NC-SARA
The National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (SARA) is a non-profit organization established to ensure national standards for interstate postsecondary distance education programs and courses. The State of New York is a member state, and SUNY Rockland Community College is a SARA participating institution. Participation in SARA allows SUNY Rockland Community College to provide distance education courses and programs to students outside of the state. SARA policies do not cover complaints related to grades or student conduct violations. To learn more about SARA, please visit NC-SARA.
NC-SARA Complaint Process
SUNY Rockland Community College is a member of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) and follows the complaint resolution policies and procedures outlined within the SARA Policy Manual and summarized here. Consumer protection complaints resulting from distance education courses, activities, and operations may be submitted to the Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Melanie Rie, at [email protected] for investigation and resolution. If a student is dissatisfied with the campus-based resolution, a concern may be submitted to System Administration of the State University of New York as outlined here. And, if still not satisfied, a complaint may be submitted, within two years of the incident about which the complaint is made, to the New York State Education Department as outlined on their SARA-Student Complaint Process webpage. Effective July 1, 2026, a student may submit a complaint to the SARA State Portal Entity of the state in which the student is located and this entity will provide to the student the contact information of the SARA office at the New York State Education Department.
Please note, this process is only for consumer protection issues (for examples, see section 4 of the SARA Policy Manual) and this does not include complaints related to grades or student conduct violations, both of which are to be addressed via non-SARA processes (see [provide links to applicable campus policies and procedures]). Additionally, this process is only for distance education students located in another SARA-participating state (as of January 1, 2026, this includes all states except California), whereas other distance education students, including those located in New York State, should follow non-SARA processes (see [provide descriptive text with embedded links to applicable campus policies and procedures]).