Show-cause status lifted

Haidee V. Eugenio





WHEN NORTHERN MARIANAS COLLEGE (NMC) president Dr Carmen Fernandez and Board of Regents members took to the stage and announced that the only public college in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) received accreditation through to 2012 subject to another comprehensive review, the crowd roared in applause. 
Breaking the good news came at the best time—at the Fourth of July parade when the NMC float was in front of the main stage where the dignitaries were seated.
“This is not only liberation for people that cAme out from Camp Susupe in 1946, but also for NMC for coming out from the show-cause status. We are very proud.
"Today, NMC is back to normal,” Governor Benigno R. Fitial told the crowd, as he was flanked by Fernandez, Delegate Gregorio “Kilili” Sablan, Board of Regents chair Charles Cepeda and vice chair Malua Peter. 
The festive Liberation Day parade marked the 63rd anniversary of the opening of Camp Susupe in 1946, two years after the end of World War II.
The embattled NMC was already on a “probation” status in 2007, when its standing was placed on a more severe sanction of “show-cause.” 
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)  was concerned with inadequate and unstable administrative leadership, inadequate faculty and staff, cuts in public funding, inadequate planning and resource allocation, and serious deficiencies in the quality of education and services offered to students at off-campus sites, as well as the continuing failure to institutionalise programme review, systematically assess student learning, or develop programmes to meet the needs of the local labour market, among other things. 
ACCJC accredits associate degree granting institutions in California, Hawaii, Guam, the CNMI, American Samoa, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands.
NMC’s “show-cause” standing was extended anew in 2008 when NMC failed to address all the six recommended actions of WASC during a 2006 visit.  Of these concerns, two remained unaddressed last year, resulting in NMC being put on show-cause status from the previous probation status in 2007. 
Although NMC is a two-year community college, it also grants bachelor’s degrees through its School of Education.
Besides the four-year education degree, NMC offers associate degrees/certificate programs from  six other departments, including business, human performance and athletics, languages and humanities, nursing, sciences, mathematics and vocational education, and social sciences and fine arts. 
NMC students who pursue education higher than an associate’s degree usually attend the University of Guam or the University of Hawaii, or transfer to schools on the US mainland.
Among other things, NMC’s show-cause status worried students receiving federal aid and worse that the college would close any time, leaving them in limbo. 
Without WASC accreditation, NMC will not be eligible to participate in federal government assistance programmes. This means NMC students will not be eligible for federal grant or loan money. Also, many employers offering tuition assistance will not reimburse one’s tuition if he attends a school that is not accredited. And if a student intends to transfer credits from one school to another, he will be able to do so if he attended an accredited school.
Also worried with NMC’s show-cause status were graduating high school students wanting to continue their studies in the CNMI instead of moving to Guam or the US mainland.
Within the three-year period that NMC was placed on probation and show-cause status, it received only a very small portion of graduates from local public high schools—18 percent, 24 percent, and 17 percent. 
In 2006, for example, only 120 of 671 public high school graduates enrolled at NMC.
WASC met on June 9 to 11 to review the show-cause report that NMC submitted. On June 30, 2009, WASC president Dr Barbara A. Beno wrote to Fernandez that WASC reaffirmed NMC’s accreditation for another four years and through 2012. 
“On behalf of the commission, I wish to express continuing interest in the institution’s educational quality and students’ success. 
“Professional self-regulation is the most effective means of assuring institutional integrity, effectiveness and quality,” Beno told Fernandez in the two-page letter which the college posted on its website.
NMC received its initial accreditation from WASC in June 1985. This accreditation was reaffirmed in 1990, 1996, and 2000. 
In 2001, NMC was given initial accreditation by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities—a rare distinction among US community colleges. This accreditation allows NMC to offer a Bachelor of Science degree programme in Elementary Education. 
The college president
Fernandez, a former Guam senator, had been under constant scrutiny over her leadership style at NMC, alleged misconducts and for not doing enough to remove the college from a show-cause status. 
She was hired as NMC president in April 2007, when the college was about to lose its WASC accreditation. 
The June 30 WASC decision helped silence her critics, but for how long is another question especially with a mid-term report deadline and another evaluation visit by WASC in a few months to follow up on the actions taken by NMC to resolve previous accreditation recommendations.
NMC, just like other government entities in the CNMI, is suffering from budget cuts, although this is being supplanted by federal aid and some donations through the NMC Foundation. 
Early in July, a member of the House of Representatives introduced a bill seeking to rename NMC after the CNMI’s first governor, Carlos S. Camacho, who helped established the college.
The bill renaming NMC does not sit well with other lawmakers and community members, some of whom dismiss the timing of the proposal just months ahead of the November general elections.