North Idaho College keeps accreditation for next school year, but remains under sanction

North Idaho College will stay accredited while it continues to address the areas of concern it was sanctioned for, the college’s accreditor announced Friday.

NIC has until April 1, 2025, to return to good standing or it will lose accreditation. The college remains under a show-cause sanction.

This is considered a neutral outcome, NIC President Nick Swayne said.

“The good news is it wasn’t a negative outcome,” he said.

Losing accreditation would have been a disaster for the college and the community.

This extension gives the college more time to show that it is in compliance with accreditation requirements, mostly related to governance issues.

Over the next year, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities may choose to reaffirm accreditation, revoke accreditation or give a final extension of an additional year.

NWCCU gave the college a warning sanction on April 1, 2022, which escalated to a show cause sanction on Feb. 9 following the NIC board’s decision to place Swayne on administrative leave without cause and hire Greg South as interim president. That action resulted in multiple lawsuits and no-confidence votes from the student, staff and faculty assemblies.

The commission outlined 18 areas of concern – six of which have been fully addressed, Swayne said.

In Friday’s notification to the college, NWCCU President Sonny Ramaswamy said three more are in substantial compliance, but need improvement. These are to create procedures for presidential evaluation, transparency to staff about financial resources and for the board to understand and adhere to existing governance structures.

The remaining nine recommendations include that the board and president should continue training on governance and ethics and the college should resolve current litigation. The board must also resolve issues underpinning all no-confidence resolutions, resolve uncertainties regarding leadership and accreditation status to improve employee retention and the board must “act to unequivocally identify one CEO/president of the institution.”

Although Swayne has been reinstated after winning a lawsuit against the college, Greg South, who was hired as an interim president by the college in December, remains on paid leave in good standing.

Members of the board did not respond to requests for comment.

Swayne said these recommendations will require significant work.

“The college remains committed to addressing all concerns,” he said.

The challenge will be to not only fix the issues, but to demonstrate with evidence that they have been solved and to collect that evidence as they go. He said NWCCU’s letter is helpfully clear about exactly what needs to be done.

Next steps in the extension review involve special reports and campus visits by the commission this fall and next spring.

“We are relying on our community for continued support as we make forward progress in the challenging work ahead,” Swayne said in a letter to the community.