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NMC mulls selective pay cut
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Posted on Dec 07 1998
Northern Marianas College President Agnes McPhetres rules out a uniform pay cut, saying that it will be made on a case-by-case basis.
NMC faces a deficit of more than $600,000, and a salary reduction is deemed inevitable as a way out of the financial gloom.
McPhetres said the college will rely on performance evaluation to determine the size of cut for personnel.
“Some may be cut by 8 percent or by 10 percent. But I can’t just say across-the-board 10 percent because that’s an easy way out,” she said.
A shuffling of NMC programs is already thought to carry out some cost-saving.
The NMC board recently adopted a resolution to allow the college president to identify areas where there may be redundancies of up to 15 percent of their share of the budget.
The resolution gave NMC two weeks to identify divisions that can allow a budget cut.
McPhetres is also considering revising the workloads of teachers and assigning administrators to teach in spring so that shortage of personnel would be covered without necessarily hiring.
About 20 people have resigned or retired this year.
“I already have letters from some of our employees. One was willing to have a 20 percent cut, while another offers to work only four days in a week,” she said.
The board recently voted to suspend its honorarium.
A campaign will also be launched to increase its enrollment.
“Instead of concentrating on just cut, we tried to find innovative ways to meet the needs of higher education. We have to be ingenious on how to raise funds,” McPhetres said.
