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Cepeda says NMC staff doing OK despite challenges
Despite the typhoon damage and the shaky financial situation of the Northern Marianas College, NMC Board of Regents chair Charles Cepeda said that the college’s faculty and staff have done a great job, considering.
This comes in the wake of news of a 12% increase in NMC’s enrollment for the 2019 fall semester.
“When Super Typhoon Yutu hit the NMC campus, we anticipated a reduction of enrollment and when we heard about the increased enrollment, we were just extremely happy with the amount of work that the NMC staff have done to retain students and promote the college,” Cepeda said.
Cepeda credits NMC interim president Frankie Eliptico for his efforts to rebuild the campus by working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency by applying for grants and with retaining students for this semester.
“We’re all waiting for FEMA funds [to be disbursed] and other grants are currently in the process of being evaluated,” he said.
Cepeda is confident that the NMC administration will get all the work needed to get the FEMA funding and grants for the reconstruction of the campus. “It just takes a matter of time for these [funds to be disbursed] for this new project,” he said.
As for the current austerity measures that NMC is experiencing, Cepeda said that NMC will end these measures once the CNMI central government makes good on what’s due the college. “These [austerity] measures are affecting the whole community and the NMC is doing its part in cutting back on costs,” he added.
Last Aug. 26, Eliptico reported that NMC has 1,276 students enrolled for the fall 2019 semester.
