.

Nobody is aware of the place the subsequent showdown will escape. However one other board-governance affair paying homage to the NIC saga performed out at New Faculty of Florida on Tuesday. A brand new board majority — appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to remake the establishment right into a “Hillsdale of the South” that rejects “fashionable” political opinions — voted to fireplace the school’s president, and substitute her within the interim with a former Republican Florida Home speaker and shut DeSantis ally.

‘Deep State’

The story of how this small Idaho school got here to the brink of shedding accreditation goes again a methods, however the roots of the newest chapter will be traced again to the ouster of Rick MacLennan, the then-president of 5 years. NWCCU issued a warning letter in April 2022, citing “persistent points with governance on the establishment” and alerting the school’s board that it was out of compliance with the accreditor’s insurance policies. Across the identical time, the Idaho State Board of Schooling appointed three new trustees to the school’s board to revive a quorum till November, when the three seats would go up for election.

The three state-appointed trustees have been seated alongside incumbent members Todd Banducci and Greg McKenzie, who had each voted to fireplace MacLennan with out trigger — an obvious counterstrike in opposition to the “NIC ‘deep state,’” which Banducci had beforehand described in an e-mail to a scholar.

The three new appointees, who shaped a brand new majority, additionally didn’t sit nicely with Banducci, who primarily characterised the transfer as a hostile takeover of the board he chaired.

“They’re transferring at lightning pace to cram it down our throats!!” Banducci reportedly wrote on his Fb web page. “They’re making an attempt to take it out of the arms of the voters. Pushing by means of their agenda through bureaucratic fiat.”

Over Banducci and McKenzie’s objections, the brand new board moved rapidly to appoint Nick Swayne, the chief director of a Virginia-based partnership between the state’s eight public universities, as North Idaho’s new president. He changed Interim President Michael Sebaaly — who had gotten an uncommon promotion, due to help from Banducci and McKenzie, from school wrestling coach to varsity president.

Newly aggrieved, Banducci, McKenzie, and their allies set their sights on restoring their board majority come election time. However first, their coalition would wish to assuage any considerations that voters might need concerning the school’s accreditation. McKenzie argued in a marketing campaign missive that any speak of accreditation loss for NIC was overblown.

“What about accreditation?” McKenzie reportedly wrote earlier than the final election. “Isn’t it nonetheless in danger? No, that was Faux Information. Accreditation has by no means been ‘in danger’ and the one remaining merchandise on the accreditation companies request record is to rent a full-time Vice President, anticipated to be accomplished mid-November.”

Artwork Macomber, a neighborhood lawyer and failed Republican attorney-general candidate, echoed related sentiments in a Coeur d’Alene Press visitor column printed earlier than the election.

“The scare tactic complaints about NIC’s accreditation appear to be a smokescreen,” Macomber wrote.

Banducci and McKenzie wanted simply one among their three most popular candidates to win on the poll field with a purpose to re-establish their majority on the five-seat board. And regardless of a $140,000 marketing campaign warfare chest backing a slate of candidates endorsed by the regional Chamber of Commerce, Banducci and McKenzie have been ultimately in a position to safe their all-important third vote.

Not losing any time, at a December 8 board assembly, Banducci, McKenzie, and newly elected Mike Waggoner voted to instantly place President Nick Swayne on administrative depart (he promptly sued, trying to be reinstated).

Critics alleged the board’s motion had violated Idaho’s open-meetings legislation, a violation that the board would concede to in a gathering later that month. Macomber, who by this time was the school’s newly employed lawyer, mentioned the transfer to position Swayne on administrative depart would enable the board to “examine issues which have arisen of concern that impeded our accreditation success.”

Paradoxically, North Idaho Faculty’s choice to position Swayne on depart gave rise to new anxieties about its accreditation.

On December 17, NWCCU penned a letter to the school’s management, elevating for the primary time the prospect {that a} “show-cause” order may very well be issued in opposition to the establishment for its ongoing lack of compliance with the accreditor’s insurance policies. “Present-cause” orders are a relative rarity in increased schooling, and are virtually by no means levied in opposition to public establishments like North Idaho Faculty.

Based on a Chronicle evaluation, of the 745 “show-cause” orders issued by institutional accreditors since 2016 and on file with the Division of Schooling, solely two mainland public establishments of upper schooling have ever acquired such a sanction: Cheyney College of Pennsylvania, a four-year traditionally black college which had struggled financially up to now (Cheyney’s accreditor has since eliminated all sanctions in opposition to it); and Learey Technical Faculty, a Florida vocational college that’s now part of the Hillsborough County Public Colleges system. (All 11 campuses of the College of Puerto Rico have been additionally issued “show-cause” findings in early 2019 after every failed to submit sure monetary and regulatory gadgets to the group’s accreditor).

Responding to the accreditor’s letter, North Idaho wrote final month that it had taken quite a few steps to rectify problems with noncompliance, resembling permitting public remark throughout common board conferences. However the board rejected the advice of two of school’s directors, who have been then performing as interim chief executives, to convey Swayne again; the board majority cited Swayne’s lawsuit in justifying their refusal.

