NMC may soon return to Pell advance status

By ALDWIN R. FAJARDO
CORRESPONDENT

SAN FRANCISCO—Northern Marianas College president Tony Deleon Guerrero met with Federal Pell Grant officials here to discuss the learning institution’s eventual return to the advance status, which both parties expect to come about by December 2004.

In an interview, Deleon Guerrero said NMC’s student files have been updated, noting that the college is ready to submit the last batch of documents required by the U.S. Department of Education to get the Commonwealth’s lone higher-learning institution out of reimbursement status.

The federal government has placed NMC on Pell reimbursement status—as opposed to advance status—due to the college’s failure to submit audits on time in the last four years. For the college to get out of the reimbursement status, it needs to submit three batches of student files with an error rate of 10 percent or less.

Deleon Guerrero, who traveled to the U.S. mainland with NMC director of finance and procurement Raaj Kurapati early this week, disclosed that the USDE has given the college until Nov. 30, 2004 to submit the last batch of required student files for review by the federal agency.

“We are confident that we will be able to meet the Nov. 30 deadline and by December of this year, we expect to return to the Pell Grant advance status,” the NMC president said. “We want the USDE to know that our files are now up-to-date and that the college administration is doing its best to consistently comply with federal requirements.”

The community college is expecting to receive $194,629 in Pell awards, which would reimburse NMC of student tuition and fees for the academic year 2003-2004. The USDE has yet to process two batches of files, which involves 200 students who are waiting to be reimbursed for last year’s school fees.

According to Kurapati, USDE rejected the second of the four batches of student files submitted by the NMC. He explained that the college is confident that it will be able to submit a third clean batch before the Nov. 30 deadline, giving the NMC a better chance at returning to the Pell advance status.

Pell Grant provides college funding to low-income students nationwide, either individually or through college. Pell Grant awards are given to undergraduate students pursuing an associate or bachelor’s degree.

NMC receives an average of about $2,000 in Pell funds a year. The award increases every year to compensate for higher tuition costs as well as other increased educational expenses.