NMC gets funding for summer, nursing programs

Gov. Juan N. Babauta signed into law yesterday a bill giving Northern Marianas College over half a million dollars for the payment of part-time instructors during the 2005 Summer classes and for the nursing program.

House Bill 14-335, which became Public Law 14-75, appropriates $518,000 from the tobacco control funds to the college. Of this amount, $208,000 is allocated for the payment of adjunct faculty for the Summer Session 2005 and $310,000 is allocated for the Nursing Program.

“The administration fully supports these programs and is aware that the appropriation of these critically needed additional funds to NMC will remove all obstacles facing NMC’s efforts to initiate a comprehensive summer program that will further the educational enhancement of our people and allow them to complete their college degree and/or certification of completion within a timely manner,” Babauta said in his transmittal letter to the Legislature.

Lawmakers introduced the H.B. 14-335 upon finding that the college would not be able to offer summer courses this year, as funds were only available up to the Spring 2005 semester, which ended in May.

“The Legislature feels that is important to fund the Summer Session 2005 so that students can complete their degrees. The Legislature also finds that the Nursing Program at NMC is of great importance to the Commonwealth and needs to be funded as well,” a portion of the bill reads.

Earlier, NMC School of Nursing chair Lois Gage had disclosed that the school’s Maternal and Child Health Nursing class this summer had to be cancelled due to a lack of instructor.

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

Gage had said that, although the college had experienced extreme difficulty over the past two years in finding an instructor to teach the class, this would have been the first summer that the class would not be provided.

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

Part-time teachers, which are needed to teach the nursing class, 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 should get paid a total of $5,600, while a teacher with a bachelor’s degree should receive $4,000.

Gage had said that 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.