NMC’s February return to As Terlaje on target

Structures inside the Northern Marianas College As Terlaje campus looked like a crumpled piece of paper after Super Typhoon Yutu struck the islands of Saipan and Tinian last year. (Jon Perez)

Rebuilding of the Northern Marianas College continues with the combined personnel from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency working tirelessly in order for classes to resume at the As Terlaje campus on Feb. 11.

NMC interim president Frankie Eliptico said typhoon-resilient classrooms are their priority whenever they evaluate the design. “We’re excited to welcome the students back and we’re also excited to receive a lot of community support to rebuild NMC. This means building new structures that are modern and state of the art, and that reflects the CNMI’s future.”

“It is not just to address the current needs, but also the future of the CNMI, we’re very excited for that. Typhoon-resilient designs are also considered for NMC classrooms, to make sure that we don’t go through the same devastation again. I know there are no structures that’s really typhoon proof, but as much as possible we want to get things close to it.”

A lot of NMC’s classrooms and structures were damaged by Yutu, which struck the CNMI three years after Typhoon Soudelor. The Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA, since early this month, have been building and installing temporary classroom structures so that classes could resume at the As Terlaje campus of the College.

NMC would have a total of 30 classrooms, 24 of which are temporary structures erected by the Army Engineers and FEMA, when it reopens next month. Several other NMC buildings are expected to be back.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming them [students] back to the campus. It has been three months since we had them on. Afternoon and evening classes are ongoing at Saipan Southern High School since early January,” said Eliptico.

“But, we’ve been engaging them. We’ve been meeting with them at [SSHS]. We’ve deployed our counsellors there and some of our staff. We had also held some of our events and activities for them at SSHS but we want to bring them home.”

He added that they are also looking at various funding sources for the ongoing construction of new facilities inside their campus. “Of course, we will get some funds from FEMA, which will reimburse us from the damage that we incurred. We’re also actively applying for grants, through the Economic Development Authority.”

“We’re also looking at other places where we can obtain funds like the U.S. [Department of Agriculture] that has a loan program. We will also be approaching the Legislature to help us get approve with a loan. Where they must help to guarantee the debt servicing to rebuild NMC. So, we’re looking at various [funding] sources that we don’t have to pay back.”

A lot of Northern Marianas College’s classrooms and structures were damaged by Super Typhoon Yutu, which struck Saipan and Tinian in late October 2018. (Jon Perez)