Draft NMC comprehensive self-evaluation report nearly ready

The Northern Marianas College is gearing up for the full completion of its comprehensive self-evaluation report and is targeting to release it by end of this month in time for its submission in early August.

NMC president Sharon Y. Hart and accreditation liaison officer Galvin Deleon Guerrero told Saipan Tribune yesterday that NMC aims to submit the final report by mid-August, two months prior to a scheduled visit by a team from the Accrediting Commission of Community and Junior Colleges.

Hart said the commission is now putting together the team that will visit NMC and that a chairperson has been identified to lead the group.

Usually, Hart said, the team is composed of about 10 members, including a representative from the senior accreditation body, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, who will focus on the college’s four-year degree offerings.

Described as part of a normal accreditation process, NMC has to undergo a full self-evaluation every six years as required by the accrediting commission.

As of yesterday, Hart said that the college is at 90 percent in terms of completing the draft report, and it still has to go through extensive review by all college governance for their inputs. The College Accreditation Reaffirmation Team, or ART, and accreditation teams, she added, continue to meet weekly as part of that preparation.

After submitting the report in August, NMC expects a four-day visit of commissioner members on Oct. 20 to 24. The decision on NMC’s accreditation will be known after the January 2013 assembly of the commissioners.

Hart and Deleon Guerrero said that NMC is working “very aggressively” in preparing the report and for the team visit. Even members of the Board of Regents, they said, are undergoing trainings and workshops as part of commission requirements.

“Our goal as an institution is to address every standard and if we fall short in any of the standard, part of our responsibility as a college is to recognize that we have fallen short and develop a plan on how we’re going to address it. I think that’s really a key,” Hart said.

The two declined to talk about the specifics of the report, citing confidentiality rules.

The fate of NMC’s accreditation after January will be one of four possible options: full affirmation, probation, show cause, or revocation.

Both Hart and Deleon Guerrero are optimistic of a favorable decision.

The two also clarified how the two-year commission rule works to allay fears that NMC will have no chance to rectify any deficiencies that might be cited in any future commission findings.

“If you look at recent years, we effectively responded to many of the deficiencies [based on the commission decisions that came out]. Now, if they come up again after the commission said that we met these recommendations, then the two-year rule is reset. In other words, if a deficiency comes out and was not brought up in the past two years, the two-year clock is reset,” explained Deleon Guerrero.

NMC was placed on continued show-cause status after the commission determined that it failed to rectify all previous concerns raised. In its February decision, the commission identified both old and new “concerns” at the college.