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M E M O R A N D U M
To: All Concerned From: Interim President Subject: Update from the President's Office - No. 236
Accreditation: The Interim President has established a working group to address
the concerns of the Accreditation Commission regarding the clear line
of authority between the six campuses. The members of the working
group included the following:
The Interim President's Office will be assigning the other recommendations from the Accreditation Commission to other standing committees to address. For example, the Curriculum Committee will address the establishment and assessment of student learning outcomes for programs and courses and the Planning Council will be addressing the recommendations on integrated planning. The purpose of assigning recommendations to standing committees is to avoid duplication of efforts and resources since there are already too many committees at the College. The American Association of Higher Education/Western Association of Schools and Colleges is extending an invitation to the College of Micronesia-FSM to send a delegation of 6 staff to a student learning outcome workshop to be held in Glendale, California during the week of September 10-12, 2004. The purpose of the workshop is to assist community colleges under WASC region with effective strategies for assessing student-learning outcomes. The workshop presenters will also function as mentors for the institutional teams as they develop plans for application at their own institution.
Chuuk State Campus Director, Mr. Joakim Peter, is still in Hawaii for medical reasons. Assistant Director, Mr. Switer Eter, is the Acting Director for Chuuk Campus during Mr. Peter's absence. The College of Micronesia-FSM's attempts and efforts in securing a permanent site for Chuuk Campus is still on-going. The College's priority is to secure Chuuk Star Hotel as the future permanent site for Chuuk Campus. A delegation from the College met with Governor Ansito Walter and the new Regent from Chuuk State on June 30, 2004, and learned that Chuuk State is proposing Chuuk High School site as the permanent site for Chuuk Campus. The Administration of the College will discuss the new proposal with the BOR who will then make the final decision on this new proposal. Among the recommendations from the Accrediting Commission, is a recommendation for the college to immediately provide an adequate facility for student learning at the Chuuk site. Therefore, the college is looking at December 2004 as the deadline for securing funding for a permanent campus. Without funding, the college will be forced to implement plans to close Chuuk Campus to avoid affecting accreditation for the College as a whole. Chuuk Campus continues to experience power outages. The College recently purchased a back-up generator for the Campus from a company in Guam. Hopefully, the generator will be delivered to Chuuk Campus soon. The Upward Bound Program at Chuuk Campus has been busy this summer with arranging for students in the program to attend summer institutes at off-island colleges and on campus based programs. A total of 19 Upward Bound students are attending summer school at Chuuk Campus. Acquisition of textbooks for summer session courses is still a concern of the faculty and administrators at Chuuk Campus. Kosrae Campus: Jean Thoulag, Acting Vice President for Instructional Affairs, visited Kosrae Campus during the week of July 7-9, 2004, to monitor the instructional programs and meet the instructional staff there. Ermine Walliby from the PEER Counseling Program also visited Kosrae Campus during the month. The GEAR UP Summer Session Program started on July 5, 2004. The focus of the summer program is on language and math instructions for Kosrae High School seniors. A summer graduation for Kosrae Campus has been scheduled on July 30, 2004. A total of 22 students will be graduating from teacher preparation in elementary education, agriculture and food technology, electronics, and carpentry. National Campus: A draft proposal on Roles of National State Campuses had been distributed to faculty, staff, administrators and campuses for their review and comments. The final proposal will be forwarded to BOR for their review at the September 2004 meeting. The National and Pohnpei Campuses faculty, staff and students were fortunate to participate and listen to Father Francis X. Hezel talked about suicide in Micronesia. Over 60 people attended the presentation by Father Hezel. The faculty, staff, students, and administration of the College would like to express their appreciation and gratitude to Father Hezel for his presentation. A Substance Abuse Workshop has been scheduled on July 14, 2004 for all student services staff. Mr. Scott Nicloy, Salvation Army, will be the key presenter for the workshop. Mr. Ringlen Ringlen, Vice President for Support and Student Affairs, Mr. Faustino Yorafaisug, Acting