Policy Changes

Gifts Policy

The policy was edited to reflect current terminology (“peer reviewers” instead of “evaluators”), to include institutions seeking accreditation (“applicants”), to replace “nominal value” with “minimal value” in describing permissible gifts, and to indicate that providing lodging for teams is allowed under the policy.

Staff contact: Barbara Gross Davis

Ownership of Stock in Publicly Traded Institutions Policy

The policy was formerly called Ownership of Stocks in For-Profit Institutions. It has been revised to remove the minimum dollar amount required to disclose stock ownership, to exclude managed funds (such as blind trusts or mutual funds) from the policy, to replace the term “for-profit” with “publicly-traded,” to substitute “peer reviewers” for “team” and “committee members,” and to indicate that it applies to applicant as well as eligible, candidate and accredited institutions. A cross reference to the Conflict of Interest Policy and the related self-disclosure form has also been added.

Staff contact: Barbara Gross Davis

 

Request for Comments on Policies

WSCUC is seeking public comments on proposed changes to three policies. Click the links below for more information about the policies. Please send comments to policies@wscuc.org by September 23, 2022. Revised policies reflecting received comments will be reviewed and considered for adoption by the Commission at its November 2022 meeting.

Review of Commission Standards Policy

The policy was revised to include a brief overview of the nature of the Standards, provide more specificity about the revision process, and eliminate reference to a ten-year cycle that was in the original policy. The Commission is especially interested in feedback on whether to keep the reference to a ten-year cycle of review.

Title IV Compliance Policy

By federal regulation, WSCUC has an obligation to exercise oversight of its accredited and candidate institutions’ compliance with the program responsibilities of Title IV. The WSCUC policy was revised to list the areas of oversight for regular review (cohort loan default rate, financial composite score, and negative actions taken by the US Department of Education such as placing an institution on Heightened Cash Monitoring) and to clarify that institutions will be notified if WSCUC provides information to the Department about Title IV compliance except when the matter warrants a confidential report or the Department requests confidentiality.

Review of Commission Policies and Definitions of Commission Documents Policy

This is a proposed new policy that describes the procedures for creating, revising, or retiring a policy and outlines the consideration of public comments on changes to policies before they are acted upon by the Commission. In addition, this proposed new policy provides definitions of the different documents issued by WSCUC.

 

July 2022 Newsletter

• Educational Programming Updates
• WSCUC Releases Equity and Inclusion Guide
• WSCUC Adds New Commissioners and Officers