Even from the beginning, the year 2004 held no great promises for the Pacific Gateway Project, for which the Northern Marianas College purchased the $7.5 million La Fiesta Mall in San Roque.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 1, 2004, the college took over the facility amid wide criticism relating to a wide range of issues\u2014from the governor\u2019s role in the acquisition of the property to the facility\u2019s high maintenance costs to NMC\u2019s ability to recruit foreign students.<\/p>\n
Soon enough, NMC Board of Regents chairwoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds cried that contrary to the college leadership\u2019s expectations, La Fiesta was bleeding NMC dry. NMC reported that it was spending $55,000 a month for the power generation plant\u2019s fuel alone.<\/p>\n
With the college facing a huge budget shortfall, Kenneth Wright quit as NMC president on Feb. 20 over a loss of confidence by the Board of Regents.<\/p>\n
Wright\u2019s resignation came a month after the Western Association of Schools and Colleges-Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges placed NMC\u2019s accreditation on warning status due to the college\u2019s failure to correct finance-related problems and inability to comply with certain accreditation standards. <\/p>\n
By April 30, the NMC regents voted unanimously to put on hold the Pacific Gateway project and shut down the operations of La Fiesta for lack of funding.<\/p>\n
Yet, the ACCJC retained NMC\u2019s accreditation on warning status in June, citing concerns over NMC\u2019s lack of resources to maintain two campuses.<\/p>\n
WASC’s Senior College Commission followed suit in July, issuing a similar warning that put the college’s four-year elementary education program\u2014its only baccalaureate program\u2014at risk.<\/p>\n
Amid all the problems stemming from La Fiesta, Gov. Juan N. Babauta did not waver in his support for the Pacific Gateway Project or NMC\u2019s operation of the La Fiesta complex.<\/p>\n
Babauta made various efforts to rescue the La Fiesta project, offering in May to reimburse the college for operational costs spent on the facility from December 2003 to February 2004, amounting to some $150,000.<\/p>\n
The Governor\u2019s Office also offset NMC’s monthly expenses at La Fiesta from March to September, when the fiscal year ended.<\/p>\n
The start of fiscal year 2005, however, posed a new problem for the college, prompting NMC officials to ask the Legislature for additional funding for the operation of the mall. The Legislature disapproved, leaving NMC without money to run the facility beginning Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
Another problem was the first $200,000 leasehold payment due on Oct. 29 to the mall\u2019s original sellers\u2014 Hotel Nikko Saipan and Coco\u2019s Lagoon Development Corp.<\/p>\n
In an effort to rid NMC of the La Fiesta burden, the College Council, Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, and the Associated Students of NMC submitted a proposal on Sept. 11 recommending that the Board of Regents transfer ownership of the property to the CNMI government and that the Executive Branch assume management of the facility.<\/p>\n
The Board of Regents adopted the recommendation and the memorandum of agreement was executed between NMC and Babauta on Sept. 15.<\/p>\n
Hotel Nikko and Coco\u2019s Lagoon have consented to the agreement in November. To date, the final agreement has yet to be signed.<\/p>\n
Meantime, NMC\u2019s accreditation remains hanging in balance after it missed the Dec. 8 deadline set by the accrediting commission for information regarding the finalization of La Fiesta\u2019s transfer to the CNMI government.<\/p>\n
The accrediting commission is set to decide on NMC\u2019s status in January 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Even from the beginning, the year 2004 held no great promises for the Pacific Gateway Project, for which the Northern Marianas College purchased the $7.5 million La Fiesta Mall in San Roque.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86815","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}