NMC Weekly Update - July 7th

NEWS FROM THE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE





Hafa adai, tirowami and greetings everyone!

Here is the highlighted article of the week:

[NMC President’s comments on House Bill No. 15-140 to the Chairman of the Committee on Health, Education and Welfare (HEW)]

June 30, 2006

The Honorable Jesus SN. Lizama
Chairman, HEW
The House of Representatives
P.O. Box 500586
Fifteenth Commonwealth Legislature
Saipan, MP 96950

Subject: H.B. No. 15-140

Dear Congressman Lizama:

This is in response to your letter of June 15, 2006 requesting comments from Northern Marianas College on H.B. 15-140. Northern Marianas College is extremely disappointed by the underlying intent of this bill, the purpose of which is clearly and blatantly intended to tarnish the good name of the college. The damage caused by such action, obviously carried out to further one individual’s personal vendetta against NMC employees past and present, extends far beyond the intended victims. Such action does, unfortunately, cause unnecessary harm to the institution’s alumni and to its current students because the allegations that are presented in the bill as findings imply that these students have chosen to attend a second-rate college whose Board members’ and President’s qualifications are highly inadequate and whose action’s border on malfeasance.

In addition, the findings and proposed amendments in this bill severely impair a vital and treasured community resource in its ability to meet the ongoing adult training and postsecondary educational needs of our Commonwealth and its residents. Our community members have the right to expect that its elected leaders would act responsibly to improve its lone community college, not cast unfounded accusations against it and pass legislation in an attempt to cripple it. It is distressing to inform the CNMI Legislature that our college is now eligible, based on the allegations and content of this Bill, to become a “poster child” for one of the five challenges facing postsecondary educational institutions in the Pacific, as presented in Enhancing and Sustaining Higher Education Quality in the Pacific: Challenges Facing Institutions Seeking to Acquire and Maintain WASC Accreditation, a “white paper” now being prepared by members of the Pacific Postsecondary Education Council (PPEC) and the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The relevant challenge cited in this report is identified as “Inappropriate local governmental influence or control.” PPEC will now be able to cite an additional and classical example of such. We have now become an example of what is wrong with Pacific island postsecondary institutions. To the contrary, there was a time when NMC was used as a model for what other institutions in the region should be doing.

If this letter were to address each of the misguided findings contained in H.B. 15-140, it would be interminably long. Hence, the comments contained herein are directed at the three major purposes of the proposed amendments to 3 CMC § 1312, § 1316, and § 1322.

Purpose 1: To raise the educational qualifications of the members of the Northern Marianas College’s Board of Regents.
In the introductory findings, the bill states that one reason for modifying the law is “to ensure better NMC fiscal responsibility.” In order to do this, the legislature wants to change the qualifications of the regents. However, in Section 2, the amendment merely changes the qualifications of the regents by requiring four regents to have a master’s degree and the rest to have a bachelor’s degree. It does not specify what kind of a master’s degree is required. It does not necessarily follow that a person with a master’s degree will “ensure better NMC fiscal responsibility.” A master’s degree in a field related to business, accounting, or education might better ensure this. A master’s degree in a completely unrelated field definitely does not “ensure better NMC fiscal responsibility.” Furthermore, neither the eligibility requirements nor the standards of good practice used by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) specify educational qualifications for members of an institution’s governing board. Beyond the existing statutory requirements, we firmly believe the qualifications for individual Board members should be left to the discretion of the governor who appoints them. Senate confirmation is an existing safeguard against an incapable or inappropriate individual serving as an NMC Board member. Current provisions in the law, then, are deemed sufficient for meeting accreditation purposes and community needs.

Purpose 2: To provide for improved financial oversight of the Northern Marianas College (NMC) that will create a more reliable system and disclosure of collections and expenditures which will maintain fiscal stability for accreditation reasons.
This portion of the bill has three serious flaws: First, the legal interpretations of the CNMI Constitution are misguided. Secondly, the resulting amendments will lead to accreditation problems due to the unacceptable infringement on the autonomy of NMC’s Board of Regents with regard to the establishment and implementation of policy. Moreover, the bill ignores the current status of fiscal management at NMC, which has been validated as being quite satisfactory by the most recent independent financial audit reports and by three evaluation teams from WASC that visited NMC between April 2004 and November 2005.

1. Legal interpretations of the CNMI Constitution:With respect to the findings regarding the CNMI Constitution, the bill is wrong on the statement it attributes to Article XV, Section 2(a) of the Constitution.
The bill attributes the particular section as saying “that the operations and duties of the NMC Board of Regents shall be provided by law.” The constitutional provision actually says, “The composition of the board of regents and other matters pertaining to its operations and duties shall be provided by law. (Emphasis added.) The bill conveniently forgets the sentence just before the one it uses. The second sentence prior to the last sentence of Section 2(a) states “The board of regents shall be appointed to staggered terms by the governor and shall have autonomy in the administration of its affairs . . . .” (Emphasis added.) The sentence regarding the autonomy of the college comes first and was purposely done. Undoubtedly, the drafters of the constitutional provision knew of the importance of an educational institution of higher learning being autonomous. Consequently, one could easily infer from these constitutional statements that other matters, not impinging on NMC’s autonomy, should be provided by law.

