​​​​​​​NC-SARA Board Meeting Summary

Submitted by jshanika on Mon, 05/13/2019 - 11:10

NC-SARA Board Meeting

The NC-SARA Board met May 8-9, 2019 at the Denver International Airport Westin Hotel. All but one of the Board members, who could not travel due to health reasons, attended the meeting.

The Board adopted a new mission statement, approved Susan Heegaard (President of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact) for service on NC-SARA’s Executive Committee, approved the organization’s FY 2020 operating budget, and approved numerous modifications to the SARA Manual.

The current version of the SARA Manual is Version 19.1. A new Version 19.2, incorporating changes made by the Board at last week’s meeting, will be available by the end of May.

Version 19.2:

• Adds definitions for branch campus, main campus and central administrative unit;
• Requires regional compacts and states to adopt means to hear and resolve appeals from states and institutions for which they deny membership or participation in SARA;
• Clarifies certain aspects of states’ use of federal financial responsibility composite scores in determining institutional eligibility for participation in SARA;
• Further clarifies that institutions participating in SARA must be located in a SARA member state;
• “Promotes” numerous, pre-existing “Explanatory Notes” to policy language; and
• Adds new process provisions for seeking changes to NC-SARA policies.

The DRAFT of modifications to the SARA Manual considered by the Board last week is available HERE. Most proposed modifications were accepted as proposed by the staff. The Board did add six months to the dates proposed for states and compacts to implement appeals policies and procedures and made minor changes to a few other proposed modifications.

Finally, the Board chose a person to follow me as President and CEO of NC-SARA. An announcement of that choice will be made later this week.

Marshall A. Hill

President and CEO

NC-SARA

May 13, 2019