SWAG��Ƶ

 In her 30-year career serving in multiple leadership positions at the SWAG��Ƶ, Karen Pardue, Ph.D., RN, CNE, FNAP, ANEF, spent a third of it serving on the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) working on one issue she’s most passionate about: policy addressing increased access and affordability to higher education.

As a delegate representing the state of Maine on the nonprofit’s board, Pardue, SWAG��Ƶ’s associate provost for Strategic Initiatives and a professor in the School of Nursing in the Westbrook College of Health Professions, helped advance a program to increase student access to free educational resources, such as textbooks, and a second initiative that improved access to online education across the country.

In October, Pardue was recognized by the NEBHE board at an event in Kennebunkport, Maine, where Maine State Senator and NEBHE Vice Chair Mattie Daughtry thanked Pardue for her “commitment to higher education, and your work to represent the State of Maine — and its students and institutions — through your notable service to NEBHE.”

Pardue said she’s most proud that NEBHE and the board helped remove the barriers to make online education more accessible to students throughout the country. In 2016, Pardue testified before the Maine Legislature in support of Maine joining a national compact to allow reciprocity between states for online education.

The compact, called the State Authorization Reciprocity Act (SARA), is a voluntary agreement between the states that allows accredited degree-granting institutions to offer distance/online education in another state without having to apply to each state individually. SARA is overseen by the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity, while NEBHE serves as the regional sponsor to administer the compact for the six New England states, New York, and New Jersey.

“Previously, any educational institution operating over state lines had to be recognized by the state where the student you were educating lived. And that was quite problematic if you’ve got a fairly large regional or national footprint,” Pardue explained. “When I testified, I used as an example. The compact has been widely successful. In fact, it’s why New York and New Jersey left their regions and joined NEBHE.” 

The agreement also helped to reduce the institutional cost of delivering online learning that previously required state by state regulatory processes. The members of the SARA compact now include more than 2,300 colleges and universities in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“Online education is the way of the future,” Pardue said. “And if you're constrained by state requirements, it becomes so cumbersome. Whether students choose our (online program) or choose someone else's, to be able to access programs that align with individual learning needs and interests is incredibly important.”

Another program that Pardue helped to advance in 2020 is the Open Education Resource (OER) initiative. This endeavor assists students and faculty in the Northeast in creating and accessing free educational resources and materials. Beth Dyer, dean of SWAG��Ƶ library services, attended a NEBHE-sponsored workshop and brought the OER initiative to SWAG��Ƶ.

Pardue was first appointed as one of six NEBHE delegates representing the state of Maine in 2013 by then Gov. Paul LePage, and later reappointed twice by Gov. Janet Mills before she termed out in 2023. But right up until her final NEBHE meeting, Pardue passionately advocated for improved access to education.

“What does the contemporary workforce need? And what are all of us in higher education doing to meet those needs? And then, how do we project five years into the future,” Pardue posed.