Continuing with constitutional matters, the bill cites Article X, Section 8 of the CNMI Constitution as the source for its argument that the Department of Finance should control NMC’s expenditure of public funds. The bill forgets that Article X, Section 8 is a general provision regarding the expenditure of public funds. Article XV, Section 2 is a more specific provision that grants autonomy to NMC. Autonomy includes the ability to control the expenditure of the funds it has. It is a legal maxim that a specific provision controls a general provision. For the continued accreditation of NMC, the institution must maintain its autonomy.

2. Potential accreditation problems
With regard to the bill raising accreditation matters and having dire consequences, the following items are lifted directly from ACCJC documents:

• Eligibility Requirement #3: “The governing board is an independent policy-making body capable of reflecting constituent and public interest in board activities and decisions.” (Independent here is commonly interpreted as independent of government or other systematic pressures.)
• Standard IV.B.1: “The institution has a governing board that is responsible for establishing policies to assure the quality, integrity, and effectiveness of the student learning programs and services and the financial stability of the institution.” (Emphasis added.)
• Standard IV.B.1.a: “The governing board is an independent policy-making body that reflects the public interest in board activities and decisions…. It advocates for and defends the institution and protects it from undue influence or pressure.” (Emphasis added.)
• Standard IV.B.1.c: “The governing board has ultimate responsibility for educational quality, legal matters, and financial integrity.” (Emphasis added.)

Given the ACCJC statements presented directly above, one can readily conclude that it is the board that makes policy as to how things will run at NMC, not the legislature. The legislature can, like anybody else, complain to the board and expect matters to be examined and acted upon if they are found to have merit. But it is not for the government, neither the legislature or the governor, nor any governmental bureaucracy, to make policy for the college. The board, and only the board, does that. Should ACCJC come to understand that “undue influence or pressure” is impacting the college, there could be accreditation consequences. Such has actually occurred within recent years at the College of the Marshall Islands, American Samoa Community College, and Guam Community College. We are certain that the leaders of the 15th CNMI Legislature would not want NMC to be placed in such a negative situation.

3. Current status of fiscal management at NMC
NMC is up to date on the completion of independent financial audit reports, conducted in accordance with Office of Management and Budget Circular A-133, which governs audits of all entities receiving and administering U.S. federal funds. Copies of such reports have been provided to the accrediting commission, to the CNMI Public Auditor, and to the federal government. It was partially on the basis of NMC’s most recent independent financial audit report that the U.S. Department of Education restored NMC’s “advance” status for the awarding of student Pell grants. To validate our contention that NMC’s financial management practices have vastly improved, we include two attachments to this document:

• Attachment One. President’s memo of August 3, 2005 to All NMC Employees, RE: “Update on NMC’s Financial Condition and FY 2004 Audit Reports” (Attached to this memo and included herein is a summary of the FY 2003 and 2004 Audit Reports.) Note the following statement from page three of the summary: The Independent Auditors’ Reports on Internal Control and Compliance also demonstrate the commendable progress the College has made in improving its internal controls and in complying with federal and local laws and regulations. This is again primarily attributable to new control procedures and processes put in place to ensure a strong internal control structure and working with and educating our federal program colleagues on compliance issues.
• Attachment Two. “Commendations and Conclusions from Recent ACCJC Evaluation Reports” Note the following statements from the October 2004 Evaluation Team Report: Conclusion. The College has fully addressed all issues of fiscal management, stability, and control. The Board of Regents, the President, and the College are to be commended for the progress made in this regard.
  Commendation. The institution has made outstanding progress toward fiscal stability since the last visit. It was on the basis of the independent financial reports, completed on a timely basis, and on the evaluation team reports that ACCJC lifted NMC’s warning status in January 2005.

Purpose 3: To raise the educational qualifications of the NMC President.
Again, neither the eligibility requirements nor the standards of good practice used by ACCJC specify educational qualifications for the chief executive officer or president of a college. At present, the qualifications for president at NMC are rightfully determined by the Board of Regents.

Based upon the comments presented above, it is the position of Northern Marianas College that H.B. 15-140 should not become public law in the CNMI as it will adversely affect our ongoing accreditation status by significantly restricting the autonomy and independence of the NMC Board of Regents’ authority. We thank you for the opportunity to submit our written comments on H.B. 15-140. Si Yu’us ma’ase!

Sincerely,

/s/ Antonio V. DeLeon Guerrero
President

Have a safe and wonderful weekend CNMI!