Updates to Policies and Bylaws

Executive Summary

Changes, mostly minor, were made to the following policies, Bylaws, and Eligibility Requirements at the June 2022 Commission Meeting:

• Website: Notification of Opportunity for Comment – eliminates third-party comments submitted via email. Comments can be uploaded using an online form or submitted by mail
• Bylaws: Section 5.1 updated – Chair of the Nominations Committee changed
• Eligibility Requirement 20, Financial Accountability updated
• Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement
• Policy on Communication with Accreditation Constituencies
• Policy on Complaints Regarding Member or Candidate Institutions
• Policy on Legal Costs and Other Obligations

Website: Notification of Opportunity for Comment

Link: https://nwccu.org/member-institutions/upcoming-evaluations/

Purpose: Updated the NWCCU web page to eliminate email third party comments – they can be submitted using an online form, or by mail. Comments must be received 10 days before the start of the visit.

Scope: Process update

Impact: ALOs need to point individuals that might want to provide a third-party comment to the updated NWCCU web page.

Bylaws: Section 5.1

Purpose: Section 5.1 updated to change who chairs the Nominations Committee. Eliminates a potential conflict of interest when the Board Vice Chair might be in line to move into the Chair role. Having the Immediate Past Chair of the Commission serve as Chair eliminates this conflict.

Scope: Minor change

Impact: No impact

Eligibility Requirement 20, Financial Accountability

Purpose: Eligibility Requirement 20, Financial Accountability was updated to allow up to 15 months after the end of the fiscal year for institutions to provide their audited financial statements to NWCCU. This resolves an on-going issue that some institutions have of not being able to get their audited financial statements completed within the 9 months formerly required.

Scope: Updated to resolve an issue out of our institutions’ control

Impact: Creates the potential for the institution’s audited financial statement to become available outside of the Annual Report period. The ALO may need to provide the audited financial statement to NWCCU separately from the Annual Report.

Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement

Purpose: Not a policy, but a Statement describing NWCCU’s commitments

Scope: New statement

Impact: ALOs should be aware of this Statement

Policy on Communication with Accreditation Constituencies

Purpose: Minor policy update to:

• Apply the policy to candidacy and initial accreditation visits as well as Year 7 visits
• Set a deadline of ten days before the visit for receipt of third-party comments
• Require redaction of personally identifiable information on evaluation team members if an institution publishes peer evaluation reports on their website

Scope: Minor changes

Impact: ALOs need to be aware of these changes: Third-party comments now required for Candidacy and Initial Accreditation visits as well as Year 7 (EIE) visits; third-party comments must be submitted 10 days before the visit, and peer evaluator names must be redacted before the peer evaluation report is published on the institution’s website (publishing the peer evaluation report is not required, but some institutions choose to do so). Note: NWCCU will be updating its procedures to remove the peer evaluator names from the peer evaluation report to eliminate the need for redaction in the future.

Policy on Complaints Regarding Member or Candidate Institutions

Purpose: Clarification edits to align policy with current procedures

Scope: Minor changes

Impact: ALOs should be aware of this policy, and reference it if contacted by NWCCU about a complaint

Policy on Legal Costs and Other Obligations

Purpose: Updates to remove the term “indemnify” and make clear that the policy applies to both candidate and member institutions

Scope: Minor change

Impact: No impact