NMC asks govt to maintain college’s budget

Northern Marianas College president Tony Deleon Guerrero has asked the Executive and Legislative branches last week to maintain the college’s current budget, reminding them of the school’s financial needs.

Deleon Guerrero said he is hoping that lawmakers and the government would support NMC’s FY 2006 budget request and keep its funding at the continuing resolution level of $8,046,839.

In a letter to lawmakers, Deleon Guerrero asked them to support the budgetary needs of the college so that it could “effectively meet its constitutionally mandated mission and continue to be a valuable community resource center for the CNMI.”

The letter, addressed to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, Lt. Gov. Timothy Villagomez, Senate President Joseph Mendiola, and House Speaker Oscar Babauta, aimed to comply with the new administration’s request that all CNMI government agencies re-submit their FY 2006 budget with a planned 20 to 48 percent reduction in expenditures.

Deleon Guerrero said that imposing such a drastic budget cut on NMC would result in “negative repercussions on our educational programs, services, students, employee morale, and accreditation.”

“In considering the ramifications of such a reduction, we ask that the administration and members of the 15th CNMI Legislature also be mindful of NMC’s problems in meeting its required mandate at funding levels authorized under continuing resolution over the past two fiscal years,” he said.

In each of those two fiscal years, NMC had no choice but to request additional funds toward the end of those periods. Deleon Guerrero recalled that in FY 2004, a supplemental budget of $438,000 was approved, and in FY 2005, an additional $518,000 was also authorized to address the personnel costs for the college’s nursing program and for offering summer classes.

This year is a “very critical year” for the college, said Deleon Guerrero, because it is currently completing an institutional self-study program in preparation for the comprehensive site visit by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in October.

NMC told the lawmakers that maintaining financial stability and acquiring the needed fiscal resources are critically important for NMC to effectively support student learning and to meet its broad educational goals.

“It is also important to note that one of the main reasons for our recent accreditations problems, which led to NMC being placed on warning status by WASC, was due to the accrediting commission’s concerns about the institution having sufficient funding to support its instructional programs.”

“Because of the strong support from the Legislature,” NMC was able to overcome these problems, and has been removed from the warning status list.