The full impact of the loss of accreditation is hard to imagine because it didn’t happen in Idaho.
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – If North Idaho College loses its accreditation, two things are certain: credits earned will not be transferable and students will not be eligible for federal financial aid, reports the Coeur d’Alene Press.
Beyond that, the path is misty.
“This is uncharted territory,” said Mike Keckler, communications and legislative affairs manager for the Idaho Board of Education. “There is nothing in the law, no framework in place about how we would handle the loss of accreditation and what it would mean for the school.”
In Idaho, all public post-secondary institutions must be accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, a federally recognized accrediting body that sanctioned the NIC with a warning in April, largely in due to a dysfunction within the board of directors.
The NWCCU sent a letter to the college on Saturday, warning that the board’s recent actions do not meet NWCCU’s eligibility requirements and credentialing standards.
The NIC has until January 4 to respond explaining why it is not non-compliant.
North Idaho College’s accreditation issue looms large in the wake of the letter, with an NWCCU site visit scheduled for March and the board embroiled in a dispute over a abruptly hired attorney, president suing to get back to work after being placed on administrative leave, votes of no confidence from college faculty and staff, suspended policies and a slew of possible violations of the Open Meetings Act.
Even if accreditation is lost, students already enrolled at NIC could graduate, according to the State Board of Education. Degrees obtained before the loss would remain valid.
But dual enrollment programs for high school students would cease to exist, as would satellite programs with other colleges.
NIC’s nursing program is separately accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Nursing Education, but it’s unclear how long the program could survive without the college.
The full impact of the loss of accreditation is hard to imagine because it didn’t happen in Idaho.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this where someone lost their accreditation,” Keckler said.
Amid concerns about accreditation, another question has swirled in the community: If North Idaho College fails, what will happen to the land it sits on?
To answer, we must go back to the history of the college.
In October 1937, Winton Lumber Company donated 32 acres of land in the abandoned Fort Sherman military reservation in Kootenai County with the goal of developing a public park, hospital or educational facility.
For centuries, people of the Coeur d’Alene tribe have gathered to hunt, fish, dance, play games, feast and swim in this area, where the lake empties into the Spokane River.
The special site was called Yap-Keehn-Um, which means “the gathering place”. The beach still bears this name.
Coeur d’Alene Junior College was founded in 1933. By early 1940, the renamed North Idaho Junior College had outgrown its original space on the third floor of Coeur d’Alene City Hall.
In “The Gathering Place: A History of North Idaho College,” Fran Bahr describes how the search for a permanent home for the college came down to two choices: the city-owned factory site near of Tubbs Hill, which is now McEuen Park, or County-owned Winton Park.
An informal vote revealed that Kootenai County residents preferred the park, which was spacious enough for future expansion.
If college fails, according to county records, ownership reverts to Kootenai County.
The first structures for the new campus were a two-story administration/classroom building and a professional arts building, which cost about $135,000 combined. That’s about $2.8 million in today’s dollars.
Nowadays, the college itself owns all buildings on campus except those funded by the Division of Public Works or the Dormitory Housing Commission.
The only such building is now the NIC Student Wellness and Recreation. It will belong to the college when the deposit is paid.
Under Idaho law, the trustees of each community college district have the authority to acquire, hold, and dispose of real and personal property. They also have the power to convey and transfer real estate on which no academic building used for instruction is located to non-profit organizations, school districts, junior housing commissions, counties or municipalities , as well as renting real estate not used for educational purposes for fixed periods. by the council.
Colleges that lose their accreditation tend to close. A Wall Street Journal survey of 18 institutions that lost accreditation between 2000 and 2015 found that half were closed. Surviving schools had an average graduation rate of 35%.
Community colleges losing their accreditation also seem to be rare. City College of San Francisco, a two-year college with approximately 85,000 students and 11 campuses and locations, closed in 2013.
The college had received sanctions from its regional accrediting body, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which accredits institutions in California, Hawaii and U.S. Pacific Ocean territories. The San Francisco community college has been disciplined for numerous issues, according to Inside Higher Ed, including “dangerous budget deficits, an uncertain governance system and a failure to track student results.”
Although the college remained non-compliant in many areas, its credentialing commission eventually granted a two-year extension to resolve the issues and avoid a closure. In 2017, the commission reaffirmed the City College of San Francisco’s accreditation for seven years.
At North Idaho College, the future remains uncertain.
For now, residents and state-level leaders are watching, waiting, and hoping the college retains its accreditation — because the alternative is nearly unimaginable.
“We just don’t know what that would entail,” Keckler said. “I pray we don’t have to find out.”
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