Northern Marianas College
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Northern Marianas College | |
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| Established: | 1981 |
| Type: | 2 year Community College |
| Endowment: | Territory supported with significant U.S. federal grants received |
| President: | Carmen Fernandez |
| Students: | 1,299 (2005 figure); 930 (2007 figure) |
| Location: | Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands |
| Campus: | 14 acres |
| Website: | www.nmcnet.edu |
Northern Marianas College (NMC), is a two-year community college located in the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The college was founded in 1981 by Agnes McPheteres in a renovated former United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands hospital on Saipan where its main campus remains to this day.[1] NMC today has three campuses located on the islands of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota; however, the campuses on Tinian and Rota have closed and no longer offer academic classes. The main campus on Saipan lies in the region of Micronesia in the western Pacific, approximately 3500 miles west of Hawaii, 1500 miles south of Japan, and 100 miles north of Guam. NMC is the sole public college within the Commonwealth and is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Its current president is Carmen Fernandez. Former presidents include Keith Pointer, Agnes McPhetres, Joaquin Sablan, Kenneth Wright, Tony De Leon Guerrero, and numerous acting presidents over relatively long time periods.[2]
[edit] Academics
Northern Marianas College offers degrees and certificate programs from seven departments:
- Business
- Human Performance and Athletics
- Languages and Humanities
- Nursing
- School of Education (four-year program)
- Sciences, Mathematics and Vocational Education
- Social Sciences and Fine Arts
Although NMC is a two-year college, it also grants bachelor's degrees through its School of Education. The average class size at NMC is around 15 students, though enrollment officials seek to fill most classes to the official cap of 25.
NMC students who pursue education higher than an associate's degree usually attend the University of Guam or the University of Hawaii. Some transfer to the U.S. mainland, while most who forego further education and have "local" status or US. citizenship attempt to enter jobs within predominantly the CNMI public sector.
In addition to its mandate embodied in the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Constitution to provide higher education to CNMI citizens, NMC seeks to attract Asian students who wish to learn English as a Second Language (ESL).[3] The Northern Marianas Islands is the closest United States territory to many Asian countries. International students are not required to apply for a student visa with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, since the CNMI controls its own immigration and labor laws locally, not without controversy (see George Miller (politician) [4]); NMC assists students in obtaining student visas from the CNMI government and there is no entrance examination requirement at NMC for students taking ESL. Although the majority of island English-speaking residents and student English-speakers at NMC do not speak standard American English (also see Standard English),[5] [6] most instructors at the college do.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Weekly official updates from the NMC President's office - not updated since October 24, 2007
[edit] See also
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