A lawmaker has proposed a bill to the Legislature that would allow the cash-strapped Northern Marianas College to enter into a loan for its campus renovation.

Rep. Arnold I. Palacios introduced to the House last Feb. 19 House Bill No. 15-222 to authorize NMC to engage into a commercial loan agreement for the sum of $250,000 and to secure the loan with its cash deposits, among its many other needs.

The bill states that NMC is in need of extensive renovation to assure the health, safety and welfare of the students, faculty and members of the community that visit the campus. “The NMC Board of Regents has negotiated to borrow the sum of $250,000 to make those necessary repairs,” the bill said.

Moreover, the college has further identified its own revenue sources to repay the loan that would not require legislative appropriation from the General Fund. The bill also said that the college is also authorized to pledge its cash deposits as security for the loan, provided that those deposits are not appropriated funds. “The repayment of the loan shall be made from the college’s revenue sources and not from funds appropriated by the Legislature under the Planning and Budgeting Act.”

NMC has been working to secure a $250,000 loan since April 2006 in order to upgrade its existing facilities. According to NMC, this loan is now for final review by the bank. The loan will provide two to five additional classrooms, renovation of a condemned building into additional instructor office space, provide a dedicated classroom to the School of Education, and enhance Video Teleconferencing and Distance Education course offerings to all three instructional sites.

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges noticed the old and abandoned buildings inside the campus during a recent visit.

WASC officials recommended that NMC should look for funds to renovate the old buildings to meet the current and future needs of the college.

NMC acting president Danny Wyatt said a two-story building that used to be the procurement building would soon have a new roof, courtesy of a Federal Emergency Management Agency funding. The procurement department will go back to the building once the new roof is in place.

“Originally, it was totally condemned but a second opinion provides us the opportunity to repair the roof and make other minor repairs so that Procurement can move back in. I hope to see that started as soon as possible,” he said.

Another aging building needs major repairs. Wyatt said the college needs to apply for a bank loan to repair the empty building.

“We hope to get a bank loan approved, convert the building into both an office for Languages and Humanities and to house the ILT [Information and Learning Technology] program to expand the instructors’ capacity to employ technology in the classroom,” he said.

Wyatt said the current Languages building would then be demolished “as it is weakening already.”

Building Q, on the side of the hill, was condemned a year ago, said Wyatt, and the building needs a new roof. He said the funds for the repair of this building would come from a loan with the Bank of Guam.

He said: “If we get that taken care of, it will provide a venue for increasing the classroom offerings of the School of Education.”

The former Small Business Development Center Building has been converted for use by the School of Education, which had been moved from the Fina Sisu housing. The SBDC program was transferred to Building V, making it part of the School of Business.

Source: www.saipantribune.com

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Sunday, February 25, 2007 at 6:25 am and is filed under College Loans, Education News. Tags: College, Education News, Student, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.