Hello everyone!

I can’t be the only one who feels like I’m constantly jumping from meeting to meeting, topic to topic, as we prepare for the start of the fall semester. It’s been a wild ride, and honestly, I think it’s only going to get wilder, so I’ll keep this brief. 

NC-SARA has created a seal for approved (participating) institutions to use and display on our SARA websites and disclosures. Like most logos or seals, there are guidelines and mandatory verbiage that must be followed when displaying the seal. Be sure to review these guidelines carefully before adding the new NC-SARA logo to your webpages or marketing materials. 

It’s been great connecting with many of you, along with your academic departments and programs, over the past few months as you prepared for the state authorization and professional licensure notifications required by the Department of Education. If you’re looking for additional information, WCET|SAN is hosting a webinar on August 20th at 12 p.m. regarding these required notifications. It might not be the most exciting way to spend your lunch, but Aaron Lacey (Thomas Coburn LLP), Jeannie Yockey-Fine (NC-SARA), and Shari Miller are excellent resources who will undoubtedly offer valuable advice on implementing strategies for compliance with these regulations. If there are people on your campus who are still unsure about our obligations and the consequences of not complying (including the potential loss of access to Title IV funding), or if you have additional questions about the regulations, I highly recommend attending this session. 

I’ve been talking with some folks at NC-SARA and a few of our peer universities about possibly joining us for an information session on state authorization and professional licensure. I’ll send out dates as soon as we can finalize them. If there are other topics in this area that you’d like to learn more about, please let me know. I’d be happy to create or facilitate some training and information sessions for all of us. 

One more thing: With the fall (and possibly spring) academic offerings moving online, it’s important to remember that no matter what your campus is calling it (remote, online, HyFlex, etc.), if the students and instructors are separated during the delivery of instruction—whether it’s synchronous or asynchronous—the federal government, HLC, IPEDS reporting, other states, and NC-SARA all consider it distance education. This will undoubtedly come up again when we do our various external reporting later this academic year. While we may use many terms to describe what we’re doing this year, when it comes to reporting and complying with these regulations and standards, the only recognized modalities are face-to-face/traditional, distance education, and correspondence education. Hybrid (a mix of face-to-face and distance) as a modality is not defined by any regulator. If you have any questions about these definitions or about continuing compliance with NC-SARA and state authorization regulations during this unusual semester, please don’t hesitate to ask. Also, if I can help you align these requirements with those from HLC or other external accreditors or agencies, I’m always here to assist. 

I hope you all continue to be well! 

Sincerely,
Erika

Erika G. Swain
Interim Assistant Director for State Authorization
Office Digital Education
University of Colorado System
e: swaine@cu.edu
https://www.cu.edu/state-authorization
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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