Update from the President's Office - No. 196

October 23, 2001

MEMORANDUM

To:       All Regents, Faculty, Staff, and Students

From:     President

Subject:  Update from the President's Office-No.196

PR*TEC meeting. The College hosted a meeting of the Pacific Regional Technology in Education Consortium (PR*TEC), a PREL sponsored project, from October 16-17, 2001, at the National Campus. The following persons represented member colleges: UOG - Dr. Edward Lind, Dr. Jacquelyn Milman, Jessica Yoshida, and Remy Babauta; GCC - President Herminiano delos Santos; PCC - President Patrick Tellei; COM-FSM - Spensin James; NMC - Charles Algaier and Gerald Smith; Micronesian Seminar - Elizabeth Rechebei; SDSU - Dr. Steve Spenser; PREL - Masa-Aki Emesiochl (Project Director), Andrew Kerr, and Chuck Giuli; and CMI - Janet Hess. Discussion focused on the development of a design document for a collaborative teacher education program based on distance education and a specific proposal entitled, "Facilitated Distance Learning Model for Pacific Region Teacher Training" from SDSU, among others.

FSM FMI supplemental request. In Update 195 I mentioned that the College had submitted a request for supplemental funding for the second half of the year for the FSM Fisheries and Maritime Institute. A meeting was held with the FSM Vice President on this request on October 12, 2001, in this regard. Although the FSM Vice President expressed support for the request, word has been received that this request will not be submitted for the consideration of FSM Congress during the current session. I will be working with FSM officials to determine the appropriate next steps.

Student Support Services project supplemental funds. Word has been received from the US Department of Education that the Student Support Services (SSS) program has been awarded supplemental funding in the amount of $24,362 for this project year. These funds are earmarked for special grant aid support for students. The SSS project is being implemented at the National, Pohnpei, and Yap Campuses.

LRC update. According to the September 2001 monthly report from LRC Director Dakio Syne, a Supplemental Model Digitization Project for the FSM was approved by the US Department of Education and the project time extended a year. This supplemental project provides an additional $40,000 for the digitization of materials and $10,000 for Project Coordinator Jean Thoulag to disseminate information about this project. In this regard, Jean will be attending the IMLS Conference in Washington, DC from November 7-9, 2001, and participating in a workshop conducted by IMLS on "Outcome Based Evaluation" also being held in the DC area. Jean also met with Fr. Francis X Hezel of Micronesian Seminar along with two technical consultants regarding possible areas for collaboration between the digitization project and Micronesian Seminar projects.

Arrangements have been made with Dr. Peter Orlovich, Senior Lecturer, formerly with the School of Information, Library and Archives Studies, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, to conduct a workshop on Archives and Special Collection/Libraries Institute. This workshop has tentatively been scheduled for November 26-30, 2001. Ten (10) sets of 7 books that will serve as "Librarian's Resource Kits" for school and public libraries across the FSM have been ordered. The titles in the kit cover topics for libraries development, collection development, designing and conducting patron trainings, among others. A second session on "Providing Reference Services" to patrons was held during the month with the National Campus LRC staff and the Pohnpei Campus Librarian in attendance.

The Media Instructional Technology Center (MITC) draft policies and procedures are being refined. The anticipated completion date was last Friday. A Distance Education Vision Workshop was held at the MITC from September 20-21, 2001. This workshop was facilitated by Bruce Best and Joel Biggs from the University of Guam. Participants from many Pohnpei and National Government sectors participated with a goal to develop a distance education plan. This workshop was seen as a first step towards creating a regional distance education plan to be funded by a Sasakawa Peace Foundation grant.

Usage statistics for the month of September show that a total of 2,378 patrons used the National Campus LRC, 7 materials were sent through the Interlibrary Loan program, 5 materials were received through the Interlibrary Loan program, 19 documents were sent via Ariel, 18 documents were received via Ariel, 2,332 patrons used the general applications computers, 1,705 patrons used the research/reference computers, 29 video showings were held, 67 videotapes were checked out, and 81 visitors and researchers made use of the Pacific Collection.

Land Grant update. According to the September monthly report from Vice President for Cooperative Research and Extension Yasuo Yamada, the Division of Agriculture has established an advisory council to review the mission, structure, and course offerings of the agriculture program. Members of this council include VPCRE Yamada, Adelino Lorens from Pohnpei State Agriculture, Ishmael Lebehn from FSM Agriculture, Director of Academic Programs Joe Habuchmai, and Director of Vocational Education Brent Villiers. This semester 30 students are enrolled in Introduction to Agriculture, 10 are enrolled in Agriculture Project Management, and 8 are enrolled in Crop Production.

