Newly installed Northern Marianas College president Dr. Carmen Fernandez is aggressively pushing for a new bachelor\u2019s degree course to be offered by the lone college in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
Fernandez said she has been pursuing several goals for NMC, including the offering of a third bachelor\u2019s degree course in criminal justice, among many others, within her first 100 days in office.<\/p>\n
Fernandez just passed her 100th day in office as NMC president last Jan. 12.<\/p>\n
Fernandez said she has been working with the University of Guam to offer a bachelor\u2019s degree program in criminal justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the courses will take place here on campus,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Fernandez clarified, though, that although the lessons would be taught here, the students would still receive a UOG criminal justice degree.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have an articulation agreement. UOG would certify [NMC] faculty to teach senior level courses for graduation,\u201d said Fernandez.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinalizing the agreement is currently in process. We hope the agreement will be set in a few months,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Currently, NMC only offers bachelor\u2019s degrees in Education and Business Management.<\/p>\n
Fernandez thinks that offering a new bachelor\u2019s degree on Saipan makes sense, given the number of alumni that have associate degrees in criminal justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very good for our law enforcement community because we have many [officers] that have an AA in criminal justice. Now, they can easily start to work on their bachelor\u2019s degree,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Among the other items that Fernandez cites as her accomplishments within her first 100 days in office is significant facility improvements; training for employees; hiring of key personnel; and the re-establishment and establishment of many centers, associations, and programs, among others.<\/p>\n
Fernandez, who is currently concentrating her efforts on NMC facilities master planning, plans to have eco-friendly facilities in the college. She has been meeting with members of the Legislature and the governor and other key partners for this project.<\/p>\n
The facilities master plan will include upgrading classrooms technology as well as efficient student service offices and a 24-hour student center. Fernandez said NMC is expected to break ground later this year. <\/p>\n
WASC accreditation<\/strong><\/p>\n NMC also hosted what Fernandez believes was a \u201cvery successful visit\u201d by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges \u2013 Senior College and University Commission.<\/p>\n NMC was visited by WASC last Dec. 1 to Dec. 3 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cI am confident that NMC did well during the visit by the WASC,\u201d said Fernandez.<\/p>\n NMC prepared a month in advance for the visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Newly installed Northern Marianas College president Dr. Carmen Fernandez is aggressively pushing for a new…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[2395,69,445,3447],"class_list":["post-244834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-business-management","tag-nmc","tag-uog","tag-wasc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244834","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}