Torres said he will only apologize if Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges chair Lurelean Gaines and vice chair Michael Rota can refute his allegations against Beno.
In his letter to the ACCJC/WASC officials on April 20, Torres said he will also apologize “if I have done a disservice to the students and staff of Northern Marianas College, due to my justifiable criticism of Ms. Barbara Beno of the ACCJC/WASC.”
But he said he will not apologize to Gaines who, he added, scolded NMC’s President Emerita Agnes McPhetres.
“This was when McPhetres had the audacity to challenge Beno for her unprofessional behavior toward her and other members of the NMC board of regents,” said Torres, Ind.-Saipan.
He said Gaines did not refute McPhetres’ accusations against Beno, which included meddling in NMC board affairs and not allowing the board members to accompany Beno on a visit to government officials on Capital Hill “as instructed by Beno’s close associate and newly fired ex-president (Dr. Carmen) Fernandez.”
Torres said Beno has “a long and distinguished career in meddling in college affairs, as verified by her own previous firing at Vista, now Berkeley Community College.”
According to Torres, Beno had warned NMC and legislators in the past that college employees should not receive employee protection through a civil service type merit system, “even though her own previous Vista/Berkeley College has unions and it’s faculty is protected by the Peralta Federation of Teachers.”
“Isn’t this very hypocritical of Ms. Beno?” Torres asked.
Earlier, Gaines and Rota criticized Torres for his “uninformed and incorrect statements about the accreditation of NMC and Beno’s actions.”
“Mr. Torres’ efforts to try to undermine the ACCJC’s actions through personal attacks on Dr. Beno does a disservice to the students and the public of the CNMI, who should know that when NMC fails to meet the ACCJC standards or is not adhering to its policies, its educational quality is compromised,” Gaines and Rota said in a letter.
Torres said he was not attacking the presence of the “volunteer” ACCJC/WASC commissioners who visited Western Pacific areas.
“But aren’t true volunteers supposed to pay for their own travel, lodging, meals, transportation and, subsequently, aren’t true volunteers supposed to assist people without charging substantial fees for their volunteerism, and aren’t you ‘volunteers’ on some type of paid leave from your own colleges?” he added.
“I can only imagine the reaction if Peace Corps volunteers asked for fees and travel benefits from island inhabitants in the past,” he said.
Torres wants Gaines to disclose the salary and benefits of Beno.
“If this exchange of free discussion and debate about Ms. Beno interferes with the accreditation of NMC, then we’ll know that vendettas exist within the ACCJC/WASC operations,” he said.
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