WASC lifts NMC’s warning status

The Northern Marianas College is no longer on warning status with its accreditation agency, NMC president Tony Deleon Guerrero announced yesterday.

The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges lifted the warning after a meeting last Jan. 12-14, where the agency reviewed a progress report submitted by NMC and the report of the evaluation team, which visited on Oct. 27-28, 2004.

“I am pleased to inform you that the commission acted to accept the report, remove the college from warning, and require that the college complete a progress report by Oct. 15, 2005,” ACCJC executive director Barbara Beno said in a Jan. 31 letter.

The ACCJC placed NMC’s accreditation on warning status in January 2004, due to the college’s failure to correct finance-related problems and inability to comply with certain accreditation standards.

The ACCJC retained the warning in June, citing concerns over NMC’s lack of resources to maintain two campuses: its existing campus in As Terlaje and the former La Fiesta shopping complex.

To address the agency’s concern, the NMC Board of Regents entered into an agreement with Gov. Juan N. Babauta to transfer the college’s responsibility over La Fiesta to the CNMI Executive Branch.

“This is a major accomplishment in our collective effort to move the college forward. I would like to thank Governor Babauta, his staff, our Board of Regents members, and all my NMC colleagues who worked hard to meet the commission’s concerns and WASC accreditation standards,” Deleon Guerrero said. “The governor’s help in relieving us of financial responsibility for the La Fiesta property, and college employees’ work to address specific accreditation recommendations proved crucial to removing NMC from the warning status sanction.”

Deleon Guerrero was quick to add, however, that a lot of work still needs to be done to ensure that NMC continues to meet WASC standards.

In her letter, Beno required NMC to submit a progress report on Oct. 15, 2005, which will be followed by another visit by WASC representatives.

Beno recommended that the college “direct sufficient resources to its institutional effectiveness efforts in order to build its capacity to collect, analyze, and use information for effective institutional decision-making.”

The accreditation of NMC’s four-year elementary education program—its only baccalaureate program—remains at risk. The Senior College Commission focused on the La Fiesta fiasco and other funding-related concerns when it issued the warning last July.