NMC’s Hart wants lower tuition rate expanded

Northern Marianas College wants flexibility in setting the residency requirements for its students so that more recipients could avail of lower tuition fees.

NMC president Sharon Y. Hart pointed this out in a letter to the Senate where a related bill is pending to date. House Bill 17-294, House Draft 1, aims to provide the college Board of Regents this flexibility.

Public Law No. 3 requires that any student who wishes to avail of NMC resident tuition must have been a resident of the CNMI for at least 12 consecutive months before their first day on class.

Hart claimed that this one-year rule limits NMC’s ability to lower the cost of education for prospective students. It also limits the college in providing additional incentives for new students and some continuing students to remain enrolled.

“Even more discouraging, the one-year rule prevents many categories of students like military servicemen and women returning to NMI after having served abroad from availing of the resident tuition. It even disallows CNMI students who go off to college in the U.S. mainland or elsewhere to attend NMC classes at resident rates when they return for their summer or winter breaks,” said Hart, expressing the college and the board of regents’ support to the pending legislation.

NMC has two types of tuition fee: resident tuition which charges $95 per credit and nonresident which charges $190 per credit.

In addition to removing barriers that impede student success, Hart said the passage of the pending bill will help NMC increase enrollment and retention rates which in turn will contribute to the college’s ability to generate additional revenues.

There are four categories who will benefit from the new flexible criteria if passed: active members of the U.S. Armed Forces or the spouse or dependents; U.S. veterans eligible for a Veterans Administration education benefit, or spouse or dependents; graduates of a high school from within the CNMI or a recipient of a GED; and dependents of a person who earned a degree from NMC.

Once passed into law, the college president disclosed that the Board of Regents will amend its residency classification policy to expand the criteria for identifying students as “residents.” This flexible criteria will also be in line with those policies established in many states and universities across the nation.

Finally, Hart said this will also help facilitate the CNMI’s membership into the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) which allows students from member states to benefit from significantly-reduced tuition rates at various public institutions in the western U.S.