The NC-SARA Board held its Fall 2021 meeting on October 29, 2021.

During its meeting, the board tabled and discussed policy modifications including those concerning branch campuses, SARA Policy Manual sections 8.2 and 8.3, and inclusion of accreditors’ 21st Century Distance Education Guidelines. Here are the next steps coming out of the meeting regarding SARA policy:

  • Accreditors’ 21st Century Guidelines for Distance Education: The board established a working group to review and consider input from multiple stakeholders and to make recommendations to the NC-SARA Board in order to resolve issues associated with SARA policy regarding the retired 2011 C-RAC Interregional Guidelines for the Evaluation of Distance Education and the accreditors’ 21st Century Distance Education Guidelines.  Read more about the charge and process of the working group, as well as its members.
  • Branch Campuses: The board voted to table all recommendations from the branch campus working group in order to consider a new process for review of recommendations coming from working groups.
  • Sections 8.2 and 8.3: The board tabled proposed policy modifications to sections 8.2 and 8.3 of the SARA Policy Manual. As the processes for policy modifications are being planned and deliberated, to allow for an even more open and transparent process that accounts for the multiple stakeholders engaged in SARA work, the board will revisit these changes at a later date.

SARA Policy Next Steps:

All of the proposed policy changes, input, and feedback collected during the open comment period from June – August 2021 have been shared with the board directly for their consideration and review. The board – working in partnership with the Regional Steering Committees, Regional Compacts, and NC-SARA staff – will be designing the policy revision process.  At this time, no proposed policy changes will move forward until the board has developed and adopted this new policy review and revision process. More information – including opportunities for input into the new policy process as well as current and future policy proposals – will be announced as it becomes available.

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