Happy New Year, my friends! 

I hope this message finds you well. Although Boulder has had a bit of a rough start to the year, I trust you all had some time to relax and unwind away from work. 

By now, you should have received either a notification from NC-SARA confirming your renewal for the period of March 2022–March 2023 or a request for additional information from our SPE due to non-compliance. In either case, please ensure you follow your campus's records retention policy for filing and retaining your communications from NC-SARA. If you have any questions or need assistance with the information you received from NC-SARA or the SPE, feel free to reach out to me. 

Looking ahead to the next 11 months: 

• Professional Licensure 2.0: What more can we offer our current and prospective students about professional licensure programs beyond the minimum requirements? Personally, I’ll be exploring Boulder’s education degrees, Colorado teacher licensure, and reciprocity over the next few months. I was inspired by a presentation from the State Authorization team at Boston University, which provides students with helpful information on obtaining licensure in various states and fields. While BU is a private institution on the East Coast with no in-state/out-of-state student threshold and proximity to several states, sharing alternative licensure pathways with students could be a great marketing or business move for us, especially in coordination with Admissions.
• Coursera (and other OPMs) & SARA: The conversation around state authorization and courses offered via platforms like Coursera and other OPMs is growing louder. For a while, many offerings were ignored in terms of compliance because they were non-credit courses, but they should not have been. Since these programs fall under our institution’s banner, students (or learners as some call them) taking them should receive all required disclosures and notifications, just like any other campus student, including information on student complaints and state authorization. I’ll be spending part of this year working with Coursera to ensure Boulder complies with SARA policies for these courses, ideally without needing new processes or procedures. 
• Providing Education to Overseas Students: This is an area where I don't know a lot, but I do know just enough to be dangerous, which is why I’m excited that WCET-SAN is hosting a webinar on the topic on February 16th. Unlike SARA for domestic students, no international compact exists, which means we have to navigate international tax considerations, obtain permissions from foreign departments of education or state, and comply with sanctions that prevent delivering certain programs in specific countries (e.g., no engineering programs in Iran). Some universities avoid admitting overseas students due to the legal and financial complexities involved. While this may seem beyond the scope of "state" authorization, it's an increasingly common issue that I’ll be keeping an eye on this year. 

In case you missed it:

• Isakson & Roe Update – Deadline for Veterans Benefits Flexibilities Extended: The REMOTE Act (H.R.5545) extends the full Monthly Housing Allowance (MHA) until June 1, 2022, for students using GI Bill benefits who are continuing to attend courses solely online due to emergency or health-related situations. This flexibility was previously set to expire on December 21, 2021. For more information, you may want to review the Update on Issues Affecting Veterans Benefits published on November 11, 2021. 

Erika G. Swain
Interim Assistant Director for State Authorization
Office of Academic Affairs
University of Colorado System