NASASPS Quarterly, Volume 8
August 2018
Greetings NASASPS Members,
As the new school year and terms ramp up, I hope that all of you were able to take a break this summer and relax. Take the opportunity to do so when you can; things certainly aren’t slowing down in the world of postsecondary education!
As I am sure you are aware, the U.S. Department of Education has issued notice of upcoming negotiated rulemaking, which will address a laundry list of topics. As a reminder, the period for commenting closes on September 14, 2018. I would encourage you to make comments about any number of topics, or even about the sheer magnitude of topics to be tackled by a single committee. Members of the NASASPS board and the NASASPS Policy Ad Hoc Committee have discussed and are considering submission of comments of behalf of the association. This serves as a good trial run for the committee and speaks to the importance of its creation.
In addition to the above-mentioned ad hoc committee for policy response, we have launched two additional committees this year to address distance education regulation and multi-state school closures. Each committee has held two to three meetings to begin discussing and drafting best practices to guide regulators grappling with these issues. Summaries of the committees’ work are provided later in the newsletter.
As the current education administration scales back its regulatory oversight of postsecondary institutions and indicates a desire to redefine the role of accreditors, state regulators must be prepared to fill the gaps. NASASPS hopes to assist its state members in developing best practices to do so, leveraging appropriate dialogue with and assistance from our partners. I’d like to thank such partners as Sharon Bob, who has provided an article for this newsletter that ponders the future of accreditation, and various others who provide webinars, support, and other insights to NASASPS members.
Have a great fall!
Sincerely,
Lane Goodwin
NASASPS President