As a substitute, the board’s 3-2 majority voted to make Greg South, previously an interim dean of instruction at NIC, the school’s newest performing president. Below the auspices of the Swayne lawsuit, Macomber issued greater than a dozen subpoenas to varsity staff, former trustees, and others, based on reporting by The Coeur d’Alene Press. The Coeur d’Alene Press additionally discovered that below Macomber’s association with the school, the lawyer could invoice it $325 an hour for his authorized companies. In December — his first month on the job — the establishment paid him $25,000, based on invoices obtained by the paper.

As well as, the credit-ratings company Moody’s Buyers Service determined in late December to position the school’s $7.9 million in debt below assessment for a potential downgrade, which might make it costlier for the school to borrow cash. In its evaluation, Moody’s famous that the dysfunction on the school’s board had resulted within the lack of its insurer. A downgrade may come quickly, except the school demonstrates “significant steps taken to stabilize management and tackle accreditor’s considerations,” the discover acknowledged.

“The board members’ very public disputes with each other, school management, and exterior events are negatively impacting NIC’s model, which in flip, may negatively affect scholar demand and operations,” the analyst for Moody’s wrote.

To this point, Moody’s has not downgraded its scores for the school or its debt.

Sonny Ramaswamy, the accreditor’s president, mentioned the fee had not but ready a response to the school, which formally replied to the “show-cause” menace on January 4. Ramaswamy declined to reply any particular questions concerning the school’s accreditation.

Echoing solutions he supplied to state legislators’ questions final week, South, the brand new interim president of the school, mentioned in an interview with The Chronicle that he was targeted on working with the fee to convey the establishment again into compliance with the accreditor’s insurance policies, although he repeatedly famous that NIC stays accredited. South additionally mentioned that Ramaswamy had suggested the school’s management to deal with educating college students, and keep away from speculating on what may or may not come subsequent for the establishment.

As for the problem of working productively with a deeply divided board, South mentioned he believed the trustees have been dedicated to growing relationships and constructing belief.

“In the event that they weren’t dedicated to it, I most likely wouldn’t have taken the job,” South mentioned.

The Chronicle requested interviews with Banducci, McKenzie, Macomber, and the opposite board members. A spokesperson for the school supplied to ahead emailed inquiries to the group.

In response, McKenzie wrote that your complete establishment — board, administration, and staff — have been dedicated to assembly the fee’s expectations. Requested if he bore any duty for placing North Idaho Faculty at elevated danger of shedding its accreditation, McKenzie mentioned he did.

“Everybody in management shares duty in the place the school is at and the place we have to go,” McKenzie mentioned. “Being a member of the board governance group and having the accreditation points relate to governance[,] I share duty. Pointing fingers isn’t what our college students nor this faculty wants proper now.”

In line with Ramaswamy’s recommendation, Tarie Zimmerman, a trustee within the minority, wrote that the board had not mentioned any plans for a way the school would reply if NWCCU really did terminate the school’s accreditation.

Nothing In Between

Board members overseeing public establishments of upper schooling are more and more assuming that their roles prolong past the normal portfolio of fiduciary duty and long-term strategic administration, mentioned Barringer, the professor at Southern Methodist. In some instances, it’s activist-minded boards motivated by ideological goals. However Barringer additionally pointed to examples of board-president conflicts that arose from interpersonal disputes, like at Texas Southern College. In 2020, the college’s board voted to offer themselves the facility to fireplace any and all campus staff, a month after inserting its then-president on administrative depart.

As a result of public schools and universities like North Idaho Faculty so hardly ever take a look at the bounds of their relationships with accreditors, what occurs subsequent on the establishment will probably present priceless perception into how a lot upheaval a physique like NWCCU is keen to just accept earlier than it utterly loses belief in a governing board. “We don’t have a line by way of how far activist boards can go, and this might assist set up a line for this accreditor by way of how far it’s keen to let the board go,” Barringer mentioned.

And every potential transfer by the accreditor can in flip beget a special sequence of choices accessible to the school, mentioned Robert Kelchen, a professor of schooling on the College of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Withdrawing accreditation is a big step that might carry danger for North Idaho, its college students, and the fee itself. Kelchen mentioned he suspected that even when the accreditor have been to challenge a “show-cause” sanction in opposition to North Idaho, it might not transcend this step and truly reduce off college students’ entry to federal student-aid {dollars}. Regardless of all of the completely different names for several types of sanctions, Kelchen mentioned accreditors really solely have a restricted variety of instruments to tame board conduct.

“The instruments of their arsenal soar from rubber mallet to sledgehammer. There’s actually nothing in between,” Kelchen mentioned. “They will require a bunch of paperwork to be supplied. They will require a plan. However on the finish of the day, you might be both accredited, otherwise you’re not.”

However even when the fee have been to withdraw accreditation, North Idaho would nonetheless have choices. It may file a lawsuit to compel reaccreditation, or depend on allies and sympathizers within the media, inside Congress, on the Idaho Legislature, or on the federal committee that evaluates accreditors to strain the fee to revive the establishment’s entry to federal support.

The school may additionally elect to buy round for a brand new accreditor, Kelchen mentioned. However that’s no assure, both. And even when a special accreditor did settle for North Idaho Faculty’s membership, may the board lastly convey itself to comply with the foundations?