Existing policies may need changing for the Northern Marianas College board to fully comply with WASC Senior\u2019s call for an \u201cindependent\u201d governing board.<\/p>\n
As stressed by board members and college president Dr. Sharon Hart recently, an accreditation report due in less than two years will ask that the NMC Board of Regents prove its steps to \u201cindependence\u201d as a governing body.<\/p>\n
Right now, the board lacks a nominating committee for its members and does not follow staggered terms of office as set by law. These policies or the lack thereof appear to fail the \u201ccharacteristics of an independent governing board\u201d as set by WASC Senior\u2014the commission in charge of the college\u2019s status as an accredited institution.<\/p>\n
Notably, the University of Guam, another WASC Senior institution, employs staggered term dates for its term members. The University of Guam also has a committee that nominates members for the Guam governor\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n
It has been the practice in the Commonwealth, though, that CNMI governors directly nominate board members for approval by the Senate.<\/p>\n
It has also been the practice, as CNMI Attorney General Edward Manibusan notes in an April letter to the governor, that NMC uses the confirmation dates of new appointees to determine the beginning and end dates for their four-year terms, versus staggered dates set by law.<\/p>\n
The board<\/strong> He was commenting on discussion led by Amanda Allen, director of Distance Learning, on the \u201cbare-bones\u201d strategy college regents could take to comply with WASC standards.<\/p>\n Lizama agreed with regent William Torres on the\u00a0 \u201cneed to create an ad-hoc\u201d to \u201cfollow through on concerns\u201d from the commission.<\/p>\n \u201cThe board needs to report on itself,\u201d Torres had said.<\/p>\n WASC has asked that boards across the nation look at qualification, conflicts of interests, the size, and responsibilities of their board, among others.<\/p>\n According to Allen, a first report to WASC is expected in 2017. A full report is due in 2019.<\/p>\n The 2017 report would show the \u201cfirst steps to full compliance\u201d with WASC standards and the 2019 report must show full compliance.<\/p>\n Policy<\/strong> \u201cAll governing boards are bound by this policy,\u201d WASC states.<\/p>\n This review would include the methods by which the board members are elected, removed, and the degree to which the decisions of the governing board are reviewed by another body before they may be implemented, WASC policy states.<\/p>\n Asked to explain this Tuesday, Hart said, \u201cThe college will have to demonstrate to WASC Senior that it has in fact\u2014because it is bound by this policy\u2014that it is following the guidelines of what is written.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen NMC submits its mid-term report, the college must at that point provide a self-study report on how we meet all WASC Senior policies and eligibility\u201d requirements,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For nominating procedures, WASC states that governing boards need a committee with a majority of independent members that nominate and recommend members for election to the full board.<\/p>\n \u201cA nominating committee should not be controlled by a single person, another entity, or majority of employees,\u201d WASC further states.<\/p>\n By law, the University of Guam fills vacancies on its board through a committee made up by its board chair, the president of it\u2019s mayor\u2019s council, and several other education leaders.<\/p>\n The Guam governor will then appoint, on the \u201cadvice and consent\u201d of their legislature, the most qualified candidate from the committee\u2019s list of nominees.<\/p>\n \u2018Characteristics of independence\u2019<\/strong> WASC states that, \u201cstaggering terms promotes stability and independence.\u201d<\/p>\n Further, WASC describes an independent board as one with \u201cclear procedures to select, nominate, remove and replace board members, conforming to the principles of independence.\u201d<\/p>\n WASC notes that governing board members have relevant expertise that qualifies them to serve on the board.<\/p>\n WASC further urges, among others, that boards to have clear, published conflict of interest policies signed by each board member annually and followed.<\/p>\n WASC also asks that governing boards \u201creflect\u2026expertise in governance, finance, and higher education\u201d and diversity in terms of gender and racial-ethnic background, among other factors.<\/p>\n Policy call<\/strong> \u201cWhen it comes to policies that are outdated, or don\u2019t work anymore\u2014given light what we went through a very tough accreditation process\u2014yes, the administration is open to looking at what policies can be changed in accordance with [current] laws and the requirements\u201d for accreditation, Blanco told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n On Manibusan\u2019s letter to the governor, Blanco said it was his understanding that the AG\u2019s opinion should precede.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s in the best interest of the college?\u201d Blanco said are the questions that will be asked.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we have to come up with new policies then we\u2019ll do that. But as of now, there was a question posed to the AG and all the AG did was provide his opinion on the existing policies. If that does not work for NMC, the lines of communication are open. We can sit down and see what we can do to accommodate the college to ensure\u2026that education is not interrupted for the students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Manibusan had said the purported expiration dates for the NMC BOR were \u201cerroneous and must be corrected.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the terms of regent Elaine Orilla and William Torres had since expired per staggered dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Existing policies may need changing for the Northern Marianas College board to fully comply with…<\/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":[37,51,69,3447],"class_list":["post-203544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-education-2","tag-guam","tag-nmc","tag-wasc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203544","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=203544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIn their most recent meeting, BOR chair Juan T. Lizama called it \u201ccritical\u201d to address concerns set out by WASC Senior.<\/p>\n
\nWASC Senior will determine the \u201cissue of independence\u201d through extensive review.<\/p>\n
\nIn describing \u201ccharacteristics of an independent board,\u201d WASC states \u201cterms of board service are staggered to promote continuity and independence.\u201d
\nWASC states that terms should be staggered. Very short terms and long terms are inadvisable.<\/p>\n
\nWhen asked if Gov. Eloy S. Inos would be open to a change in policy to help NMC further comply with WASC, press secretary Ivan Blanco said, \u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n