NMC President Sharon Hart, who was yesterday’s speaker at the Rotary Club of Saipan meeting at the Hyatt, said the college should prioritize programs that create local job opportunities for students.
“NMC can and should be the engine of economic growth, and if it means changing some of the programs that are being offered, then we are going to do that,” Hart said.
She said NMC can provide various types of training, including short courses, that benefit the local workforce through partnership with local businesses.
“We’re moving forward. The NMC board has been excellent in understanding what the challenges are and being very committed to help us in moving forward,” Hart said.
NMC needs to do a much better job of showcasing the benefits it is offering to the local community, she added.
“We got to paint a stronger picture of what we are doing, who we are serving and how we can make an economic impact on this region,” she said.
NMC is not only helping students who are already in college, but also those who want to go to college and earn a degree, she added.
NMC also benefits local farmers through its extension programs, students in the adult and basic education program who need to have basic skills before they can enter college, and high school students who want to get ready for college, in addition to all the other programs and services the college is offering to the students, Hart said.
Students should also know that enrolling in their community college is more cost-effective than taking online classes, she added.
She said she met some students on Tinian last week who are taking online classes.
“This, in reality, should have all of us worried because NMC is a community college, and we are very reasonably priced,” Hart added.
She noted that a student in the U.S. pays $40,000 for a two-year degree, while the same degree costs about $4,000 at NMC.
“NMC should start providing more options to students,” Hart said.
She added, however, that the college “cannot be everything to everyone.”
“We have no resources but we can partner with other institutions to bring programs here.”
Hart noted that each NMC class has 15 to 30 students compared to big universities in the U.S. where each class has no less than 300 students.
