Senate approves more funds for NMC

The Senate approved a proposal Friday to give the Northern Marianas College $518,000 for its summer and nursing programs.

The Senate unanimously approved House Bill 14-335, which identifies $208,000 for the payment of adjunct faculty for the college’s summer program and $310,000 for NMC’s nursing program.

The bill now goes to Gov. Juan N. Babauta for signing.

The measure, which was introduced by Rep. Arnold I. Palacios, aims to use lapsed 2004 Tobacco Control Fund for the purpose.

NMC officials earlier wanted to cancel the summer program and limit new enrolment for nursing to only 20 students due to a lack of funds. This would have resulted in some students not being able to graduate on time.

NMC School of Nursing chair Lois Gage, who attended the Senate session on Friday, earlier disclosed that the school’s Maternal and Child Health Nursing class this summer had to be cancelled due to a lack of instructor.

Since nursing courses must be taken in sequence, any delay in the students’ completion of one class will affect the rest of the requirements.

She had attributed the problem to the low salary rates being offered by the college for adjunct faculty.

Part-time teachers, who are needed to teach the nursing classes, are paid between $500 and $700 per credit hour, depending on the teacher’s educational background.

With the course having eight credit hours, an instructor with a master’s degree would be paid a total of $5,600, while a teacher with a bachelor’s degree would receive $4,000.

Gage said this is barely enough compensation, as the nursing class actually requires an instructor to be with the students not only eight hours, but 36 hours.

NMC earlier initially asked for nearly $1 million for the expansion of its nursing program at its present campus. It said it needs $326,000 for the construction and renovation of the School of Nursing facilities.

Without new funds, the program could accommodate only 20 new students at the start of the fall semester.

Based on the original proposal, $439,400 of the requested amount would go to the hiring of five new instructors, which would allow the School of Nursing to accept 50 additional students.

The nursing school has a policy of limiting each class to 10 students per instructor.

NMC has set the maximum salary for each instructor at $45,000 yearly, projecting to spend $25,000 for the recruitment and relocation of the five new teachers and $66,375 for their combined benefits.