NMC president waives exemption to 10-percent salary cut

Northern Marianas College president Sharon Hart waived her exemption to a 10-percent cut in salary in solidarity with other employees of the institution who had their work hours reduced.

Hart, who earns $80,000 a year as NMC’s chief executive, said it would be inappropriate for her to continue to be exempted from the austerity measure.

“In light of the reduction in work hours that college employees have had to undergo, I don’t believe that it is appropriate for the president to receive a full salary at the same time. I have communicated to the Board of Regents that I am returning 10 percent of my salary. Nonetheless, I will continue to work every day as usual, including on days when NMC is closed due to the reduction in work hours for employees,” said Hart yesterday.

Board of Regents chair Juan Lizama earlier disclosed that the president’s salary is exempted from any salary cut to be implemented by the college.

NMC only started the implementation of work-hour reduction every other Friday last July 22.

NMC employees’ reduction of work hours by eight per pay period followed a series of campus-wide discussions that were facilitated through the college’s shared governance structure.

The move was made to ensure that the college’s limited financial resources are sufficient to support student learning programs and services and to improve institutional effectiveness.

The college had earlier indicated that the work hour reduction was precipitated by the projected budget shortfall, which in part was due to a reduced budget allocation from the central government.

The CNMI Office of Management and Budget earlier informed the college that NMC’s budget allotment for the remainder of the fiscal year would be reduced by 7.58 percent, or about $340,000. Accordingly, the OMB office requested NMC to “adjust expenditure rates for your activities to ensure spending is within the adjusted allocation.”

From the original budget of $4.4 million in FY 2011, NMC’s budget was cut to $4.1 million. Effective April 1, projected monthly allotment for NMC is $315,593 for its personnel cost and operation. Based on the adjusted allocation, NMC has only $1.8 million left until end of fiscal year in September. Because of the new reduction, NMC’s projected shortfall increased from $1.8 million to $2.1 million this fiscal year. NMC employs about 200 personnel including instructors, non-instructional faculty, staff, and administrators.

Meanwhile, the college continues other cost-savings measures, including shortening the Summer semester session, reducing utility use across campus, and restricting new hires.