Fundraising for SHEFA financial awards eyed

The Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance is anticipating that the legalization of casino and online gaming on Saipan will have a negative impact on its revenues.
In preparation for the potential adverse effect on SHEFA’s financial awards, the board is looking at launching fundraisers to ensure that Saipan students will continue to be provided financial assistance for their college studies.

SHEFA provides financial grants through grant-in-aid, field of study, and incentive programs. Each fiscal year, the Saipan Northern Islands Legislative Delegation appropriates some $3 million for these three scholarship awards, both for on-island and off-island scholars. All these monies, since 2004, are sourced from poker fees and license fees collected by the government.

According to SHEFA board chair Josephine Sablan, fundraisers and the creation of a foundation to raise funds for SHEFA are authorized under its rules and regulations.

“In order for us to continue to support the financial assistance to our scholars, we have to think of other ways because currently, we cannot just depend on poker fees. We just don’t know—with all these casinos and online gaming—how many poker machines will be left in the future,” Sablan said after Thursday’s board meeting.

Unlike SHEFA, Sablan said that casinos and online gaming laws do not include assistance to scholarship programs.

Sablan said the board is scheduled to continue discussion on the fundraisers for SHEFA and may create a special committee that will spearhead it. She disclosed that board member John Tenorio has expressed interest to head the panel.

Target proceeds for the planned fundraisers would go to financial awards account, according to Sablan, who added that financial award amounts for the fall 2014 semester will be unchanged.

Saipan Tribune learned that despite yearly appropriation of $3 million for financial awards, there were instances that the full amount was not provided to the program as a result of either a shortfall in government collection or awards for the fiscal year didn’t reach $3 million.

“It depends on how much we spent [for the fiscal year],” explained Sablan, adding that if there’s a certain leftover/surplus in a fiscal year budget, the SNILD may go ahead and have it carried over to SHEFA’s funding for next fiscal year or allocate it to some other projects.

From 2004 through 2013, the government has invested $22.942 million to assist local students in pursuing their degrees here and abroad, according to SHEFA administrator Merissa Rasa.