The president of the Northern Marianas College Alumni Association, Jesse Torres, filed yesterday a complaint against the institution\u2019s management over what he described as the \u201cdisappointing\u201d hiring practices of the college.<\/p>\n
In a one-page document sent to NMC HR, Torres disclosed that, despite passing eligibility requirements, he was rejected for a position he had applied for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was told by [Teresa Sablan of] HR that I was a certified applicant for the Business Department chair position. I later received an e-mail stating that I was unqualified,\u201d he said in his complaint letter. Saipan Tribune learned that Torres had also applied for a position at the Office of Institutional Advancement, which he also failed to get.<\/p>\n
NMC president Dr. Carmen Fernandez said yesterday she has not heard of the complaint yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther than what we have heard from the media, we have not received any written complaint,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, she said it is not the college policy to publicly comment on specific complaints. \u201c\u2026And I want to emphasize there is a grievance process that has been put in place by the Board of Regents for this purpose,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
NMC has been searching for a business department chairman since Eric Plinske left the position last year. Larry Lee, the newly elected Senate faculty president, is currently the acting chairman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were three total applicants that met the requirements to begin the interview process. The position was closed and interviews were supposed to take place. The position was later re-opened by the president,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
He said it is useless to form interview committees if their recommendations are not recognized by the college president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president currently can ignore the recommendations of interview committees. What is the point of having interview committees if the president can simply ignore their recommendations and not hire the most qualified for the position? It is a waste of the applicant\u2019s time and it is a waste of personnel time. The college is selling itself short by not hiring the best applicant for the job,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
As president of the NMC Alumni Association, he said he is disappointed with what NMC currently practices. He plans to request an investigation into the hiring practices of the college.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently, HR is not hiring the most qualified applicants for certain positions. The college would be more effective if the most qualified were hired. It is my duty to look after the best interests of the college,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Fernandez said there are personnel processes and procedures in place to ensure that the college conducts its employee recruitment process in an open and competitive manner and consistent with the Board of Regents policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur HR office staff members are more than willing to sit with him or anyone else to explain our HRO procedures,\u201d Fernandez added.<\/p>\n
Early this month, the Board of Regents approved a four-year contract for Fernandez.<\/p>\n
As of April, four department chairpersons have filed grievances relating to the same \u201chiring practices\u201d at the college. All these complaints are still at the lower level and have yet to reach Fernandez\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The president of the Northern Marianas College Alumni Association, Jesse Torres, filed yesterday a complaint against the institution\u2019s management over what he described as the \u201cdisappointing\u201d hiring practices of the college.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}