NMC targets modern buildings in two to three years

The Northern Marianas College is targeting to complete by 2025 the construction of three modern buildings, plus two modern classrooms by 2026, according to Frankie Eliptico, NMC’s vice president of administration and advancement.

Speaking at the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on NMC’s proposed 2024 budget, Eliptico said Monday that the target completion date for the NMC Student Center is September 2025. The college aims to finish work on the Cooperative Research, Extension, and Education Services Building by December 2025, and is targeting a November 2025 deadline to finish the Workforce Development Building. For the two classrooms, NMC is looking at completing them in September 2026.

Other projects in the pipeline are the Healthcare Training Center, the gymnasium, parking structure, and the Dandan revitalization project, Eliptico said.

“We are trying to revitalize the entire corridor, the right-of-way corridor between the Northern Marianas College and the Shell gas station,” he said, adding that they also have other facilities that are in the works.

When Super Typhoon Yutu slammed Saipan in 2018, NMC lost 37 of its 39 classrooms in just one night. Eliptico said there was severe damage to all of their computer labs, some buildings, cafeteria, bookstore, CREES building and their gym.

“So that forced us to kind of step back and say, ‘Are we going to rebuild these buildings or are we going to start anew?’” he said.

Eliptico said they decided just to level most of NMC and take into consideration what would they do on a brand-new campus. He said they emphasized three different things—first is technology, second is an accessible campus, and third is energy efficiency.

They then came up with a master plan that the Board of Regents approved, he said.

“The college has gone out in a very aggressive grant-seeking campaign and we have successfully obtained grants,” he said.

Eliptico said they had many rejections with their grant applications in the last three years, but they got a few “big yeses.” This takes the burden off the CNMI government to rebuild the CNMI community college, he said.

For the Students Center, NMC has now finished the architecture and engineering design part and they are hoping to go into the construction phase in the next several weeks. The Students Center building project is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“The approval from FEMA—as some of you know that have dealt with FEMA—that’s not an easy process all the time and our board is very encouraging in each step of the way,” he said. “We’re working hard and hopefully we are getting that approval in the next couple of days from FEMA.”

He underscored the need to design spaces for students to want to be on campus. He said NMC is a former hospital so they didn’t have those spaces that were open and served as an oasis to students and community members. Eliptico said there will be a performance quad at the Student Center, where they can host the Taste of the Marianas and other big community events one day.

For CREES, Eliptico said, they are going to get a brand-new building because their buildings, offices, and aquaculture facilities were destroyed by both Soudelor and Yutu typhoons. He said they are putting CREES on a very prominent section of the campus and will get a wonderful two-story building.

Just this past week, he said, the Board of Regents approved the 30% phase of the A&E for the CREES building. That’s a milestone, he said, because once they pass the A&E, it’s just filling in all the electrical and all the other things that go inside the building.

With respect to the Workforce Development Building, Eliptico said this is U.S. Economic Development Administration-funded project that will provide space for the nursing program, the business program, as well as Community Development Institute, and CNMI Small Business Development Center Network.

“We are now in the A&E phase,” he said, adding that they are hoping to get to the 30% phase of the A&E part quickly.

The Workforce Development Building will be situated across Comfort Homes.

As for the two classrooms project, Eliptico said this is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing Community Development’s Community Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program and administered by the Northern Marianas Housing Corp.

He said one classroom is going to be situated right next to the Workforce Development Building, while the second classroom is going to be built on the other side of the campus near a restaurant.  Eliptico said it’s not going to be the typical four walls classroom, but adaptable.

“They’re not just going to be in-person. They’re going to be in-person and online and hybrid and utilizing all types of modalities to make sure that we are a technologically-enhanced campus,” he pointed out.

He said some spaces will open up into three or four classrooms or they will be able to divide them.