North Idaho College wins reprieve with accreditation extension, relaxed sanction

North Idaho College has won a reprieve in its bid to retain accreditation, learning Monday that its accreditor, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, had decided to relax its sanctions on the college and granted the school a one-year extension to clear up remaining issues.

“While we still have work to do, this is a step in the right direction,” NIC President Nick Swayne said in a prepared statement Monday.

NIC has been in danger of losing its accreditation since its accreditor sanctioned the college in 2022 for board governance dysfunction. The “show cause” sanction is the last step before pulling a college’s accreditation.

The U.S. Department of Education requires such sanctions to be resolved within three years, which means the college has until April 2025 to return to good standing.

“Since then, nearly all items have been resolved,” the college said in its statement.

Last March, the Northwest Commission highlighted a number of unresolved recommendations, including that the college at the time simultaneously employed two presidents. In December 2022, a newly elected board majority placed Swayne on administrative leave without cause and hired Greg South as president; Swayne successfully sued NIC to reinstate him in March 2023, but South remained on payroll until last June.

A moderate group of NIC board members swept into office in the November election. The previous, more conservative majority put Swayne on leave and hired South.

The college reported that its accreditor had noted significant progress in the last seven months and the college was “positioned to remedy the remaining non-compliant issues within the established timeframe of the extension.”

Swayne added that the college is happy their progress has been recognized and is looking forward to “putting this completely behind us.”