NMC instructors overloaded, says faculty prexy

Due to the lack of instructional staff at the Northern Marianas College, many instructors are “overloaded,” or are teaching beyond the 15 credit hours they are supposed to handle, according to honorary faculty regent Frank Sobolewski.

He said that, without full-time instructors available, it makes it difficult for faculty members to plan for curriculum and schedule classes for enrollees.

Currently, the college has 33 instructors and most are handling additional classes to ensure that students are getting the required credits for their programs and courses.

Sobolewski cited two factors that contribute to the lack of instructional workforce: budget and unqualified candidates or applicants for the positions.

Based on the list of job announcements at NMC, there are 12 vacant positions for instructors, Sobolewski said. NMC has six academic departments.

For the business department, three positions are up for grabs: accounting/business instructor, computer application instructor, and the department chair position formerly occupied by Eric Plinske, who retired last year.

Three instructors are also needed for the science, mathematics, health and athletic department, including a health and PE instructor, math instructor, and a medical science class instructor.

At the social sciences and the fine arts department which Sobolewski chairs, two positions need to be filled: social science instructor and psychology instructor.

Two English instructors are needed by the languages and humanities department, where majority of instructors are handling overloaded credits.

Saipan Tribune learned that NMC also needs a department chair for the nursing department following the retirement of Lynne Curtis.

For the school education department, one instructor is needed as well as a disability counselor for special education.

“Without full time instructors available, it makes it difficult for us to plan curriculums and schedule courses for students and the workload. Currently, faculty members get overloaded with tests, with program review, teaching in the class, reviewing and revising course guides and other things. They get overloaded with these because there are no faculty to share the load with…it’s one important concern we want to address here,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Sobolewski said any instructor who has beyond 15 credit hours per semester is considered overloaded.

“Inability to fill the faculty vacancies definitely will hurt quality education at NMC. There is no doubt about it. In some cases, not filling these posts is due to budget…but in some cases we have a hard time getting the qualified candidates,” the faculty senate president said.

Admitting that the situation has been there for quite some time, Sobolewski described the college’s hiring pace as “very slow.”

“Our hiring decision making process here is too slow and needs to be speeded up and made more efficient. We spend too much time on the process,” he said, adding that advertisement of the vacancies must also be enforced in a wider range.