Monday, March 26, 2007

NMC Weekly Update - March 26th


NEWS FROM THE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE




Greetings, Tirow, and Hafa Adai! Please read the following articles about our college:


A MESSAGE from our ACTING PRESIDENT
The NMC family has been devastated by the loss of three of its students as well as the student from Mt. Carmel High School. Ku Jung Hwan, Mira Yang and Seo Sang Won died while on a picnic at Forbidden Island on Friday afternoon. To help students cope with the loss, counseling has established a crisis intervention services and instructors are helping by allowing students flexibility in returning to classes.

School of Education students are planning on organizing college-wide attendance at the Chapel at CHC on Tuesday morning with everyone encouraged to arrive at 9:00 for the 10:00 ceremony. In addition, the ASNMC and Korean students organizing a Memorial Service on Thursday at 3:00 in the Student Center. The Student Center has been set up for the entire week for the ceremony on Thursday and faculty, staff and students are encouraged to pay their respects. The Chamorro Club, Ginen I Latte, will be having a candlelight vigil on Thursday night starting at 8:00 pm in the parking lot in from of building D and ending at the front of the NMC library.

These are very difficult times and the college’s acting president would like to thank everyone who has contributed to make these difficult times somewhat easier. The college’s heart goes out to these students’ families in their time of suffering.

Thank you.
/s/
Danny Ö. Wyatt
Acting NMC President


A MESSAGE FROM our CHARTER DAY FESTIVITIES COMMITTEE CHAIR - Ms. DEBBIE DIAZ
As Committee Chair, I would like to update you on the developments surrounding this important event.

Both the NMC Administration and the Faculty expressed the importance of using this activity as a way to promote our institution's programs and services, and in showcasing what we do best in terms of academia to prospective College students and all stakeholders in our community. As such, both entities recommend an Open House, one-day event, that focuses on highlighting all degree programs and student services of all College departments to include displays, presentations, workshops, distribution of informational materials, and campus tours. It would be beneficial for high school students, lawmakers, and other members of the community (i.e. parents) to attend and to be able to better understand our mission to educate.

The students and community members present at today's meeting, expressed that this activity is a CELEBRATION to mark our institution's birthday. As such, students and the community look forward to and expect a fun-filled activity marked by entertainment, games and food. The students want this celebration to be much like how we have celebrated in the past; a carnival-like festivity with all the enjoyment and fun that is more likely to be attended by the age-population that NMC seeks as potential students.

The Charter Day committee, on the other hand, is concerned with budget limitations, disruption of ongoing instructional classes, and the tight timeline to ensure that we organize and act on all necessary logistical requirements in facilitating a successful event. In addition, the Committee
has made a strong stance against adult content and alcohol related involvement during the entire Charter Day celebration. In order to proceed, and in considering all views presented, the Committee has compromised and voted on holding both an Open House event at the main campus from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and a scaled-down carnival-like festivity at the Southern End Field from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Friday, April 13, 2007.

The Committee has also decided to give exclusivity to NMC student organizations and NMC clubs in all fundraising activities including selling food, drinks, and other fundraising opportunities such as jail-a-thon, dunking booth, and the like.

The Committee extends a special THANK-YOU to the Acting President, faculty, students and community members who attended the meeting. Your input is well-received and appreciated.

Charter Day is the celebration of our institution and we look forward to working with everyone in making this year’s event memorable.

/s/
Debbie Diaz



COLLEGE ADVISEMENT WORKSHOP on ROTA
Ms. Joan Dubrall, Academic Advisement Coordinator for Educational Talent Search, will conduct a College Advisement Workshop for TRIO participants on Rota on March 30th. Eligible students have expressed interest in attending NMC and Ms. Dubrall will provide them with useful information about the various academic degree programs offered at NMC. About 60 students will be attending this workshop.

For more information please contact Ms. Dubrall at 234-5498, ext. 2101.


AHEC CONCLUDES ADVANCED CASE MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP
AHEC, the Area Health Education Center at the Northern Marianas College, completed their Advanced Case Management Workshop on Friday, March 9, 2007. Certificates were given to the 57 participants who completed the training. Last year 120 received training; 54 also received 3 Continuing Education Units (CEU's) from Eastern Michigan University. The training this year is more advanced; participants included 26 PSS counselors and staff, 8 Community Guidance staff, 12 Public Health staff, 10 Department of Youth Services (DYS) staff and one from the Office of Adult Probation. Dr. Crystal Mills, Social Work Professor from Eastern Michigan University, conducted the workshop.

AHEC is a federal grant under the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii. The CNMI AHEC is one of several in the Pacific. Its mission is to increase and improve the quantity, quality and diversity of the health workforce in the area. AHEC is developing a variety of allied health training opportunities including Pharmacology Tech and Nursing.

Dr. Faye Untalan is the Director of the AHEC Program for the CNMI. For further information about this training or about the AHEC Program, please contact Dr. Untalan at 234-5498, ext. 1510 or 1511.


