NMC board OKs progress report for submission

The NMC Board of Regents approved yesterday the progress report to be submitted to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges’ accrediting commission on Friday.

Board of Regents chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds said the college hopes to finalize the report by Thursday and mail it off the following day, or a week ahead of the Oct. 15 deadline set by WASC.

“This basically gives NMC the opportunity to submit the report earlier. This way, we can still address any questions or concerns raised by WASC, if there are any,” King-Hinds said.

She commended the NMC administration for completing the report early and ensuring that it included all sufficient information about NMC’s progress over the past six months.

The board made only grammatical or semantic changes to the progress report during a review session yesterday.

“The progress report gives a good overview of what the college has done since WASC’s last visit in April,” King-Hinds said. “I hope that when they come, they will validate every statement that we’ve made in our report. And I hope they will find our progress significant enough that they would consider taking us off warning status.”

A three-member team is set to make another visit to NMC on Oct. 27 and 28 to validate the progress report.

The college was placed this year on warning status by WASC’s two accrediting commissions—for Junior and Community Colleges and for Senior Colleges and Universities—due to its inability to correct finance-related problems and failure to comply with certain accreditation standards.

WASC’s Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges placed NMC on warning status last January and retained the same status despite NMC’s submission of needed reports last June. It expressed concern over NMC’s purchase of the La Fiesta complex, citing the college’s lack of resources to maintain two campuses.

Early in July this year, WASC’s Senior College Commission issued a warning to NMC for non-compliance with standards, as had been cited by ACCJC.

The SCC’s warning has put the college’s four-year elementary education program—its only baccalaureate program—at risk.

“The Senior College Commission is deeply concerned about the institution’s ongoing capacity and ability to sustain the quality of its academic programs, especially the baccalaureate education program,” said CSCU executive director Ralph A. Wolff in a July 2, 2004, letter.

In its progress report, NMC will be responding to the following WASC recommendations:

* That the college integrate its programs and processses with its methods for allocating and distributing funds so that improvements can be realized, documented, and communicated to the rest of the college and the community at large;

* That NMC direct enough resources to its efforts to strengthen the college in order to build its capacity to collect, analyze, and use information when making decisions affecting the institution; and

* That the college make it a constant practice to evaluate program effectiveness.