Update from the President's Office - No. 206

March 27, 2002MEMORANDUM

To:       All Regents, Faculty, Staff, and Students

From:     Interim President
Subject:  Update from the President's Office-No.206

Trip Report. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities (ACSCU) invited Dr. Greg Myers (Accreditation Liaison Officer), Susan Moses (ACCJC Member), and me to two workshops designed to provide special information to the colleges of the Western Pacific and Hawaii. The workshops were presented in conjunction with the ACCJC public hearing on Draft B of the proposed new Accreditation Standards. All three events were held in Honolulu from March 12-13, 2002.

On Tuesday, March 12, a half-day workshop was offered on transfer and articulation. The representatives from the two-year and four-year universities and colleges were invited to attend this meeting on transferability of credit between institutions. It is an important issue for students within the United States. The Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) policy statement on transfer recently approved by both Commissions was used as the basis for the discussion. It was a good opportunity for dialogue between institutions. The President of the University of Hawaii System hosted a reception at his residence in the evening. It was the first informal opportunity for the participants from the institutions to meet.

On Wednesday, March 13, 2002 a half-day workshop was offered to present the policies and procedures for community colleges that wish to offer the baccalaureate degree while retaining their accredited status as a community college. The ACCJC recently approved the extension of its pilot program that allows community colleges offering one baccalaureate degree to be jointly accredited by both Commissions. This option was explained, the conditions under which it might be used by an institution, and some suggestions on how an institution might begin to explore this option. Illustrative materials were presented using Northern Marianas College application for joint accreditation as an example. The two Commissions hosted a buffet luncheon for the Wednesday workshop participants.

ACCJC Executive Director Dr.Barbara Beno and ACSCU Associate Executive Director Dr. Judie Wexler hosted these workshops. ACSCU Executive Director Ralph Wolff was also present at the workshops and the public hearing. A public hearing on Draft B of the proposed new Accreditation Standards was held on Wednesday afternoon, March 13, 2002. I spoke on behalf of the College during the hearing. I informed the Commission Members that the COM-FSM Cabinet voted in November 2001 in support of these standards in our next institutional self-study to be completed in the spring of 2004. I indicated that our Board of Regents also extended their support in March 2002 for the use of these proposed new Accreditation Standards.

ACCJC hosted a reception after the public hearing for presidents, provosts, members of the board and accreditation liaison officers that were attending the workshops and public hearing. It provided an opportunity to meet and convene informally with Commissioners and Commission staff.

I left Honolulu on Friday, March 15, and arrived Pohnpei on Saturday, March 16, 2002.

National Campus. According to the office of the Director of Academic Affairs, Joe Habuchmai, Dr. Theresa Lally from San Diego State University (SDSU) Interwork Institute, Center for Distance Learning (II-CDL) arrived last week for a three-month stay. The purpose of her visit is to help implement the COM-FSM Technology Plan that supports developing and delivering courses through various technologies. Since 2000, COM-FSM and IICDL have been developing and delivering online courses through a special SETTI grant to all four States in FSM for the Department of Special Education. The success of those courses has led to the college to pursue additional online course development for all departments. During the next three months, Dr. Lally will conduct three workshops for COM-FSM faculty on how to convert and deliver traditional courses to an online distance format. By the end of the workshops, each faculty member will have a course syllabus, schedule, and activities outlined for online delivery.

Tokai University - A group of 43 students and staff from Tokai University in Tokyo, Japan visited the National Campus on Friday, March 22, 2002. They toured, ate at the cafeteria, and visited the Japanese Language class taught by Ms. Kumi Kodama. The visiting students enjoyed conversing with COM-FSM students taking Ms. Kodama's class in Japanese. Acting Vice President for Support and Student Affairs, Lore Nena, and Patricio Ramirez, Activities Coordinator organized the visit. Thank you Lore and Patricio. A word of appreciation is extended to the two student volunteers who helped out during the visit. They are Jasmin Dawe and Rente Meisin.

Talent Search Program (TSP) - A group of high school juniors and staff from the TSP Program at Pohnpei Campus visited and toured the National Campus on March 15, 2002. The purpose of the visit is to get a glimpse of the College and talk with students and staff on campus about college life. The group also ate at the cafeteria and returned to Kolonia after lunch.

