Dr. Carmen Fernandez is against renaming one of the buildings of the Northern Marianas College in As Terlaje campus after the college\u2019s former president, Agnes McPhetres.<\/p>\n
In her comments on House Speaker Rafael Demapan\u2019s (R-Saipan) bill, the current president, Fernandez said this could jeopardize the college\u2019s accreditation.<\/p>\n
House Bill 20-133 would rename Building P in the Saipan campus as the \u201cAgnes Manglona McPhetres Administrative Building.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fernandez stated in her letter that while she agrees with the aim of the bill, H.B. 20-133 remains unconstitutional, citing Section 2(a) of Article XV of the Commonwealth Constitution. Fernandez said the CNMI Constitution states that, \u201cThe Board of Regents shall\u2026have autonomy in the administration of [the college\u2019s] affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fernandez also pointed out that previous Commonwealth Supreme Court rulings have recognized NMC as an autonomous agency.<\/p>\n
Fernandez said she believes it is up to the NMC Board of Regents to decide the \u201cmost appropriate action to honor [McPhetres\u2019] pivotal role in the success of the college.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe raise these issues about autonomy because, in the past several years, legislative interference has resulted in adverse actions by NMC\u2019s accrediting body. And, while House Bill 12-122 means well, it may be viewed as political interference because it attempts to assume duties that rightfully belong to the NMC Board of Regents,\u201d she said, adding that the college is in a \u201cgood place with regard to accreditation\u201d and that she wishes to \u201cprevent any [sanctions] from being levied against NMC.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Fernandez\u2019s letter, NMC is currently clear of sanctions.<\/p>\n
Rep. Edwin Aldan (R-Saipan), a member of the House Judicial and Governmental Operations Committee, disagrees. According to Aldan, McPhetres deserves \u201crecognition [for] her efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aldan said he fails to see any adverse effects on NMC\u2019s accreditation pertaining to the renaming of a building.<\/p>\n
Rep. Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) pointed out that a building within the NMC campus was previously named after someone as well. <\/p>\n
Rep. John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan), who was acting chair in the absence of Rep. Ivan A. Blanco (R-Saipan), said the committee would table the bill while their legal counsel reviews NMC\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Carmen Fernandez is against renaming one of the buildings of the Northern Marianas College…<\/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":[3349,4025,194,69],"class_list":["post-271971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-carmen-fernandez","tag-commonwealth-constitution","tag-house-bill","tag-nmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271971","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=271971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}