UPDATE on INFORMATION & LEARNING TECHNOLOGY
MaryAnne Campo apologizes for not keeping everyone posted on what ILT has been doing lately to address the problems with our IT. Rest assured, they are hard at work to improve our learning environment.

Outsourcing of email is being considered- they have been discussing this for a long time, but it was brought up in a recent ILT meeting and MaryAnne has been talking with people to check on the possibility and feasibility of outsourcing our email. She will keep everyone updated on that.

But as most people don’t know- a Title III Fiber Project has been ongoing this year that will update our ageing network on the Saipan campus.

The RFP process for the Campus Fiber Project took much longer than expected this year, but the Strengthening the Student Network Project will be completed by the end of March- MaryAnne is crossing her fingers to be near that date. The project will update campus equipment and place fiber optics in vital areas of the campus. Additionally ILT will replace converters and switches that should have been replaced some time ago. If you would like to see the plan, the project architect, Mr. Roy Ortiz has some great specs and diagrams, and everything is all on a CD too. He is a great person to assist us in future networking, wireless, and VOIP projects also.

Also Ms. Delia Johnson resigned and Jovian is now in charge of W Student Labs and already was in the labs this week getting his ideas in place as to how to best handle all these new responsibilities, how he will maintain the labs, as well as continuing his desktop job.

Also, recently ILT hired a PTI crew to complete a Network Analysis Review in January. The project lasted over 30 days, and they have reported on critical issues the Saipan Campus needs to address. The Acting President has extra copies if anyone would like to read it and it is also on the EPortfolio site.

After reviewing the report, ILT out-sourced another network project that will begin addressing the W building network woes that were found in the February report from PTI. Unfortunately PTI will need another large grant to do all the work PTI suggests, but upon reviewing the report further it was decided that Title III had some additional money to outsource work that would solve some of the noted critical network issues that will further improve the student network and W Labs. So that’s 2 additional Network Projects outsourced with Title III grant money.

In addition when MaryAnne wrote the ANA grant, she added in a position for a Systems Administrator for NMC IT. That will add 1 more person to our understaffed IT dept and the posting just went out yesterday. She is hoping to have that position hired in 1 month to bring relief to our Network Administrator.

In January the ECF Consultants for the ANA Grant were on island testing the equipment for the ANA- Distance Learning Project. They were smiles when they left island and are number crunching their results now. Their report is due March 31st.

As you can see ILT has been working even though everything took much longer than expected. But this is just a beginning. NMC will need to write more grants to acquire additional funds to continue working on improving our network, buying additional computers, laptops, hardware, software, equipment, to support faculty development and training, to institute a disaster recovery plan, and update our antiquated telephone system, etc.

In addition the Technology in Education Committee just met to begin writing the NMC Technology Plan to be in compliance with WASC. That technology plan will be used to guide NMC into the future in its’ technology directions, including its purchases, policies and procedures.


NMC TINIAN CELEBRATES at the ANNUAL HOT PEPPER FESTIVAL
On February 17th and 18th, Tinian held its Annual Hot Pepper Festival at Tachogna Beach. This festival is an island style celebration showcasing local products, food and drinks/arts & crafts sold by local vendors, cultural dances and various competitions open to the public. NMC-Tinian and ASBNMC Tinian (Associated Student Body of NMC Tinian) participated in the event having a booth of their own, as well as participating in various activities such as Talaya throwing, the challenging and popular hot pepper eating contest, canoe/kayak racing, karaoke, beach volleyball, Umang race, Katdun Pika cooking contest, and many others. Our very own ASBNMC President Mr. Matt Blanco co-hosted the event.

According to Jersilyn King, (ASBNMC Senator), the event was literally and figuratively a “hot and fun” event, with “numerous activities”, and “monetary prizes” that were at stake for the competitions. Students of NMC, including the Student Support Services Program students, participated in this special event, which was surely a “memorable” day for them. NMC students won 3rd place in canoe/kayak rowing contest, 3rd in volleyball, and donated their winnings to the account of ASBNMC. Individual winners include Isabel Lazaro (ASBNMC Secretary) winning 2nd place in Karaoke and Merrill Ayuyu (ASBNMC Vice President) in 3rd place. Merril Ayuyu also won 1st place in Talaya throwing, and NMC-Tinian Student Reggie Ayuyu won 3rd place, as well.

Officers of the ASBNMC include, Matt Blanco- President & ASNMC Tinian Representative, Merrill Ayuyu- Vice President, Isabel Lazaro- Secretary, Elena Maoile- Treasurer, and our Senators: Ofemia Khan, Jersilyn King, JJ Reyes, and Tasha Sanchez. In addition, our Associated Student Body of this school year has been very active in our community as well as promoting NMC as an institution of choice.



For all inquiries about our college blog, please send an email to
beckys@nmcnet.edu or contact the President’s Office at 234-5498, extensions 1000-1002.

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