Student Support Services Program (SSSP) - The Director of SSSP, Morehna Santos attended the 24th WESTOP Annual Conference in Monterey, California from March 3-6, 2002. The annual conference provided TRIO personnel the chance to share and do professional networking on vital issues concerning educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged persons.

Earth Day - Earth Day will be on April 22, 2002. The COM-FSM Representative on the Pohnpei State Earth Day Planning Committee is the Vice President for Cooperative Research and Extension, Yasuo Yamada. Each municipality will celebrate the Earth Day on different days of the week beginning April 14, 2002. Activities have started to take place around Pohnpei promoting the clean-up roads and public areas and radio public awareness/education programs. Specific information will be in the next update.

FSM-Fisheries Maritime Institute (FMI). The COM-FSM evaluation team of the Vice President for Instructional Affairs, Spensin James and the Director of Vocational Education, Brent Villiers, went to Yap on March 6, 2002. The purpose of the FSM-FMI visit was to conduct a training project mid-point evaluation in partnership with an evaluation team from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The evaluation report was presented at the 2nd Joint Coordinating Committee Meeting that was held in Pohnpei on 12th March 2002. In accordance with the evaluation schedule the Joint Evaluation Teams examined the achievement levels of the five evaluation criteria - effectiveness, impact, efficiency, relevance and sustainability at the mid-point in the Fisheries Training Project.

While in Yap, the Director of Vocational Education met with other members of the Vocational Team from Pohnpei Campus, Alan Hopkins, Chairman of the Vocational Division, and Grilly Jack, Construction Electricity Instructor. Their task on Yap was to assess the suitability of the building currently being used by T3 for the delivery of the current COM-FSM Construction Electricity and Electronics Programs and to determine the suitability of the building for expansion to other programs if required at a later date. According to the Director of Vocational Education, Brent Villiers, Yap Campus has a $50,000 OMIP grant matched by the Yap State (a total of $100,000) for the establishment of its vocational programs. The grant has recently been extended and must be drawn down soon or the grant will be withdrawn due to inactivity. To enable Yap to establish a program, the plan which begins with assuming the building is suitable, will then necessitate that the team:

• would design the interior layout of the building for delivery of the programs,
• determine the necessary renovation work,
• list the materials required for the renovation,
• estimate the cost of the materials,
• arrange with Yap Campus Director for ordering of the materials,
• liaise with the maintenance supervisor and T3 for assistance during the pre-renovation and renovation periods, and
• return late May/early June for approximately 2 weeks to complete the renovation work in time for the fall 2002 inaugural intake of vocational students.
  

The Director of Vocational Education and the Vocational Team conducted a preliminary inspection of the exterior of the building to assess structure, power connection, proximity to water pipes, general condition, etc. The initial impression of the building was that it is sound and appeared to be suitable. The Team gained access to the building and was able to assess the interior for its suitability as a vocational training facility. The building was deemed suitable and the afternoon was spent planning the possible layout of the interior classrooms, training areas, workshops and offices. According to the Director of Vocational Education, the facility will require renovation work, especially the electrical wiring. The building was measured and the plan drawings commenced.

Recruiting Trips. - Three (3) recruiting teams went to Kosrae, Chuuk, and Yap in mid-March 2002 to recruit high school seniors to attend the COM-FSM. The teams also met with parents of the current students at the college and parents of the incoming students. This annual recruiting trip is to educate all high school seniors and parents about the College. A videotape of the services and programs at the College was shown. Two students participated with the recruiting teams for the first time. According to the team members, it was a good idea to involve the students. They were able to relate to their peers and share first hand experiences with the students. A word of gratitude is expressed to the members of the recruiting teams. They are as follows: Yap Team (Eddie Halleyalig, Eric Mecklenburg, Brent Villiers); Chuuk Team (Jeffrey Arnold, Mariana Ben, and Achena Finik, a student); Kosrae Team (Lore Nena, Jonathan Gourlay, and Pomeroy Kephas, a student).

Yap Campus.According to the report by Director Lourdes Roboman, Yap Campus staff administered the COM-FSM Admissions Test to all high school seniors in mid-February 2002. Robert Yangerlou, Student Services Specialist at Yap Campus traveled to Falalop, Ulithi to administer the test to about 21 seniors at the Outer Islands High School. He was not able to go to Woleai due to lack of plane fuel. Hopefully, he will make the flight to Woleai sometime later this month or early April.

