Heroes keep the NIC ship afloat
Kansas just won the men’s college basketball championship. Bear with us as we compare that institution with North Idaho College.
Yeah, really.
The joyride Jayhawks fans are on with their beloved team and university is headed for a brick wall. Kansas is accused of violating NCAA rules, and most observers think potentially serious penalties are coming soon.
The legions of alums, past and current staff and faculty, and Kansas fans in general will all be tarnished with the broad brush of cheating if sanctions are imposed. Hundreds of thousands of people will be impacted. The state’s flagship university, educating Kansans and students from all corners of the world since 1866, will be undercut like a basketball player going up for a monster dunk.
Why? If the accusations are upheld, because of the direct actions and perhaps inattentiveness of very, very few people. The handful of those who could be to blame will effectively demean the mission and integrity of the institution as a whole for years to come.
NIC bears a stark similarity to the University of Kansas. All the great things happening at our community college, all the championship-level education and training taking place by talented administrators, staff, faculty and motivated students, are being jeopardized by the actions and inattentiveness of two or three people.
Don’t be misled by those who would tell you that the accrediting organization’s recently issued warning to NIC means all’s well in Cardinal land. The warning does two things very clearly: One, it applauds the outstanding work of staff and faculty; and two, it reinforces the conclusion that NIC’s accreditation future hinges almost exclusively on two of its trustees. NIC would not be in turmoil, would not have its continued existence in some doubt, were it not for Trustee Chair Todd Banducci and Trustee Greg McKenzie.
Those two, aided briefly by Trustee Michael Barnes before he resigned in January, have pushed NIC to the brink of the cliff. The report does offer some hope, holding off on probation or worse while requiring documented steps in a corrective direction every month for the next year. Any missteps, the report says, will be dealt with swiftly and seriously.
We note that by attending a recent conference, McKenzie has shown initiative to become a better, more conscientious trustee. He said the right things about the report and his role moving forward, and we encourage him to live up to those words in the weeks and months ahead.
In the meantime, the vast majority of NIC stakeholders endure extreme uncertainty about their and the institution’s future. One senses that short of Banducci resigning — which this newspaper and many in the community have called for — the path ahead remains a minefield without a map.
Just remember that none of this is the fault of the people actually carrying out the daily mission of education. NIC staff and faculty continue to shine despite the dark shadow cast by one or two men.