McPhetres, who has been teaching for 30 years now, received the notice of non-renewal of his contract on Friday.
In an interview, he said he was “not surprised” although he was “very much perplexed about the things that are happening” on campus.
NMC students interviewed by this reporter said they were “very upset,” and were demanding an explanation from Fernandez.
According to a source, a few weeks before he received his notice of non-renewal, and shortly after the Variety published the results of Jay Solly’s election poll, McPhetres was “interrogated” by college administration officials regarding surveys and polls that were being conducted by his students regarding the November elections.
“Though he had made it clear to them that the polls were a product of the students’ own academic interests, he eventually decided not to allow his students to conduct political polls anymore as part of his courses on political science, current issues, and democracy. So much for academic freedom,” the source said.
The NMC president does not have to give any reason for the non-renewal of the instructor’s contract.
But the notice should be given within 30 days before the contract ends.
Asked for comment, Fernandez said: “As a general policy, the college does not comment on specific personnel matters. While we will not discuss individual personnel issues, it is important to emphasize that the college, in dealing with contract renewals, strictly abides by the terms of its contracts with personnel, relevant board of regents policy, and all applicable laws.”
McPhetres’s Current Issues class earlier conducted studies and reports on the most commonly abused drugs in the CNMI, prostitution, federalization, Article XII, the impact of the zoning law, tourism and other social-related issues.
The class also conducted a survey indicating a 61 percent level of dissatisfaction with the board of regents, and a 75 percent dissatisfaction with the hiring practices of the NMC president.
McPhetres refused to speculate whether it was this survey that was the reason for his contract’s non-renewal.
For his students, McPhetres is a “good teacher” and an “intelligent instructor.”
Perry A. Inos, a former student of McPhetres and currently the program manager of the Office of Student Activities and Leadership, said his former instructor was very productive and informative.
Joshua Tumaquip, a current student of McPhetres, said it will be a big loss for NMC if his instructor will no longer teach at the college.
“He contributed a lot to the CNMI. He is very knowledgeable on our history and current issues,” Tumaquip said.
Other students who refused to be identified said the NMC leadership should explain the non-renewal of their instructor.
“I was really upset. The students deserve to know what’s happening here,” one of them said.
This year, the contracts of Mark Haag, chairman of the languages and humanities department; and Glenn Keaton, chairman of the sciences, math, health and athletics department, were also not renewed.
“If NMC will keep losing experienced persons, who will be left to serve the students?” asked Frank Sobolewski, NMC social sciences instructor.
“At this point I see no way we can hire a qualified replacement for McPhetres,” he added.
Sobolewski expressed dismay with how NMC personnel are being treated.
“The problem here on campus is you get a statement policy about freedom of speech, but if you exercise it and the president doesn’t like it, then your contract is not renewed and the president gives you no opportunity to defend yourself and explain,” he said.
In the mid-term report submitted to the Accrediting Commission on Community and Junior Colleges, Sobolewski said NMC noted that one of its challenges is to “fully utilize all means of communication within and external to the college to communicate information to its various audiences accurately and consistently.”
The commission observed, he said, that because all full-time faculty sign two-year contracts that can be terminated without cause, some faculty members believe that freely expressing their opinions could lead to the termination of their employment.
“For some, this creates a climate of fear,” he added, quoting the report.
