EDITORIAL: Small steps in right direction for NIC

The North Idaho College Board of Trustees is wise in preparing for potential loss of accreditation. 

Did that sentence startle you? Because the words “wise” and “NIC trustee” appear compatibly together about as often as Biden and Trump at a Washington watering hole?

Well, let’s go ahead and celebrate some positive steps without falling to the temptation of popping premature corks.

In May, trustees agreed by a 4-1 vote to drop its legal assault on college President Nick Swayne. Only Todd Banducci, the longest sitting current trustee and one of the chief architects of the accreditation crisis, objected. 

Trustee Greg McKenzie supported the motion to drop their appeal of the board’s lost court case against Swayne, although McKenzie looked like he had a 10-pound crow caught in his craw when he voiced his vote.

Then earlier this month, all five trustees were generally agreed in deciding that the best way forward, should accreditation be forfeited next April, is to temporarily relinquish board authority to one of the state’s other accredited community colleges. 

What trustees did not do also deserves polite applause. 

Two other options — doing nothing or basically handing off NIC students to other institutions for their education — were rejected. Doing nothing would be like ignoring treatment for stage 4 cancer; handing off or “teaching out” might delay certain death a little longer, but the result would be the same.

If NIC’s accrediting body, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, likes what it sees during its next site visit three months from now, the optimism being expressed by Swayne can be pronounced grounded firmly in reason.

“The board, overall, is heading in a better direction. I think we’re getting… back on track,” Swayne told The Press on July 5.

Yet, even a jolt of wisdom will carry these trustees and the college they’re entrusted to protect only so far. Perhaps the greatest obstacle in the eyes of accreditors remains: the board majority’s blatant disregard for working with rather than lording over NIC’s students, staff and faculty. 

Satisfactorily remedying that enormous outpoint will take what Banducci, McKenzie and, to a lesser degree, Board Chair Mike Waggoner have shown little interest in embracing: fully understanding and adhering to their roles as trustees and building confidence campus- and community-wide through diligent, responsible service.

Putting NIC on the best possible path to saving accreditation is in citizens’, not just trustees’, hands. The seats occupied by Waggoner, Banducci and McKenzie are all up for grabs in the Nov. 5 election. 

If voters choose wisely, their college is saved.