College of Southern Nevada sanctioned for failing to report 3 new programs

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities has issued a warning to the College of Southern Nevada for failing to report the addition of three programs.

The college did not report the addition of fire science, manufacturing and facilities maintenance, resulting in the warning sanction from the accrediting body, according to Hyla Winters, interim vice president of academic affairs for CSN. College President Michael Richards received notification in a letter last month.

“We took it very seriously,” Winters said, adding that the college had never received a warning before.

Winters and a colleague traveled to Seattle this week to obtain clarification about the contents of the letter, which said substantive changes had been implemented at the college despite the fact that they had not been reviewed and approved by the commission.

A warning by the commission is a public sanction and does not affect the accredited status of the institution.

“Their advice was for us to look at our overall academic program development,” Winters said.

Winters said the school must submit a special report to the commission by April 25 outlining how the school plans to improve the program approval process moving forward. The report will be reviewed and acted upon at the commission’s June meeting.

Winters said she’s confident that this will take the school out of the warning status.

“Obviously I’m concerned that there’s a warning status,” Regent Trevor Hayes said. “However, I understand with accrediting bodies that there’s a lot of back and forth that goes on. I’ll be asking questions and doing all that I can to make sure we don’t head into a deeper status, and that these actions are corrected.”

Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Follow @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.