Good afternoon!

I know we’re all terribly busy with not only our typical summer workloads but also readying our campuses for what I can honestly say is the most unusual fall semester I have ever seen.

With “location” policies (hopefully) in place, the beginning of our Covid-enhanced Fall semesters should be busy with making sure we have deployed our data collection and required notifications activities well and correctly. If you’re still looking for information or need any assistance in these areas, please don’t hesitate to reach out. As a reminder, failure to comply with these regulations puts the your University in danger of losing access to Title IV (federal financial) aid.

I’ll be offering a training for the admissions folks on the Boulder campus about professional licensure programs and our notification obligations regarding prospective students in a few
weeks. Once I have that date and the link, I’ll pass it along in case you’re interested in joining (we will also be recording it for additional/later access to the training by the various groups of admission’s staff).

This Fall puts those of us that work in state authorization in a very curious position. I know each of our universities is defining and redefining the various modalities, but at the end of the day there are really only a few that are recognized by the Department of Ed and our accreditor - distance, hybrid, and correspondence. With the potential for the revised definition from the Department of Education coming at any time, now might be a good time to review each of these and how this combination could impact reporting to IPEDS and NC-SARA next year. Additionally, given the inevitably large amount of distance education happening this year, this would be a good time to review and revise any web statements or websites you have regarding the university’s participation in NC-SARA and how students may submit complaints (of any type). Make sure that this information is easily found and maybe check with those who send out the various required annual notifications to students - reminding students that you’ve got their back and can ensure to them that you’re authorized to offer their courses and programs where they’re located is a small gesture many may not read, but it’s a kind one that others will surely notice.

And while most of us only deal in the realm of STATE authorization, I don’t know about you but I have been pulled in to the current conversations and some planning on what to do
regarding the news that came out last week from the Department of Homeland Security/ICE about students on the F-1 and M-1 visas and their ability to be in the US if only taking online courses this fall. While dozens of amici have been filed since the initial lawsuit brought forward by Harvard and MIT, this is al one way from over I fear. For this of us in State Authorization, it’s important to have ready that policy on student location and the ability to assist legal (should they need it) in looking in to authorization to offer some of our programs and courses online in other countries. Again, likely won’t fall to us, but authorization in many foreign countries works very similar to how state authorization worked in the US prior to NC-SARA, so we have a particular set of skills and knowledge that may be invaluable. Additionally, keep in mind there are some programs that cannot be offered in some countries due to federal embargo (you will mainly see this in STEM programs - Texas Tech actually has a good overview of this). Again, more than likely this will not be any of your/our concern, but it’s out there and tangentially related so I wanted to make sure to mention it.

In lighter news - I’ll be sending information out to state authorization folks across CO & the Rocky Mountain Region about joining us on August 5th (virtually) for the COLTT conference where we have a space for sessions elating to state authorization and how we can be of beaer assistance to each other with sharing information among the various colleges and universities. I’m excited because this year we’ll be joined by Lori Williams, President of NC- SARA for a conversation on what they have been doing and some of the new avenues they’re looking to. We’ll also have a networking opportunity with other state authorization folks from across the region. Attendance to the RM-SAS portion of the COLTT conference will be free; should you wish to attend the entire COLTT conference, there will be a small fee to access all of the other sessions and opportunities available. Again, more information on that will be coming out shortly.

One more thing! I know these emails can be a bit of a drag - would any of you be interested in doing some live (zoom) meetings or is there a particular topic you would like to have a more in-depth live session about?

I hope you are all doing well and your summer has been an enjoyable one so far! As always, if I can be of any assistance or you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out!

Sincerely,
Erika

Erika G. Swain
Associate 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