COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — This week, a team from North Idaho College’s accreditor will visit campus for the last time before NIC’s deadline to return to good standing.
Since early last year, NIC has operated under a show cause sanction, the last step before loss of accreditation. Federal regulations stipulate that the college has until April 1, 2025, to resolve the remaining issues identified by the accrediting body.
There is no framework for how a college would handle loss of accreditation. It’s never happened in Idaho.
Show cause sanctions are almost never levied against public institutions, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. When they are, it’s typically because of problems with a college’s finances or academics.
Instead, NIC’s accreditation is in jeopardy because of decisions made by the board of trustees.
Origins of a crisis
In an email to the Press, Trustee Greg McKenzie said problems at NIC predate his election “by more than a decade.” He pointed to declining enrollment, rising administrative costs and college policies that trustees had not reviewed or updated in years.
He noted that the roots of NIC’s current situation go back years. McKenzie was elected in 2020. Before issuing the show cause sanction, the NWCCU reviewed documents related to events at NIC dating back to 2019.
“The accreditation deadline is three years from a date prior to December 2022, so any ‘story’ glossing over dates prior and how NIC received its first accreditation warning is narrative building for political action committees whose election strategy is to ‘save NIC now’ when all political candidates have pledged to retain accreditation,” McKenzie said Friday.
This story was originally published by our news partner, the Bonner County Daily Bee.
