55 pct of NMC budget goes to admin, 15 pct IT

As in the past, over half of the Northern Marianas College’s operations budget for Fiscal Year 2009 will go to financial and administration services while 15 percent has been allocated to information technology. The rest are for other areas such as academic programs and student services, which accounts for 7 percent each, according to a summary report released by NMC yesterday.

Members of the NMC Board of Regents approved last week a total budget of $3,099,997 for FY 2009. This is 3.17 percent less compared to the current fiscal year budget of $3,201,542.

Some 55 percent or $1,701,784 of the new budget will be spent on financial and administration services, a decrease of $82,497 compared to the 2008 figure of $1,7884,281.

The biggest increase among the 13 departmental items in the budget will go to information technology, which accounts for 15 percent of the total budget. The new budget for this item is $454,555 while the current amount is at $152,474, a difference of $302,081.

The budget for student services increased from $189,126 in 2008 to $226,277 in 2009 while the amount for academic programs and services decreased from $665,937 to $226,992.

The other items in the budget that will see an increase are expenses for:

-the Board of Regents (from $30,778 to $37,086);

-Office of the President (from $124,886 to $149,365);

-Institutional Advancement (from $23,379 to $31,205), ;

-Institutional Effectiveness (from $3,103 to $52,618); and

-Community Programs and Services (from $114,939 to $121,724).

The items that were slashed included the budget for NMC’s Rota campus (from $64,400, $54,961), the Tinian campus (from $46,274 to 42,970), the Faculty Senate (from $1,065 to $150), and the Staff Senate (from $900 to $310).

In passing the resolution to approve the operations budget for FY 2008-2009 on Oct. 9, the board said it recognizes that the budget must be consistent with the mandates of local and federal laws, in addition to meeting the standards of accreditation set forth by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges–Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Commission members are set to arrive in the first week of November to evaluate the show-cause report that was approved by the board early this month.

The NMC board said yesterday it is now ready for this inspection.