Announcement: Media Inquiries Contact Info, SARA Manual version 20.1, and NC-SARA Fall 2019 Board Meeting Minutes

The NC-SARA Board met October 30, 2019 at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC. All but two of the Board members, who could not travel, attended the meeting. Draft minutes to be considered for approval at the May, 2020 Board meeting can be found HERE.

The Board approved the FY 2019 audit; modified the NC-SARA Bylaws to differentiate the NC-SARA “Board” from the organization or “Council” (revised Bylaws are available HERE); added one finance committee board member, Demi Michelau, to that committee; approved the re-nomination of board members for another term; approved new officers including Teresa Lubbers as Chair, Ed Ray as Vice Chair, and Leroy Wade as Treasurer; approved the nomination of four new board members: John Cavanaugh, Arthur “Art” L. Coleman, Laurie Dodge, and Robert “Rob” E. Anderson; approved keeping institution fees current without increase or decrease and approved numerous modifications to the SARA Manual.

The current version of the SARA Manual is Version 19.2. A new Version 20.1, incorporating changes made by the Board at the October meeting, is now available HERE.

Version 20.1:

• Requires states to determine consequences for institutional failure to report enrollment data with an implementation date of January 1, 2021;
• Affirms state responsibility to make timely confirmation of federal financial composite scores to determine an institution’s eligibility to participate in SARA within 90 days of notification with an implementation date of January 1, 2021;
• Clarifies that SARA eligibility involving a change in institutional ownership is determined by the home state;
• Aligns new Federal Regulation language with the SARA Manual language on the use of the word “located” versus “resides.”
• Clarifies the relationship between the Unified State Authorization Unified Agreement, “Unified Agreement” and the SARA Manual to confirm the SARA Manual as the official current policy document.

The DRAFT of modifications to the SARA Manual considered and approved by the Board is available HERE. Most proposed modifications were accepted as proposed by the staff. The Board did add additional time to the dates proposed for states and compacts to implement policies and procedures related to failure to report data, and to confirmation of institutions composite scores, and made minor changes to a few other proposed modifications.

Media Inquiries Contact Info

Please direct media inquiries to media@nc-sara.org.  Media Inquiries webpage link: https://nc-sara.org/all-media-inquiries.

Lori Williams, PhD
President and CEO
NC-SARA
February 6, 2020