Spare part-time students from cut scholarship cut • NMC fears policy would force students to drop out from college

Northern Marianas College officials have prodded Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio to spare them from a new policy that disallows the government to provide scholarships to part-time students attending the island’s lone higher learning institution.

They warned the stringent regulation, which takes effect this semester, would force several of these scholars to drop out from college. Recipients of the locally-funded Educational Assistance Program comprise more than half of the student population at NMC.

But Tenorio vowed to help the college seek other means of funding to keep government scholars in school, while at the same time maximize all available resources of the Commonwealth.

“I made it clear that our resources are not that good. They have to understand that we are trying to help students who want to attend college so we asked them to come up with some recommendation and what they need,” the local chief executive told reporters after meeting with NMC officials.

The financial aid policy imposed recently by the Scholarship’s Office has already discouraged a number of the students to enroll during the first semester of this schoolyear, said Ramon Villagomez, chair of the NMC Board of Regents.

Under the new rule, only full-time students are qualified to receive EAP while those taking six credit hours or two courses per semester will no longer be covered by the program.

The move is intended to reduce spending by the government as the Tenorio administration has cut nearly half of its budget for the scholarship program from close to $4 million last year to a little more than $2 million for Fiscal 2000.

This amount, however, will be shared by both off-island and NMC students. The college is also given federal funding through the Pell Grants, but most of its enrollees rely on local assistance.

Villagomez underscored the need to live within this limited amount set aside by the governor for the EAP. “We can’t give everybody the same amount of money that we used to. We need to make some changes,” he said.

While the policy was drawn up as early as last year, the college got a one-year reprieve to allow part-time students to complete their courses.
but now NMC fears that with the absence of financial assistance and the continuous economic hardships facing most families on the island, its enrollment would show drastic decline.

The college registrar had already disclosed to the Board that many students withdrew from their classes after finding out that they would not receive grants from the government.

“We are concerned whether a significant number of these part-time students will not be able to go to college and improve their education,” Villagomez pointed out.

But he expressed optimism that Tenorio would be flexible when they make their recommendations which will include statistics, like how many students will be affected by the new policy and how much will be needed to assist them.

“The governor did not make any specific commitment but he encouraged us to be more accurate in the figures and the number of students and to make recommendations on changes to the policy that would be realistic,” the chief regent explained.

One possible area which NMC will look at is the scholarship grants for students attending its teacher’s academy. Villagomez said these scholars receive $4,000 per semester which could be reduced to $3,000 to funnel the remaining balance to EAP.

“Both the government and the college are working on this,” he added.

Due to worsening financial crisis confronting the CNMI, the government has overhauled its scholarship programs by cutting the amount granted to students as well as by limiting recipients of the assistance.

NMC last year appealed for additional money after its EAP ran out of funds, triggering protests from students and prompting the House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare to conduct oversight hearing on the cash-strapped college.