North Idaho College President Nick Swayne feels confident there are no remaining reasons for the college’s accrediting body to keep them on the precipice of losing accreditation, but does that mean the school will be put back into good standing? 

Of that, Swayne is unsure. 

Swayne and NIC’s board of trustees have just days left to prepare for their presentation to the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). 

The college has been on show cause since February 2023 largely due to a lack of good governance from the college’s board of directors. 

Trustees made progress in exhibiting good governance, but the campus community and accreditors expressed concerns in an October report about the sustainability of those changes. 

On Tuesday Swayne will make his case that with three new, more moderate trustees and a plan to address athletic spending, the college has addressed all the outstanding issues raised by the NWCCU and is on a path to avoid future issues.  

That meeting is not open to the public and the NWCCU has 30 days to release its decision. 

Presenting progress

Swayne plans to take commissioners back to May when former board chair, Mike Waggoner, began changing his behavior. 

Waggoner was part of a hardline conservative board majority that included Todd Banducci and Greg McKenzie. The trio was backed by the Kootenai County Central Republican Committee. 

However, after the last visit to the NWCCU in February 2024, Waggoner softened, Swayne said in an interview with EdNews last week. 

“In May he came in and was like okay this is serious and he started to vote with the more reasonable side,” Swayne said. “That was kind of the turning point with Mike which then kind of turned the tide for good governance.” 

The trustees dropped their appeal of a lawsuit to the state’s Supreme Court, approved a budget and new strategic goals. 

After that, the agendas of trustees were largely bare through the summer. 

Then in November, a block of moderate trustee candidates, Rick Durbin, Mary Havercroft, and Eve Knudtsen, beat out a group of candidates backed by the KCRCC. 

Their win was a huge step to making good governance sustainable, Swayne said. 

“I think everyone was very tentative about that, because everyone knew that if the election went one way it’s absolutely sustainable,” he said. “If it goes the other way, we’re not sure.” 

Ahead of their first meeting in November, the group met for training, Swayne said. There they decided to put all the outstanding issues with the NWCCU on the agenda and address them as best they could.

The group fired their attorney, a controversial conservative figure, and hired a Spokane-based firm that specializes in education law. They addressed votes of no confidence from faculty and students, and asked college administration to come up with a plan to address athletic overspending along with retention and recruitment. 

Swayne said the new trustees have trusted the expertise of the college’s administration and in turn he trusts their questions are asked in good faith. 

“They ask a question, we provide an answer, provide evidence,” he said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to work and it’s working that way.”

He plans to tell the NWCCU that the trustees are already building trust in the community. They attend events at the chamber of commerce, rotary club and public meetings. 

“Those are places where the folks that built the community…that’s where they go,” Swayne said. 

He feels the college has met all the standards to come off show cause. 

“We have fixed all of the issues that remain or are addressing them. There’s no remaining justifications for keeping us on show cause,” he said. “Does that mean that they’re going to put us back in good standing? I don’t know.” 

While NIC was originally given until April 2025 to return to good standing, the commissioners could find that the college has made progress in resolving the issues but hasn’t fully met requirements and give them a one-year extension of show cause status. The college would retain accreditation during the extension.

“We haven’t used that yet but we don’t want to,” Swayne said. 

Swayne along with Chair Brad Corkill and Vice Chair Tarie Zimmerman don’t expect much of an indication on what the 30 NWCCU commissioners are thinking next Tuesday. 

But they plan to get the word out to the NIC community as soon as the commission posts their decision.

“I don’t want to predict but I really think that we should be pulled from the precipice,” Swayne said. “The public should expect to see a ruling that reflects the work of the college and the work of the board.”