Stricter regs for study grants adopted

The CNMI Scholarship Office has adopted stricter rules for granting study grants to outstanding high school students in the Commonwealth.

The new regulation, which implements the recently enacted Public Law 14-37, requires that scholarship grants be awarded based on a ranking process, not solely on a student’s standing in his or her graduating class.

Currently, scholarships are given to high school students who are the valedictorian and salutatorian in each graduating class in Rota and Tinian high schools, in addition to four recipients who have the highest scholastic standing from all high schools in Saipan, and three recipients who had graduated as one of the top students of an off-island high school.

Under the new policy, there will be eight recipients from Saipan, and two each from Rota and Tinian. Scholarships will also be given to three students who graduate on top of their class in high schools in the United States or its territories.

Scholarship recipients will be chosen based on their cumulative grade point average from grades 9 to 12 and the student’s score in the Scholastic Achievement Test and/or American College Testing.

The new regulation maintains the two-year residency requirement in some instances. However, it further requires an applicant to have attended any CNMI school for a total period of six years, including the two years preceding the application.

Gov. Juan N. Babauta signed the emergency regulation last Oct. 26. It became effective upon filing with the Commonwealth Registrar the following day and will remain so for only 120 days. To adopt the regulation on a permanent basis, the Scholarship Office will need to re-publish it on the Commonwealth Register and open a 30-day public comment period.

The policy was made to become effective retroactively to the beginning of the school year 2004, which commenced in August. The Scholarship Advisory Board explained that the students eligible for the new awards have begun attending college or university and they have tuition bills for the current semester that are due or will be due shortly.

Enacted on Oct. 22, 2004, P.L. 14-37 is also known as the CNMI Honor Scholarship Act of 2004. It repealed P.L. 7-32, or the Postsecondary Education Scholarship Act of 1990.