Simmering distrust between the North Idaho College Board of Trustees and college president Nick Swayne has not abated, and the board has not responded adequately to previously-identified governance concerns.
Those are key conclusions of a report issued by NIC’s academic accreditor, based on remote and in-person interviews conducted this fall.
The report, made public Wednesday, noted that the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) was impressed by “the resilience, dedication and positive energy of NIC’s students, administration and staff,” but that the NIC board’s continued dysfunction raises questions about the panel’s commitment to addressing issues of governance, trust, finances and stability.
One of the top concerns mentioned in the NWCCU report was the college’s continued relationship with former interim president Greg South. He was hired in December 2022 after the board’s three-person majority – Chair Greg McKenzie, Todd Banducci and Mike Waggoner – placed Swayne on an indefinite suspension, ostensibly over alleged Idaho open meetings law violations during the presidential hiring process in the summer of 2022.
The trustees complied with a Kootenai County judge’s March order to return Swayne to office, but they kept South on the payroll at his previous salary and full benefits. NWCCU recommended the school let go of South and support Swayne as the permanent president of North Idaho College.
NWCCU’s evaluation team noted that Swayne has broad support within the rest of the campus community, and expressed some confusion as to why trustees didn’t simply take what the report calls the “relatively easy win” of terminating South’s contract and rebuild the board’s diminished trust among NIC students, faculty and staff.
The answer came in interviews with the trustees.
“In evaluation team meetings with individual board members, some board members state they do not trust [Swayne] and clearly did not support him as ‘permanent president,” the NWCCU report said.
Those board members, not identified by name, said their reluctance to part ways with South was so he could be brought back to replace Swayne “in the event that Dr. Swayne’s contract could be terminated.”
That revelation led the team to conclude the board majority has made no progress to resolve the presidential issue, and may lack the will to do so.
Overall, the NWCCU team found improvement recommendations that fell under Swayne’s purview have seen real progress, from creating action plans to positive outcomes. But recommendations that required decisions and actions from Board of Trustees have shown little to no progress.
The team also reported concerns about the board majority’s decision to hire Sandpoint-based Colton Boyles as the college’s attorney. Boyles is politically aligned with McKenzie, Banducci and Waggoner, but had no experience representing higher education institutions at the time of his hiring. He had the lowest rating among firms that responded to NIC’s request for proposals, and refused to answer some of the questions on an evaluation questionnaire – an action Swayne said would ordinarily disqualify a prospective candidate.
“As of this writing, the Board’s response to this concern, while accurate, has been dismissive, simply reiterating that the authority to hire an attorney is solely the Board’s,” NWCCU said.
The report’s authors mentioned other issues the board has not adequately tackled, such as addressing multiple no-confidence votes rendered by student and faculty groups, and a failure to consistently adhere to professional behavior and rhetoric standards, despite pledges to do so.
“Campus constituencies are clearly skeptical given that Board action or inaction continues to contradict their written statements,” the NWCCU team wrote. “Frankly, that skepticism is validated throughout the evaluation team’s analysis provided in this report.”
At stake is the accreditation North Idaho College has held since 1947. The actions and behaviors of the three-person board majority prompted NWCCU to issue multiple cautionary and warning notes to the school since 2021.
In July, NWCCU voted to continue a “show cause” status rather than strip the school’s accreditation. That means NIC has to persuade NWCCU that it should keep its accreditation. The college faces an April 1, 2025, deadline to do so.
Idaho’s State Board of Education has expressed concern about the NIC turmoil, but has said there’s little it can do, because the state’s community colleges are governed at the local level.
Spokane Public Radio contacted NIC for comment about the report, but had not heard back as of Friday evening.
Christa Hazel, an NIC alumna and member of the advocacy group Save NIC, said in an email Friday afternoon that the NWCCU report “vividly reveals the upheaval at North Idaho College.” She said the report accurately summarizes the issues of board dysfunction.
“Many students and staff members express frustration at the ongoing turmoil, longing for a swift resolution under President Swayne’s guidance,” Hazel said. “The resistance from certain Trustees to uphold local education autonomy and ensure economic vitality is both perplexing and disheartening.”
She said she believed resolution would likely come only if Kootenai County voters remove McKenzie and Banducci from the board in next year’s elections.
NWCCU will consider the evaluation team’s report early in 2024. Another in-person evaluation visit is set to happen in the spring.
