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Appointees to scholarship’s governing board pending
The newly created governing board of the CNMI Scholarship Office has no members yet, but press secretary Angel A. Demapan disclosed that appointments would soon be made.
It was early this year when Gov. Eloy S. Inos signed into law Senate Bill 18-31, which became Public Law 18-40. This statute created the CNMI Scholarship Office as an autonomous agency, with a governing body that will make decisions for it.
Demapan told Saipan Tribune that because of this law, the terms of the previous advisory board was abolished.
At this time, he said, there are no board members yet. The CNMI Scholarship Office has an administrator, Rose Pangelinan.
“Gov. [Eloy S.] Inos is now in the process of vetting potential nominees for this board and will announce his appointments soon,” said Demapan.
Based on the Legislature’s findings, the idea of having an autonomous scholarship office with the oversight of a governing board that makes the final decision making would free it from political influence and any other influence that is contrary to the purpose of the scholarship program. The board of directors is tasked to make policy decisions regarding scholarship programs and promulgate rules and regulations to implement them.
The CNMI government continues to see a growing number of students wanting to obtain college degrees here and abroad. This is evident on the data recorded by the CNMI Scholarship Office, which received over a thousand applications for the spring 2014 semester.
The Scholarship Office has two program offerings: the Educational Assistance Program and Honors Scholarship Program. However, the Honors scholarship program has stopped receiving new applicants since fall 2013 semester as a result of the expiration of the sunset provision that created the program.
