Another black eye for CNMI
- Haidee V. Eugenio

As if the financial crisis and federalization of immigration are not enough, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) has received another black eye as its Northern Marianas College (NMC) faces losing its US accreditation once again. 
A loss of accreditation will likely cause the CNMI’s only public college to close. The institution is being asked to make preparations for closure.
At the minimum, a loss of accreditation will cause many of its students to lose their federal scholarships. NMC has 800 to 1,000 students every school year.
In Fall 2009 and Spring 2010, at least 709 NMC students received Pell Scholarship totaling some $2.6 million.
But NMC, CNMI government, students and the community hope the college will rise up to the challenge. NMC is located in the CNMI’s capital island of Saipan.
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) placed NMC on show-cause status on June 30, and instructed the college to fix 10 issues by October 15, 2010 to retain its accreditation that was reaffirmed only a year ago.
WASC’s 10-page committee report disclosed the reasons for the show-cause status, the most damning of which are the board of regents’ failure to protect NMC from undue influence by the governor and lawmakers over the college’s budget, micromanagement, more focus given on plotting to oust a former president than work on maintaining the college’s accreditation, and lax security when it comes to student records.
The US accrediting body sent its special team members Dr Douglas B. Houston and Dr Steve Maradian to NMC on April 13 and 14 to conduct an investigation through documentations and personal interviews.
NMC has until October 15 to submit corrective measures. It also needs to justify why its accreditation should not be terminated. WASC will then send representatives to NMC to validate the college report and decide on its fate after the accrediting body’s assembly in January 2011.
The college’s accredited status continues during the show-cause period.

More concerns
This is the second time since 2008 that NMC has been placed on a show-cause status. In 2008, WASC ordered the college to fix six issues including having a president and increasing administrative capacity. 
This year, the accrediting commission ordered NMC to address 10 issues which again include having a president.
NMC currently operates with an interim president, Lorraine Cabrera, after the Board of Regents terminated then president Dr Carmen Fernandez on April 12.
The college is known for its high turnover of administrative officials. Fernandez, a former Guam senator, is the seventh president of NMC in the last 10 years. 
The college’s interim president met with the administration staff and students to explain the show-cause status.
“While this is a great setback for the college, I want to reassure all students, employees, and the community that we will do everything to bring the college back to full compliance with WASC standards and requirements.
“The college has faced tougher challenges before.
“In fact, we have been placed on show cause two years ago and we were able to come out of it successfully,” Cabrera said in a statement aft http://www.janeresture.com/tuvland/funchurch.jpg er meeting with faculty and students.
She said there’s no question that students, staff, faculty, and the NMC Board of Regents have the commitment and endurance to work together to see this through.
Re-elected Board of Regents chair Janet H. King said the board fully supports Cabrera and the administration’s plans to address each of the 10 recommendations. She said this is not the time to point blame on anybody, but a time to work together to ensure the college maintains its accreditation.

Politics
But the show-cause status cannot be separated from politics.
Representative Stanley Torres, one of the most senior lawmakers in the CNMI, introduced a resolution calling on the U.S. Department of Education and WASC to intervene in show-cause sanction against NMC.
Torres said the Legislature, through his House Resolution 17-17, would also seek legal remedy to support NMC.
He described as “misleading and vindictive, the accusations hurled by WASC, that the governor and the Legislature are meddling in NMC’s affairs.
“The Northern Marianas College has survived over the years and with the support of the Governor’s Office and the Legislature by appropriations of taxpayers’ money through generous and continuous acts of financial support such as the various scholarship and educational programs afforded to everyone,” he said.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s administration, for its part, said the governor is only fulfilling his constitutional mandate when he submitted a budget for NMC, along with other government entities. NMC receives millions of dollars in local funding.
The governor proposed to the Legislature a $4.7 million budget for NMC in the Fiscal Year 2011 which starts on Oct. 1, due to declining government revenues.
The governor’s proposal is far below what NMC had asked for—over $9 million.
A pending austerity bill, which seeks to cut work hours from 80 to 72 per pay period to reduce government spending, initially included NMC. 
But the college strongly opposed the cuts in employee work hours, citing its impact on student learning and federal funding. 
Although the latest version of the austerity bill exempts NMC from an eight-hour cut every pay period, there is still no guarantee this exemption will be honored when the final version is passed, especially with over $23 million in operating deficit in just the first nine months of the fiscal year and the need to further cut CNMI government spending has become a must. 

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New bill targets new churches

Tuvalu’s elders and chiefs will decide which church groups will worship in their local areas.
This new power is provided under a new bill being pushed through parliament, aimed at preserving cultural existence from being crucified by new churches.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia tabled the Tuvalu Religious Organisations Restrictions Bill in parliament for its first reading last month before heading to Suva to attend the “Engaging with the Pacific” meeting hosted by Frank Bainimarama.
While some falekaupule (village council) members are silently rejoicing, others are interpreting the bill as another way by Ielemia to gain votes by consolidating his position with community leaders who hold influence amongst villagers.
Communications Minister Taukelina Finikaso said the bill was necessary as in the islands elders and chiefs doubled up as lawkeepers.
“To put it simply, the bill is aimed at restoring law and order and there was nothing sinister about it,” he said.
One new church group in question, the Brethren Church, from a Tuvalu community in Veisari, outside Fiji’s capital Suva, has been causing uproar in villages by preaching that some old customs and ways are not appropriate in Christian terms.
The Brethren Church has already won a court case regarding their right to freedom of worship. But the new bill is aimed at stopping all that and giving power to the falekaupule consisting of village chiefs and elders to determine which church groups are allowed to worship in their villages.
The new church group—headed by Mase Teonea—has its stronghold on Nanumaga Island where tension was high between the church members and some islanders.
Tuvalu’s Attorney-General Ese Apinelu had travelled to Nanumaga in May to assess the situation and quell the disturbance.
A source from Tuvalu told ISLANDS BUSINESS that followers of the Brethren are banned from island community gatherings.
“They’re doing their own thing in their own homes and I am not so sure if they’re allowed to worship,” the source said.
The new law means that if the village elders do not approve of any religious organisation, that organisation may not hold services in public in their villages.
Any religious organisation wanting to operate in a certain area is required to make presentations to the falekaupule.
“If the religious practise is not detrimental to the values and culture of the island, they (falekaupule) cannot withhold approval,” the bill states.
The bill states a decision made by the falekaupule will not be challenged in any court of law. People who break the law once it is passed are liable upon conviction to a fine not exceeding $500.
But the law does not prevent followers from practising their own religious beliefs in their own homes.
Any person who attends or participates in any assembly in contravention of this section commits an offence and will be liable upon conviction to a fine not exceeding $200.
Finikaso said they have given the religious organisations and members of the public time to look at the bill and bring their views back to parliament.
Parliament is expected to convene again on August 12—its last sitting before the election in September.
The new bill does not exempt the two main churches— EKT (Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu) and Seventh Day Adentist
—By Robert Matau