Negotiators Convene to Debate Accreditation and Innovation, Trudge Through Changes to Protocols

NASFAA

By Joelle Fredman, NASFAA Staff Reporter

January 16, 2019

Higher education stakeholders convened in Washington, D.C. Tuesday to begin the first of three sessions of negotiated rulemaking, or “neg reg,” to consider changes to the federal regulations on accreditation and other issues based on draft regulatory language released earlier this month by the Department of Education (ED). Before jumping into the draft regulatory language, negotiators spent this first day debating procedural changes ED has implemented to this first session and working to reach consensus on session protocols.

This session was originally slated to take place over three days, but was shortened to a day and a half due to a snowstorm that hit the area over the weekend.

ED representative Annmarie Weisman kicked off the day by explaining that ED has adopted three changes to “simplify the process to get to consensus.” For example, in a departure from past negotiations, in which the first session has… (continue reading)