Not going to lie, I honestly thought it was May...

Hi everyone & happy July! It's summer! There isn't much going on in higher ed, right? Ha!

A few quick things:

• the regulations from the VA known as Isakson & Roe go in to effect on 8/1/21. As a reminder this has an impact on those working in state authorization in the requirement that the institution provide those who receive VA funding and are enrolled in professional licensure programs receive information regarding "any additional requirements, including training, experience, or examinations, required to obtain the license, certification, or approval for which the course of education is designed to provide preparation." This is above, and in addition to, the requirements from ED and NC-SARA. While there are organizations attempting to get Congress to back off on this.... it goes in to effect in 12 days (unless your university has obtained the waiver for 1-yr, though I haven't heard if any of us have). Congress never acts that fast so let's not get our hopes up. Please do not leave the folks in your VMA offices on the hook for this when you have the keys to this informaFon - contact them and at the very least offer them the list of programs that fall in to this category and the contact informaFon for all the state licensing agencies.
• Since the ED acknowledged the concept of "Regional Accreditation" was something that was invented and maintained by the "regional" accreditors, and they all subsequently rebranded as "institutional accreditors," there has been a noticeable increase in their interest in state authorization. While this still falls to the states to regulate and review (which they do via NC-SARA and the State Portal Entities), don't be surprised if your ALO comes asking questions about your University's compliance with NC-SARA and other state regulations regarding the delivery of education... and speaking of. . .
• My social media has had a WILD uptick in ads from CU Online. Which is great - A+ on the markeFng and an increased enrollment is a good thing. BUT this means an increase scrutiny on compliance with NC-SARA, compliance with state authorization federal regulations, distance education definitions including compliance with regular and substantive definitions, tracking and assessment, compliance with the C-RAC Guidelines, and your institution's messaging regarding SARA compliance/participation, student complaints, and professional licensure programs. If you and your colleagues would like to sit down and review your compliance or progress please let me know. I'm happy to do an assessment of things so far and we can map out a plan to gather/maintain/document your compliance with these (the attached document is a great way to start).
• And lastly, something to think about for the future: For the first time, I heard Coursera mentioned by name today by folks at NC-SARA in the context of state authorization. After some side conversations with colleagues at other institutions there seems to be general consensus that this could be one of the next areas for state authorization to bleed into. As the universities start to do more and more via Coursera, regardless of whether or not the courses are for credit or lead to a degree or certification (we're still accepting money for the courses and delivering education across state lines and that clicks one or two of the NC-SARA requirements), it would be a very good idea to look at how your university contacts or interacts with students who use Coursera to access education and how you might be able to get your state authorization messaging included in that. Again, per the bullet above, we can always regroup on best practices for this and work on making this part of your overall state authorization/compliance program.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and if you have any quesFons, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Sincerely,
Erika

Erika G. Swain
Interim Assistant Director for State Authorization
Office of Academic Affairs
University of Colorado System
e: swaine@cu.edu
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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