Ideas to Improve the Strategic Position of Northern Marianas College

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Over the years I’ve collected ideas from my work in the trenches with students, faculty, staff, and from working with business owners that would benefit Northern Marianas College. As president, I would gather additional ideas by meetings with internal and external stakeholders and then prioritize the best ones to implement and achieve shared goals. If politics could be minimized, and the College Board, administration, personnel, legislators, and community were focused on key goals, I believe our enrollment would substantially increase and NMC would become a greater asset to the CNMI.

NMC is performing far below its potential, but through a concerted effort combined with strong leadership to achieve strategic goals it will eventually: 1) become a critical resource for the CNMI community; 2) develop a solid reputation in the Pacific Rim and become a vital partner with other educational institutions to educate and train their students; 3) expand its programs to serve the needs of more local individuals and entities; 4) develop other profit centers and revenue sources that allow NMC to expand; and 5) become financially less dependent on the government.

The following are just a few of the many ideas to improve the strategic position of NMC and allow it to achieve the above objectives:

• Develop a track degree program that would allow individuals working full-time to complete course work after working hours and going only two nights per week. Two courses would be taken in a nine-week period to complete the required 45 hours. This would allow students to complete the necessary hours to qualify for financial assistance, and to graduate with a cohort group in about two years. The program would appeal to individuals working full-time or part-time, individuals with small children who have difficulty with day-care during the day, or anyone else who has trouble arranging their schedule to remain a full-time student. This idea has already been developed, but not pursued and implemented.
• Develop a partnership with quality institutions to offer a bachelor’s degree in business, criminal justice, or other areas that best serve the students and community. Ideally, the university partners would accept all of the credits from NMC and would allow students to seamlessly transition to their own institution if students wanted to finish their degree at their university. There are several schools that currently accept all of NMC’s credits, but the arrangement needs to be formalized and then promoted.
• Work closely with businesses to prepare a program that would best prepare displaced local workers to transition from the private sector to the public sector. Also, have a short training program that would teach basic job skills needed to succeed at work. The Northern Marianas Trades Institute has ably taken over the role once performed by NMC; however, the College could work more closely with NMTI and develop non-competing training programs that focus on high technology trades such as CAD, movie production, sound editing, etc. (NMC currently has a nearly-completed sound studio that is being used as a warehouse for whale bones and books.)
• Contact larger government or business organizations and offer courses or a degree program tailored to their needs. This could also be a certificate program that their staff could earn quickly, or it could be a program that would give graduates a hiring advantage. It could be a “college without walls” that would have the instructors going to the organization’s facilities and teaching courses on-site and at times most convenient to the individuals. This would allow many more courses to be taught without using NMC’s buildings or resources.
• Develop partnerships with Korean, Chinese, and/or Japanese colleges to allow students to study at NMC for a semester to develop their language skills and interact with U.S. citizens. This could be reciprocal, in that we could also send local students to their schools to study abroad for a semester and gain a greater appreciation and understanding of the country. These students could take a language course for a semester to hone their language skills while they are there.
• Develop a stronger ESL program that attracts individuals from other countries who want to perfect their English. This would include our regular semester-long courses, or it could include intensive courses that are taught for credit. This would be a total immersion course lasting 3-4 weeks for someone with a basic understanding of English, or it could be a 6-9 week course for those with little English-speaking ability. Such a program would also be attractive to businesspeople who are not pursuing a degree, but want to learn English.
• Create an International Student Office that has the mission to serve international students so that their transition, studies and graduation from NMC is a rewarding and positive experience. This would not only assist current international students, but would encourage positive word-of-mouth promotion for NMC to further increase enrollment.
• Hire professional advisors to increase retention and provide greater support to students. They are busiest at the beginning and end of the semester, so during the middle of the semester, they would be utilized to work with the high schools to provide students with guidance, career advice, and plan for their future academic goals. The advisors would more than pay for their salaries by improving retention and helping build strong relationships with the school administration and teachers.
• Develop more online courses and create an online degree program that caters to Tinian and Rota students. These courses would also be attractive to many local residents living in the U.S. because the cost is less per credit hour than other online institutions and they could get an associate degree in liberal arts and then focus on a bachelor’s degree at a local university. This idea alone could significantly increase enrollment and revenue without a correlating increase in cost and infrastructure expansion because students could complete courses from their laptops in the comfort of their homes.

In order for these ideas to become reality, NMC must become more customer-focused and develop strong partnerships with local, U.S., and international entities. These ideas, if implemented, could have a significant impact on the College; however, research and planning are needed to determine their viability and estimate the economic and social impact. My general estimate is that enrollment would increase from as little as 50 percent to as much as 100 percent within the next two years. More importantly, it would reposition the College as a vital resource for the CNMI, improve morale, increase retention, and stabilize the financial situation of Northern Marianas College.