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ON SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS Sablan allays fear of CNMI students in Hawaii
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Posted on Oct 07 1999
Lt. Gov. Jesus R. Sablan has assured CNMI students attending college in Hawaii of assistance following a recent visit to the island state in efforts to help government scholars understand the current predicament of the Tenorio administration.
He has discussed their concerns with Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio, who he said has already expressed readiness to come to the aid of the students, specifically in the early release of their allowance and other financial grants.
According to Sablan, the 50 students whom he met in Hawaii on his way home from New York were not particularly frustrated over the administration’s decision to cut the amount of the educational assistance, but lack of regulations to ensure prompt receipt of the money.
He said they want the government to send their monthly stipend on time and to pay their tuition not on a quarterly basis but on each semester, while they also ask help to find employment in the Commonwealth upon graduation.
Sablan has raised these issues with the governor and Mike Sablan, special advisor for finance and budget, and both have pledged “to work out a program to meet the students’ needs.”
On employment assistance, the lieutenant governor said he would recommend establishment of a joint undertaking in which the government and the private sector will provide internship training for these returning students.
While lawmakers have pressed additional funding for the Scholarship’s office, Sablan believed the students have complained not against the reduction of the amount of the grants, but the failure of the government to prepare them ahead of its implementation.
“If there is any change in the figure, whether downward or upward, we should at least provide them adequate notice,” he said.
The meeting in Hawaii, which he sought to touch base with students there, was very helpful, Sablan pointed out. “Luckily I took the initiative with the blessing of the governor… to see the students and check the liaison office there just to get update,” he added.
Sablan stopped by in Honolulu over the weekend from New York where he attended a U.N. conference together with Reps. Ana S. Teregeyo and Melvin O. Faisao.
