Scholarship grants hinge on availability of funds

The CNMI Scholarship Office said the grant awards for this term will be contingent on the availability of and actual disbursement of funds.

Administrator Jackie Che said her office has already identified 207 off-island students and 301 on-island students who are eligible for spring 2012 financial assistance.

“Our review of all applicants is complete. Check requests have been forwarded to the Finance Department for processing,” Che said yesterday.

She added, though, that her office included a disclaimer on each approval that says the release of the award will depend on the availability of funds.

“At this point, we cannot make any commitments to our students until there is enough funding to release these awards,” she said.

Besides the check request for spring 2012 scholars, Che said that more checks are still pending for disbursement. She said $218,400 remains pending for 314 off-island scholars from fall 2011 semester. These are checks for educational assistance program scholars.

“While the scholarship programs are well-intentioned, the reality is that the government simply does not have the money. When we’re dealing with the kind of slump we have been dealing with, every program and agency can’t be protected,” she said.

Early this month, among the ways being eyed for the government to help save the troubled Retirement Fund is to stop funding the scholarship program but Che said the Executive Branch has not formally broached the idea.

“We are sensitive to the fallout that could affect students and families with no other way to finance a college education if this proposed suspension was to take effect without notice. We don’t want to short-change our students pursuing higher education, but the reality is health care, power to the islands, and Retirement Fund crisis are critical priorities of the government,” she said.

“The time has come to make tough choices and the scholarships are, of course, a natural target for suspension. They don’t have to, though, if we streamline our operations and if cuts are made across the board to reverse the rapid downward spiral of debt the Commonwealth has amassed,” she added.

Recipients of the NMI Scholarship Office awards suffered a 42-percent cut in their financial assistance starting last fall semester 2011. The policy change was due to the high number of applications received by the program.