NMC lobbying Legislature to spare them from $307K cuts

The Northern Marianas College has already trimmed its operations budget for the current fiscal year to $1.21 million but wants the Legislature to allow it keep $307,539 of the $1.511 million budget cut intended for the community college.

NMC president Tony V. Deleon Guerrero presented the budget cut scenario to the NMC Board of Regents yesterday afternoon.

He said the NMC would attempt to persuade the Legislature to spare them from further budget cuts next week.

Deleon Guerrero said he is hoping that lawmakers would realize that NMC has already cut operational expenses to a point where it is “in the throes of losing or affecting different programs as well as accreditations.”

He told the board that the NMC budget for the current fiscal year is already way below the continuing resolution level of $8,046,739.

To date, the CNMI’s lone community college is operating at a reduced budget of $6,535,722—“an 18.78-percent budget cut from the original budget.”

The internal budget cuts taken were from the following: hiring freeze amounting to $588,356; operations budget cuts of $465,122; tapping of contingency fund amounting to $75,000; cancellation of the supplemental retirement worth $50,000; and partial nursing position freeze from March to September amounting to $25,000.

If the board’s lobbying efforts fail, Deleon Guerrero said they would have to revise and reassess further internal cuts.

“But we would have to minimize negative repercussions to the college programs and services [about the internal cuts],” he added.

The board, according to the president’s presentation, unanimously decided to encourage “Student Services” and “Financial Aid” staff to facilitate various workshops and training sessions for students to know and be familiar with several financial assistance programs available on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota to address the new tuition and fee increases.

Deleon Guerrero said he wants the entire NMC community to be more proactive in its counseling and advising processes and not for students to use financial reasons as an excuse for not attending NMC.

“Improve our overall institutional marketing and student recruitment activities, develop a more aggressive marketing plan at the student-level, programs, unit and institutional levels on NMC’s star campuses,” said Deleon Guerrero.

He is also calling on all NMC deans and program personnel to explore innovative “intra-institutional” program alliances by collaborating internally to improve overall institutional performance.

Deleon Guerrero added that the NMC community should further promote partnerships with appropriate sectors throughout the CNMI to make NMC’s educational programs and services more affordable and accessible. “Collaborate with the NMC Foundation in creating an effective ‘Resource Development Plan’ for the college,” he said.