Rainy River Community College is included in a plan to merge the five colleges of the Northeast Higher Education District, or NHED, into one accredited college.
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees this week approved a motion of support toward merging the accreditations of the five NHED colleges into one accredited college.
“I’m certain this will do good things for our students,” said RRCC Provost Roxanne Kelly. “We’ll be able to combine forces even more than we already have to deliver the very best education.”
The action paves the way for the district to proceed with comprehensive planning to merge the accreditations, and subsequent action by the board of trustees will be required to approve the plan.
There are no plans to close any of the NHED campuses.
“Restructuring our five colleges into one accredited institution with six campuses will have many long-lasting benefits for our region,” said Michael Raich, interim president of NHED. “We will create seamless learning experiences for students across the region, expand academic programming regionally, strengthen regional employer, university, and K-12 partnerships, and improve operational efficiencies. Operating our six campuses under a single accreditation will allow us to leverage the capacity and flexibility of a larger, cohesive college while still maintaining the important individual campus identities that our communities have grown to trust.”
In addition to RRCC, NHED consists of Hibbing Community College, Itasca Community College, Mesabi Range College and Vermilion Community College. The district has a total of six campuses in International Falls, Ely, Eveleth, Grand Rapids, Hibbing and Virginia. The total credit enrollment of the district is approximately 6,000. According to Raich, district-wide strategic planning, regional academic planning, and numerous campus meetings involving multiple stakeholder groups helped guide this decision.
Kelly said to the general public, the college likely won’t look any different, other than a new name, which has yet to be determined. She said most of the staff will stay the same, too.
“The staff is fully aware of this,” Kelly said of the announcement. “We started this project over a year ago to look at the potential... People here are anxious for this to happen.”
When starting the project, a committee – which had RRCC representation – looked at declining enrollment and budget constraints experienced by all affected colleges. Kelly said combining forces made sense.
“We’re better together,” she said.
And while there will be a new name and possible personnel changes at the district level, the college will still have a local connection.
“On the face of things, you’re not going to see anything different,” Kelly said. “We’re just going to try to become more efficient and more effective on the backside of things... This change provides more potential in marketing and recruitment. Once we band together, we can market all five of our colleges as a whole. We will have much more outreach than we have right now.”
For next steps, NHED leadership will work with the Higher Learning Commission, the organization that accredits the colleges and universities of Minnesota State, to determine the necessary steps and application process for merging accreditations.
“The process will be evolutionary and will take several years to reach full implementation,” Raich said. “We have set a goal of operating under the new model starting in Fall semester of 2022.”
Devinder Malhotra, chancellor for Minnesota State, said he appreciates Raich’s leadership on the plan, as well as all those who have participated in the collaborative conversations to bring this recommendation forward.
“Their efforts will result in more dynamic higher education options for the students and communities in northeast Minnesota,” he said.
