Students at the Northern Marianas College may face higher tuition rates next semester if a proposal to increase existing fees is approved by the Board of Regents.<\/p>\n
BOR chair Frank Rabauliman confirmed with Saipan Tribune that a management recommendation to adjust tuition and fees is on the board\u2019s table now.<\/p>\n
NMC charges resident students $95 per credit and international students $190 per credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t made a definite decision on this proposal yet. We certainly going to do first the budget process and depending on what kind of resources that we get as a result of the budget calls, then we will make a decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Until NMC knows exactly what it will get for next fiscal year\u2019s budget, any action on the tuition hike proposal will be on hold.<\/p>\n
The proposed tuition hike is at the fiscal committee level for now. <\/p>\n
NMC is asking for a budget of $7.9 million for fiscal year 2015\u2014some $3.1 million higher than what it is getting now, $4.6 million.<\/p>\n
NMC president Dr. Sharon Y. Hart told Saipan Tribune Friday that if the budget level remains the same, or if NMC gets an amount lower than the nearly $8 million it is asking for, this will force the college to turn to its students.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we need $8 million, otherwise we will be cutting programs and services, which also means eliminating people. We would not be in this situation if we were receiving the average of what other states receive for their higher education. This is why we\u2019re always pushing the Legislature to look at the national data to come up with a best budget decision for NMC,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Or, because the budget is limited for higher education, \u201cmaybe we can significantly lower the number of enrollees at NMC or put a cap on the enrollment, which is not fair to our students.\u201d<\/p>\n
By how much will the tuition rate go up? \u201cWhatever is the difference [in the budget], that\u2019s the amount we\u2019re going to raise in our tuition,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n
For example, if the Legislature approves $5 million for NMC this new fiscal year, the difference of $3 million will be collected from tuition and fees.<\/p>\n
\u201c[This will happen] because the state has not been fulfilling its responsibility. So tuition rate will depend on how much we will get for our budget,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Besides looking at the national data, the Legislature must also use \u201cperformance-based funding\u201d in allocating budget for agencies, Hart said. She cited the significant progress NMC made reaffirming its accreditation, which justifies the progress it has made over the years.<\/p>\n
She revealed that at the national level, states provide 10.5 percent of the state\u2019s budget to higher education. In Guam, its higher education is believed to be receiving close to that percentage compared to NMC, which is usually budgeted at a significantly lower amount.<\/p>\n
Tough call<\/strong><\/p>\n Board of Regents chair Rabauliman described as \u201ca tough call\u201d any decision the board will make in coming months. <\/p>\n \u201cBecause we\u2019re looking at certain long-term plans [in our budget submission], it\u2019s going to be a tough call for the board. Once we find out exactly how much we\u2019re getting, then we will have to revisit and go back to the drawing board which of these long-term plans we can sustain and continue to pursue and which one will be put on the side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said, though, that the board is \u201cvery adamant\u201d in pursuing long-term plans such as the facilities master plan for the college.<\/p>\n Salary hike<\/strong><\/p>\n Included in NMC\u2019s proposed $7.9 million budget for fiscal year 2015 is s much-awaited increase in the salaries of college personnel. If approved, this will bring NMC salaries to within 85 percent of the average salary of peer institutions. The projected impact of this salary adjustment is about $886,000, of which $200,000 is solely for faculty members.<\/p>\n Hart said that NMC last adjusted personnel salaries in the 1990s. The disparity and low wages offered to employees have been blamed for the high turnover rates in both management and administrative positions.<\/p>\n \u201cOne major expectation for NMC is to be sustainable. It\u2019s a major accreditation requirement. We\u2019ve got to maintain our people. We\u2019ve have no salary increases since 1990s and we can\u2019t do that anymore. NMC needs to pay its people a fair and competitive wage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Hart emphasized that there\u2019s probably no better place to put resources than in higher education because of the future impact on the workforce.<\/p>\n \u201cHow does the government expect NMC to step up to the plate and handle all this required areas for employment of educated workforce if we\u2019re not getting even half of what other states are receiving?\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Students at the Northern Marianas College may face higher tuition rates next semester if a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[20,37,69,67],"class_list":["post-36943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-education-2","tag-nmc","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36943","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\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}