By Moneth G. Deposa
Variety News Staff

THE number of candidates vying for the presidency of Northern Marianas College has dropped from nine to three, after six of them withdrew their applications, according to NMC board vice chairman Charles Cepeda.
He said NMC regents completed their interview with two of the applicants and are scheduled to meet with the last candidate this week.
“We have a total of three candidates for the position and we’re waiting for the last to be interviewed. This is the number we have now after some candidates backed out,” Cepeda said in a telephone interview yesterday.
He said the three remaining applicants are from off-island.
The NMC board had initially scheduled its next meeting for April 12, but Cepeda said that this may change to a later date as some items in the agenda needed to be clarified.
“We have set it for April 12 — however, there are some items in the agenda that need to be clarified like the status of the search for president,” Cepeda said.
The NMC board was supposed to name the new college president on Feb. 28. But the announcement was delayed after regents rejected the applications of the two candidates recommended by the presidential search committee.
Pending the completion of the re-review and re-assessment of the nine other applicants, the board said Danny Wyatt would remain acting NMC president.
The position has been vacant since the retirement of Tony Deleon Guerrero in July of last year.
Wyatt filed for a one-month vacation — effective April 2 to 30 — which was approved by the board, which named Dean Jeannette Villagomez as acting NMC president until Wyatt’s return.
Wyatt has been the acting NMC president since January last year and told the Variety in an earlier interview that he had taken “zero days of vacation.”
Wyatt at the same time said he fully supports the board’s move to look at the applications of the rest of the candidates in order to find a qualified candidate.