Hello everyone!

I can’t be the only one who just spins from meeting to meeting, topic to topic, as we get ready for the start of the Fall semester. It’s been a wild ride and honestly I think it’s only about to get wilder, so I promise to keep it brief.

NC-SARA has created a seal for approved (participating) institutions to use & display on our SARA websites/disclosures. Like most logos or seals, there are some guidelines and mandatory verbiage to be used when displaying the seal. Make sure you’re able to honor those before displaying the new NC-SARA logo on your webpages or marketing materials.

It’s been great to get to connect with a lot of you and some of your academic departments/programs over the last few months as you prepared for the state authorization and professional licensure notifications as required by the Department of Education. If you’re looking for some additional information, WCET|SAN is hosting a webinar on 8/20 at 12pm on these required notifications. Not the most exciting way to spend your lunch, but Aaron Lacey (Thomas Coburn LLP), Jeannie Yockey-Fine (NC-SARA) and Shari Miller are excellent resources and will undoubtedly give some additional advice on implementing strategies for compliance with these regulations. If you have people on campus who are still unsure about our obligations and the consequences of not complying (the potential loss of access to Title IV), or if you have additional questions about these regulations, I highly recommend attending this information session.

I have been talking to some folks over at NC-SARA and a few of our peer universities about possibly joining us for an information session on state authorization and professional licensure. I’ll send out some dates as soon as we can get these nailed down. If there are other topics in this arena that you would like to hear more about, let me know. I’d be more than happy to create or facilitate some training and information sessions for all of us.

One more thing: it’s important to remember with the Fall (and possibly the Spring...) academic offerings moving online, no matter what we’re calling this on our campuses (remote, online,
hyflex, etc.), if the student and instructors are separated during the delivery of the instruction (no matter if it’s synchronous or asynchronous), it is considered distance education by the federal government, HLC, IPEDS reporting, other states, and our friends at NC-SARA. This will come back in to conversation, undoubtedly, as we do our various external reporting later this academic year. We will have many names and words for what it we’re doing this coming year, but when it comes to reporting and complying with these regulations, criteria, and standards, the only recognized modalities are face-to-face/traditional, hybrid (mix of face-to-face and distance), distance education, and correspondence education. If you have any questions about these definitions or continuing compliance with NC-SARA and state authorization regulations as we move through this strange semester please don’t hesitate to ask. Additionally, if I can help you marry this with our other requirements to HLC or other external accreditors or agencies, I’m always here to help.

I hope you all continue to be well!!

Sincerely,
Erika

Erika G. Swain
Interim Assistant Director for State Authorization
Office Digital Education
University of Colorado System
e: swaine@cu.edu
https://www.cu.edu/state-authorization
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Assistant Director for Compliance and Authorization
Office of Data Analytics | Office of Institutional Research
University of Colorado Boulder
e: Erika.Swain@colorado.edu
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o: (303) 735-8184
c: (518) 637-9785