Northern Marianas College is having difficulty retaining and recruiting qualified instructors due to the low salary and limited non-monetary benefits it offers, according to a government report.
“Many senior instructors have been at the top of their salary schedule range for years and have not received increases. Also, annual salary increments for faculty in general could no longer be afforded,” reads a portion of NMC’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2003.
“In addition, housing and relocation benefits have been eliminated or greatly reduced in recent years. All of these things have resulted in a considerable turnover of faculty, affecting the smooth continuity of programs and depriving the college of seasoned instructors,” it added.
In an interview, Northern Marianas College Budget Officer David DLG. Atalig said NMC’s salary structure had not been increased since 1991 due to budget constraint.
Atalig said the State Board of Regents approved a wage hike for the faculty and staff in 2000 but this was never implemented because NMC does not have the budget and it wants to adhere to the government’s call for continued austerity measures.
“Though the board approved a new compensation plan in 2000, due to the CNMI’s economic difficulties, this compensation plan has never gone into effect and does not seem likely to be implemented in the foreseeable future,” Atalig said.
For fiscal year 2003, Atalig said NMC has requested a $6.85 million budget for personnel expenses alone.
The amount is slightly lower than what NMC requested the previous year despite the increase in the number of its programs.
Atalig said the FY 2003 budget request does not reflect the salary increase that was supposed to be implemented in FY 2000.
But aside from budget constraint, NMC cannot raise the salaries of its employees to more than $50,000 a year due to an existing law limiting the salary cap to such amount.
“The program managers… are still experiencing difficulties in hiring and maintaining qualified faculty due to…current legislation which limits salaries of public employees to no more than $50,000 per annum,” part of NMC’s 2001 annual report reads.
