“They were much in favor of us becoming member of WICHE,” she told the NMC board of regents in its recent meeting.
Hart attended the Pacific Post-Secondary Education Council meetings in Hawaii where she brought up NMC’s plan to be member of WICHE, a regional, nonprofit organization which has 15 western states as its members including the higher education systems of New Mexico, Montana, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska, Washington, California, Nevada, Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Aside from the “huge savings” to families of students attending an off-island college, Hart said membership has other benefits.
If a student from the CNMI pays over $300 for an online program, the amount will be down to $160 once NMC becomes a member, Hart said.
She said a student from the CNMI may not have to leave the island, and complete an online degree that NMC is not offering.
A report from WICHE shows a total enrolment of 26,711 students in different colleges last year in the western states.
On Tuesday, Senate President Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota, introduced a resolution urging the commonwealth to join WICHE so that CNMI students can pay lower tuition fees in the U.S.
Manglona said some parents allow their children to live in the states for one year before enrolling in a college there in order to become eligible for the much lower resident rate tuition.
Regent Andrew Orsini supports NMC’s plan to join WICHE but he said local students should at least study at NMC for a year through scholarship programs available to them.
Regent William Torres said there’s a bill which will allow NMC students to pay “resident tuition” in the states but he has yet to know whether it was already passed by the U.S. Congress.
Before, he added, CNMI students were allowed to pay resident tuition in Hawaii until the policy was changed.
Hart said membership in WICHE will open up many more doors of opportunities that NMC cannot offer to its students.
In her discussions with a Hawaii college president, Hart said they talked about students of WICHE member-states who are moving to the state to study.
Membership is also an opportunity for NMC to cater to students from15 states who may want to study on island, she added.
Hart said she was invited to attend the WICHE board meeting this month.
Acting NMC Board Chairwoman Elaine Hocog-Orilla said they will review all the available information on WICHE, including a cost analysis of membership, and discuss the issue again in their next meeting.
She said they will also get input from NMC students.
