‘It’s a black eye for NMC’
Agnes McPhetres, founding president of the Northern Marianas College, expressed utter dismay upon hearing about the NMC Board of Regents’ decision to offer the presidency of the CNMI’s lone community college to former president Dr. Carmen Fernandez.
“To be honest with you, when a board terminates an individual because they broke a policy based on the investigation of the Attorney General’s Office and then that individual turns around to sue the institution is ridiculous,” said McPhetres right off the bat in an exclusive interview with Saipan Tribune. “For the same board, some of them the same members that terminated the individual, hiring the same person back is even more ridiculous.”
What baffles McPhetres is that Fernandez reapplied for the position where she got terminated from, and even questions the NMC Board of Regent’s decision making. “For Carmen to apply after such a situation receiving compensation from the institution, fighting with the institution, I thought that was ridiculous. What I find even more ridiculous is the board itself, to hire someone who actually defied them by suing them. I don’t know who is more crazy: Carmen or the NMC board.”
McPhetres said that appointing Fernandez as NMC president once again would be a contradiction of what the NMC board stands for. “One of the major roles of the board is to select a CEO. The board members, when they are appointed, during the hearing, they make at least a statement that the reason for them to accept the job is to protect the interest of higher education. I personally don’t think that it is the right choice to appoint an individual who defied the board by breaking policy,” she explained.
Questioning the NMC board’s ability to do background checks, McPhetres said the NMC regents are to blame. “I don’t know who applied, but I’m sure there are [other] people who are qualified. One other thing, the board did not actually do their research because if you’re looking for the best candidate, you have to look at where they came from, interview people that were with her, interview the institution where she was president, and how she was there. When she was a senator of Guam, they should be interviewing the people that worked with her. Did the board do that? Probably not, so I don’t blame Carmen. I blame the Board of Regents for not doing their fiduciary responsibility, and they owe the people of the CNMI.”
McPhetres reiterated that Fernandez’s past relationship with the board is not something to turn a blind eye at, even if NMC is in dire need of a president, and also stated that rehiring Fernandez would be like shooting oneself in the foot. ”She defied the board by breaking policy. The board turned around and hired a person who broke their policy. How could she uphold the policy of the board when she has proven to have no respect for the policies of the board? Is that good for accreditation? I don’t think so. I think it’s a black eye for NMC to have a president who has an issue with the college itself.”
Former representative Stanley Torres also did not mince words. “I don’t know what is happening with the Board of Regents,” he said. Torres shared the same points as McPhetres.
Despite the ruckus, Rep. Felicidad Ogumoro (R-Saipan) wants to be optimistic. “I trust that the presidential search committee has been through the screening process, have met with the applicant, and have the best candidate, so I have confidence [for] board to come up with the right person that we need,” she said. “I always like to think positive. Yes, there would be bumps along the way and we expect challenges to come up, but I think we should stay positive and move on.”
Ogumoro said the college should continue with its programs so that they remain strong for the benefit of the people and students in particular.
I expect the CUC board to make this type of ill conceived decision, but the board of regents?
On point Ms. McPetres!
As the world turns…so does CNMI.
This is in response to the assumed name “imjustsaying.” It’s obvious that this individual needs to access some of saipantribune’s archived articles. First they claim the problems were under McPhetres watch. I’d like to say that Carmen came in after Guerrero, Wright, and Sablan.
It was after McPhetres departure when we started seeing a problem with accreditation due to La Fiasco. Carmen claims a whole lot yet, for those on the front lines we know Dr. Debra Cabrera stabilized the situation. Its the people that never get the credit that did the work, yet Carmen “cheerleader of the millennium” has the audacity to take credit. During her watch, I know for a fact she zeroed out the budget for faculty at the advice of Tee “Napolean Bonaparte” Abraham. How do you run a college without faculty? I leave that for you to begin comprehending.
Secondly, It’s obvious you are not too familiar with the word, “nonprofit” as your claims are easily verifiable to CNMI Revenue and Taxation. As NMTI continues to grow, its obvious to me that your claims of NMTI’s status are steadily dwindling in the minds of critical thinking individuals. Support your claim or shut up about it already!
Why is this so surprising, what is surprising is Stanley’s take in this issue and I surprise myself that I am in agreement.
THIS is not unusual in the NMI as it goes on constantly each election time by the recycling of the past proven rejects and failures.
This along with the voters putting these same people that they rejected, some many times past, and re-electing them again and again after proving they are incapable of accomplishing anything.
Most of the political appointees are all proven or rejected failures and majority past elected and appointed to positions that they have no education or idea of anything about the position they are appointed too.
I also think this is a mistake but also think this was planned as to why she took an early retirement.
So now if she goes to NMC, will she be able to collect retirement as well as a salary from NMC?
This is another perfect example of the failure in the NMI that has been expressed by many and why the NMI will never be able to reach it’s full potential.
In the NMI “Few if any ever learns from their past mistakes and keep repeating their proven failures in ther hopes for a different result.” as the other areas that keep progressing. Look around at other areas especially in ASIA and the Pacific and look at how many have progressed with very little outside help compared to what we (CNMI) receive.
When you dilly-dally with garbage in, naturally you will be dealt with GARBAGE OUT. Isn’t it so true, of course, unless you are a complete morbid moron. Regent members that are so embroiled in emotional feeling rather than make good use of what they have above their individual shoulder to make critical/logical decision as in the example of selecting the helm for NMC, closely resembles the metaphor as written above, right? Is this making the NMI a better place to live? Plenty of stupid petty politics indeed!
We all make mistakes in our lives and we learned from it. A second chance may or can be rewarding at times.