Hello hello!

It's been a busy month in other regulatory landscapes (the ED redefined what they mean when they say Third Party Servicer and it threw many of us in to a tizzy for a couple of weeks ‐ we can talk about another time if you would like, it's not really a state authorization issue...) but I hope you're all doing well!

As we head in to Spring, it's almost time for us to do our SARA data reporting. There's a webinar being offered next week on the topic to help remind us what we need to do and introduce any new requirements in the reporting. As per usual with NC‐SARA, the webinar is free and I encourage you to go even if you aren't responsible for the data reporting on your campus ‐ it's always good to know how the data is used and how our institutions may be effective. You can register here:

https://nc‐sara.org/news‐events/2023‐nc‐sara‐annual‐data‐reporting‐exclusively‐distance‐education‐enrollments‐and‐oututm_source=AdaptiveMailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Regionals,%20SPEs%20and%20Institution%20Contacts&org=2562&lvl=100&ite=342&lea=541&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a17Du0000009h6CIAQ

Speaking of SARA ‐ they have updated their policy process and you can listen to what is being proposed and why. There is a very long list of proposals and while Ricky LaFosse at UM promises me he's not proposing anything that will be burdensome on folks like us, I cannot imagine that will be the same for some of the proposals from the folks at the Century Foundation. The Century Foundation is one of a myriad of groups that want NC‐SARA to have more oversight and, well honestly, they want NC‐SARA to act as a regulator and not an agreement among states. I can't say I completely disagree but that is something that is really up to the states if they want to strengthen that.

You can register to listen to tomorrow's Policy Sessions (and see the complete list of what is being proposed & by whom) here:

https://nc‐sara.org/sara‐policy‐announcements?utm_source=AdaptiveMailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Regionals,%20SPEs%20and%20Institution%20Contacts&org=2562&lvl=100&ite=342&lea=541&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a17Du0000009h6CIAQ

One more thing before I go back to talking about TPS reports with my friends in Financial Aid ‐ I don't know if you saw the story in Inside Higher Ed on Monday about the University of California system banning fully "online" degrees ‐ basically falling back on old tropes and bad information about online education being less than. I don't know where they're going to go from here with this but hey their loss could be our gain. I'd keep an eye on this if I were you and especially if I was in admissions and for us in State Authorization‐land, make sure you're language about CA and how we're ok to offer even though they don't participate in SARA and if you offer professional licensure programs online, try to do your best to make a determination about what you're delivering in CA and the applicability to those state licensure exams. We may see students looking to make a jump to another institution and we should make sure we're able to give them the best information possible.

Short month = short email!

Have a great week!
Erika