New Student Body Association Officers - The students on Yap Campus recently elected its new officers for the Spring semester 2002, according to a Yap Camps Newsletter. They are: President Robert T. Defan, Vice President Conan Legdesog, Treasurer Carmen Hapdie, and Secretary Lannie g. Kumtinay. Congratulations to all of you.

Yap Library - According to Alison Figi, Yap Campus Newsletter Reporter, COM-FSM National Campus provided Yap Campus with the necessary on-line resources for useful student, staff, and faculty research. She reported that Jean Thoulag, Assistant Director of the Learning Resource Center (LRC) at COM-FSM National Campus, has been very helpful in the efforts to obtain on-line research materials for Yap Campus as well as increasing the awareness of important resources available on the Internet.

Ms. Alison Figi reported that although there is limited space and availability for books in the Yap Campus LRC, the Internet is a very useful tool that provides endless amounts of information for research on various topics. The EBSCO journal database was one of the important websites subscribed to Yap Campus by the National Campus. This database provides full text articles for 480 general science journals, social sciences, and humanities. It is a powerful on-line research tool that allows subscribers to obtain articles to magazines and journals on the subject of their research. Ms. Figi said in addition to full text articles, this database offers indexing and abstracts for 950 periodicals. She added that this database is updated weekly on EBSCOhost.

The LRC at Yap Campus was also provided with the Encarta Reference Suite 2001/CD-ROM set that includes an Encyclopedia, Interactive World Atlas, World English Dictionary, and the Africana Encyclopedia. Ms. Figi also reported that students and staff are allowed to check out these CD-ROMS along with others to be used inside the LRC on the four (4) research computers.

Chuuk Campus. Mr. Rioichy Johnny, Program Coordinator, Career Ladder Program and staff visited Mwan Elementary School, one of the Professional Development schools for the program. The purpose of the visit was to observe how English and Chuukese Language Arts are taught at each grade level at the school and how they are integrated with other subject area. Bilingual instructors and model teachers on teaching of English and Chuukese Language Arts conducted a mini-workshop. At the conclusion of the visit, Mwan Elementary School faculty and staff requested more training and workshops in this area. The Model Teachers are Memorina Phillip and Cindy Roby. Congratulations to both of you.

Math and Science Division has started study hour for MS 100 students as part of the Early Intervention Program. Three students were designated as study leaders to help the students with their source work.

Counseling Office (Marcello Ham) administered the COM-FSM Admissions Test to eight (10) high schools in early to late part of February 2002. The test results have been forwarded to the National Campus for Admissions Board's review and recommendation for Fall 2002.

Office of Admission and Records (OAR) reported that official enrollment for Spring 2002 is 711 down from 736 for Fall 2001. The OAR personnel had to turn away 205 students due to faculty overload and lack of classroom space.

Upward Bound Program are preparing for their college visit at COM-FSM National Campus during the first week of April 2002. Twenty-one (21) students and two (2) staff will travel to Pohnpei to join with the other TRIO program students from the four FSM States in Pohnpei. These seniors completed their FAFSA and the Chuuk State Scholarship application and had taken the COM-FSM Admissions Test. According to a report by the Director of the program, two students are being selected to attend Leeward Community College and University of Hawaii-Hilo. The director also reported that the selection of students from the other programs in the U.S. Mainland is yet to be announced.

Community Involvement. Mr. Alton Higashi, Chairperson of Social Science did teacher training on use of statistics in the classroom at Weno High School by request of the Principal, Mr. Joe Sapong. The training has been scheduled for every Wednesday afternoon. On the average, about 17 teachers have been attending the training.

Personnel. Neis Nena was hired as a Research Aide on March 11, 2002 at Kosrae Campus Land Grant Program. Fredson Ardos came on board as a Research Assistant on March 19, 2002 at National Campus Land Grant Program. Welcome to both of you.

On March 25, 2002 Joakim Peter (Jo Jo) became the new Director of Chuuk Campus. Congratulations to Jo Jo!

Happy Easter to all! Friday and Monday are legal holidays.

More next time!!