Under the Sea Grant program, 3 elementary schools - Sokehs Pah, Sokehs Powe, and Awak -- participated in the International Coastal Clean Up program as part of "Clean Up the World Day" on September 21, 2001. Assistant Extension Agent Tetaake Yee Ting assisted with this activity through which students not only participate in a clean-up project but also collect data on the kinds of trash they find. These data cards were collected and sent to the Center for Marine Conservation in the U.S. Also, under the Sea Grant program, Sea Grant Extension Agent Ahser Edward is now very actively involved in a pearl oyster project being implemented at the Nett Point Hatchery.

Projects being implemented under the Agriculture Experiment Station (AES) component of the Land Grant program include Trials on Banana Resistant to Black Leaf Streak, Taro Trials, Micropropagation of Banana High in Vitamin A, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Development of IPM for Leaf-footed Bug on Cucumber, Fruit Fly Monitoring, and the Banana Propagation Project in Kosrae. Under the Kosrae project a total of 2,700 banana plants were distributed to farmers for planting during the month of September. A total of 6,000 plants have been distributed since January of this year. In addition, approximately 100 cultures of soft taro were established at the request of Kosrae State.

Aquaculture Researcher Karl Brookins has been collecting water level, conductivity, and temperature data that will be used in determining the residence time of rainwater in the Tawenjokola River Estuary. A total of 934 conductivity and temperature readings and 46 river level readings were collected. These readings have been entered into the computer for processing. Final bids were received and contracts were awarded through the COM Land Grant Office for the construction of a dry lab inside the COM-FSM Nett Point Research Laboratory.

Receiving reports/prepaid accounts. At the October 12, 2001, Cabinet meeting, Comptroller Danny Dumantay reported that over $600,000 remains in prepaid purchases due to the lack of receiving reports on these goods. On October 9, 2001, he distributed memos to all activity heads to ask for their cooperation in securing appropriate documentation and then completing "Receiving Reports." He advised that he may have no choice but to charge outstanding prepaid purchases to the respective FY 2002 budgets if they are not cleared. Request for reimbursement of these expenditures cannot be made until "Receiving Reports" are submitted. This delay has a negative effect on the College's cash flow. All activity heads are asked to make the submission of the required reports a priority. Thank you for your help on this.

Christmas card design contest. This is a reminder to all students including full-time and part-time students at all of the College's campuses that the deadline for submission of entries for this year's Christmas card design is November 2, 2001, at 5:00 p.m. The rules are as follows:

1. The design should reflect the FSM, the College, and Christmas.
2. All designs should be submitted on 8 ½ X11" paper. Use of color is permitted.
   Computer generated designs will be accepted.
3. Identifying information (your full name) should be clearly written on the back
   only. Drawing with identifying information on the front will be disqualified.
4. Each student may submit a maximum of 2 entries.
5. All entries should be submitted to either Norma Edwin or Hadleen Hadley in the
   President's Office by November 2, 2001, at 5:00 p.m.
6. All entries become the property of COM-FSM.
7. Eligible entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges and prizes will be awarded
   as follows: First Prize -- $100; Second Prize -- $50; and Third Prize -- $25. The
   winning entry will be used as the official design of the College's 2001 Christmas card.
   

Good Luck to All!

Personnel. Director of Personnel Linda Maradol conducted workshops on the updated personnel manual for Pohnpei Campus faculty and staff on Wednesday, October 17th and Friday, October 19th.

It is with sadness to report that the following Land Grant employees had to be laid off from their positions due to lack of funding: Siekichy Noy, Inos Kuliano, Ansauo Baelo, Mideko Epel, Patrick Phichiol, Merly Nelson, Seiko Jacky, Risko Walter, and Dane Shirai. We take this opportunity to express our appreciation for your many years of service to the College and wish you the very best the future can bring.

Others who have resigned or will be leaving their positions include Richard Middleton from Chuuk Campus, Lestly Ashby from TSP, Richard Swinton from Pohnpei Campus, Graceful Enlet from Chuuk Campus, Ruthy Lebehn from the National Campus, Patricia Jack from the National Campus, and Arlene Dumantay from the National Campus. Thank you all very much for your time with the College. Best wishes in your future endeavors.

A warm welcome is extended to the following newly hired employees: Grace Lokopwe, Chuuk Campus Clerk Typist; Constance Maipi, Education Instructor at Chuuk Campus; and Engelbert Danis, Student Services Aide for recreation at the National Campus. Welcome to the College!

More Next Time!