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Ex SU students hold rally, get AG’s help
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Posted on Mar 25 2005
Holding placards that call for help from visiting U.S. Senate committee staffers, some 26 former students of the defunct Saipan University gathered at the parking lot of the Governor’s Office yesterday, expressing alarm over what they fear as an ultimatum on their stay on the island.
“We’re told by the Immigration that we can only stay here 30 days after April 1,” said Wang Rui, the spokesperson of the group.
Their concern, however, was immediately resolved when attorney general Pamela Brown, went out after about 30 minutes to meet with them and assured them that as long as they are working, they would not be asked to go home.
As for those without work, she said that they will be provided repatriation tickets.
“But we have this order from the Immigration that we can’t stay here by next month,” said Rui.
“No, that can be extended—for those working. Those who do not, we’ll give you airplane tickets,” said Brown. “Mark my word. You won’t be repatriated if you are issued temporary work permits.”
The group had a placard that read, “U.S. Staffers please help us.” Another read, “Saipan University students, we were cheated” and still another one, “CNMI has failed us.”
Rui said they began to congregate in the area at 12 noon, just an hour prior to the scheduled meeting of U.S. Senate Energy Committee staffers Allen Stayman and Josh Johnson with Gov. Juan N. Babauta and his entire Cabinet.
The group, however, were no longer at the area when the visiting congressional staffers came out of the meeting at past 2am. In fact, they began dispersing shortly after they met with Brown.
The U.S. District Court had sentenced SU founder Park Soon Kyung last January to nine years and one month imprisonment for defrauding at least 88 students whom he recruited from China in 2003.
The court found that Park had engaged in schemes that defrauded the students on course offerings and the students’ chances of getting jobs while studying in the CNMI so he could obtain tuition and fees from them. CNMI laws prohibit the employment of foreign students.
But as a special consideration, the AGO has allowed the students to find temporary work in the CNMI.
