It's SARA Data Reporting Time! That magical time of year when we hunt for the elusive OOSLPs that stem from various departments and units all over campus! 

Data is due to NC-SARA by the close of business on June 15th. Once you have the data, the report itself takes about 30 minutes to fill out and submit, which is a relief—much easier than the renewal process we completed back in December. 

For this year's SARA update, the only change concerns how to report data from branch campuses. However, considering that the Anschutz campus is only one county away, these new rules shouldn’t affect Denver’s reporting. Still, it might be a good idea to review that section of the NC-SARA Data Reporting Handbook just to be sure. 

Speaking of the Handbook, don’t get too bogged down in it. Once again, it’s a valiant effort by the NC-SARA team, but it still falls short in providing straightforward answers to many of the common questions institutions typically have when reporting data. If you run into any snags when collecting or reporting your data, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. 

You can explore how NC-SARA publishes all collected data and see various ways to analyze it here: https://nc-sara.org/data-dashboards 

In other news, the Department of Education officially withdrew February’s Dear Colleague Letter that changed guidance on TPS relationships and had many of us scrambling. This is great news! However, in the new DCL, they mentioned that they would likely revisit this topic at a later date, reaffirming the belief many of us share that they will likely propose new regulations related to TPS—specifically OPMs—in the Negotiated Rulemaking scheduled for early this fall. Don’t discard any work or reviews you’ve done; they may prove useful later this year or early next year. 

Finally, here are a workshop and a couple of conferences to keep on your radar if you have professional development or travel funds available:

1. COLTT Conference - August 3 in Boulder, CO. The Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference is a one-day event focused on engaging participants in learning about teaching practices and technologies, challenging them to rethink both. Thanks to the wonderful Jaimie Henthorn, Heather Delange (our State Portal Entity from CDHE) and I will co-host an afternoon of discussions on state authorization with colleges and universities from across the state (and neighboring states, as the University of Wyoming is the only one up there). More information on the state authorization session will be coming soon—save the date! 
2. WCET 35th Annual Meeting - October 25-27 with a preconference SAN workshop on October 24th in New Orleans. This is a valuable opportunity to connect with state authorization professionals from across the WICHE region (and beyond) and attend sessions on the latest developments from Washington impacting our work, as well as best practices in state authorization and alternative education delivery modalities. 

Have a great week, everyone! I'll be here reviewing some self-study drafts for an upcoming ABET visit and working on Boulder’s HELC renewal for courses we offer in DC. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!