NMC 5-year strategic plan OK’d

The Board of Regents has approved the Northern Marianas College’s Five-Year Strategic Plan for 2015-2020, which outlines the key strategic approaches the institution seeks to accomplish in the years ahead.

NMC president Dr. Sharon Y. Hart presented the 24-page document to the full board on Friday, highlighting five key goals: increase relevance to the CNMI workforce and community needs; ensure continued accreditation; accelerate time to completion; improve student success and support; and strengthen operations and resource development.

The “NMC Five Year Strategic Plan 2015-2020—Full Speed Ahead” paves the road that NMC will travel on and clearly defines every step it will need to take along the way.

According to Hart and board chair Frank Rabauliman, the goals are a very demanding yet achievable set of strategic imperatives aimed at fulfilling the collective vision of stakeholders. When fully implemented, the imperatives will allow NMC to continue to meet its stated mission for its students and the Commonwealth and to maintain a strong accreditation position for the benefit of all, the said.

Hart pointed out that because NMC’s planning process always drives budgeting, the plan outlines the direction where the college is going and then obtaining resources to accomplish that plan.

In order to ensure the relevance of its programs and courses, the plan states that NMC will assure the alignment of its offerings in specific areas such as strengthening the link between NMC’s curriculum and that of the Public School System. It also targets to closely align its courses with the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and other regional institutions and will ensure the relevance of developmental curriculum to a student’s chosen academic program, among others.

To ensure continued accreditation, NMC will embrace the culture of accreditation using standards and criteria for review and demonstrate effective performance by focusing efforts to follow accreditation standards.

In ensuring students complete on time and do not fall through the cracks, NMC will target time in strategic areas such as reduce the time between a student’s entry into NMC and his or her enrolment in a program of study; reduce time-to-degree and increase the number of students completing a two-year or a four-year degree on time; and will reduce time and accelerate success for a student to complete remediation for transition into college credit.

To ensure effective and efficient operations, NMC must achieve the following through a culture fostering organizational entrepreneurship: implement NMC facility master plan; enhance NMC institutional image; sustain a skilled and productive workforce by improving human resource practices; maximize funding opportunities; improve information data system; and enhance financial monitoring and institutional accountability.