Higher education was not reauthorized this year but the Northern Marianas College\u2019s Board of Regents is hopeful that Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan will help pass legislation that includes the CNMI and the insular areas for programs, facilities, and research funding currently afforded to underserved and underrepresented areas in the United States.<\/p>\n
In an interview, regent William Torres said Sablan could help explain \u201cthe plight of the college\u201d and help them qualify for funding for facilities, programs, workforce development, or research.<\/p>\n
As they are now under a senior accreditation commission, research is one area the college is expected to improve, Torres said. <\/p>\n
He said Hispanic-serving colleges, as well as African-American and Native American-serving colleges, have specific funding sources that are afforded to them as \u201cunderrepresented and underserved\u201d areas.<\/p>\n
Torres believes the insular areas, especially the CNMI, fall under such labels. He described the CNMI as \u201cyoung nation\u201d in need of all the resources it could get with a small economy and geographical disadvantages, being far from the mainland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this belief that if the insular areas and specifically the CNMI are recognized by legislation in like fashion as black, Hispanic, and Native American communities, they will be in a stronger position to be well-endowed and well-funded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This, he said, would help \u201clevel the playing field\u201d for the insular areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere we are now, we have to compete on an unequal footing with the states, unlike tribal, black and other regions mentioned as underserved or underrepresented.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the college supports Sablan\u2019s bid to get into a subcommittee on higher education and workforce development. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will support him [in his bid]. We need him, we need a voice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Opportunities<\/strong> Their advice, Torres disclosed, were points he shared with Sablan in their correspondence last month.<\/p>\n ACE underscored the importance of having a \u201cface\u201d in Washington, Torres said. The college was also advised to attend the annual ACE meeting next year, and invite Sablan to attend as well.<\/p>\n It was also recommended that the college become actively involved with the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, Torres said. <\/p>\n Torres also asked for help for funding under the Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions. <\/p>\n While NMC may be eligible under AANAPISI, the college has to date not secured any designated funding, according to Torres.<\/p>\n Sablan recently committed to helping NMC in his next term in Congress. College president Dr. Sharon Hart has also expressed commitment to a stronger working relationship with Sablan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Higher education was not reauthorized this year but the Northern Marianas College\u2019s Board of Regents…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,69,938,57],"class_list":["post-187469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-nmc","tag-sharon-hart","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187469","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCollege representatives visited Washington, D.C., earlier this year. Representatives from the American Council on Education and National Science Foundation told the college that \u201clooking for any piece of legislation that the CNMI could be drafted into was especially critical,\u201d according to Torres.<\/p>\n