Director of Financial Aid, and Mr. Spensin James, Interim President, attended the Joint FSM/U.S. Budget Review Meeting at the FSM Central Facility. The topics of discussions included the following: review of proposed FY 2005 FSM consolidated budget, funding for training of Judges and officials of Judiciary for FSM and RMI, use of infrastructure grant for operation/project management, use of capacity building grant to fund single audit, use of capacity building grant to fund early retirement plan to support transition plan, status of supplemental education grant, and appropriate use of private sector grant. Personnel The Vice President for Cooperative Research and Extension, Jim Currie, arrived on island on July 14, 2004. We welcome Jim and his family to COM-FSM Pohnpei Campus: Nothing submitted Yap Campus: The Grant Notification Award letter from Mr. David Cohen, Assistant Secretary, US Department of Interior, was received on July 7, 2004, informing the Interim President that Yap Campus OMIP Proposal in the amount of $100,000 matching from Department of Interior has been approved for funding. Jimmy Hicks, Rosa Tachelilol (Director of Education), and Leo Pugram (Deputy Director of Education) visited the campus to discuss TQEG project and many other projects, which require collaboration and cooperation between the National DOE, Yap DOE, and the college. Interim President Spensin James, Francisco Mendiola (Director of Maintenance), & Jessica Stam (Director of Research & Planning) visited Yap July 1st to 4th. The main purpose of the visit is to update the State Leadership on the programs and the development of the college. While on island, Interim President and Jessica Stam met with the faculty and the Upward Bound staff. Francisco used the opportunity to inspect the campus facilities damaged/destroyed by the typhoon and provided some advice and recommendations to the campus maintenance staff. Gary Bloom from the Australian Embassy visited Yap Campus from July 5th to 7th to interview Yapese students who have applied for the Australian Scholarship. A total of 6 students were interviewed on campus. During the visit, he encouraged these students to also apply to the New Zealand scholarship. Ringlen Ringlen, VPSSA, and Ricky Cantero, FSM Foreign Affairs, assisted by making copies of the application available to the students. Summer Session began on June 14th and will end July 30th. A total of 82 students have enrolled for the 11 courses being offered
FEMA Assistance: The faculty and staff have worked hard to complete all the required documents for FEMA public assistance. FEMA will provide financial assistance (75% FEMA; 25% FSM or Yap) to assist the campus in repairing and rebuilding the damaged and destroyed facilities. Some projects have been completed by FEMA. The campus maintenance staff and I attended an exit meeting last Monday with representatives from FEMA and Yap State Government. Yap State has put in a request to the US Federal Government to allow for 10% matching instead of 25%. Because of the extensive damages caused by Sudal, a 10% matching will be good for Yap State. Yap Campus depends on Francisco Mendiola and his staff to provide the technical assistance and guidance with the campus projects to be funded by FEMA. All these projects have a deadline of October 10th, 2005. Yap Upward Bound Program: Summer Institute began for the Yap High School Upward Bound students on June 14th. The UB students from Ulithi and Woleai are not participating in this Summer Institute due to Typhoon Sudal. Because many families on Yap Proper lost their homes, it would have been difficult to find sponsors for them. Nevertheless, the Ulithi and Woleai UB students have been assigned to projects in their respective communities and to each submit a report at the end of the summer. This is an opportunity for them to be of service to their communities. The Peer Counseling Center has continued to work closely with the Department of Health Services, mainly Public Health Programs. Julie Waathan, Center Manager, is collaborating with Yap Mental Health & Substance Abuse Program to sponsor an Essay Contest open to all youths and young adults. The topic of the contest is "Betelnut chewing practice…..what is proper?". Cash prizes (ranging from $50 to $200) will be given out to winners on campus on July 21st. Furthermore, the UB seniors, who have graduated from high school are not enrolled in college courses here on campus. Maintenance: Due to the amount of work required after the typhoon, a maintenance helper has been contracted to assist the maintenance staff in completing all the repairs needed. Yap Campus has also been fortunate to get 4 summer youth employees through Yap WIA (Workforce Investment Act) Program to work in the office, library, and maintenance. Teacher Training/TQEG: During his visit, Jimmy Hicks discussed the need for Yap DOE and the campus to design and develop a Language Teacher Training Module (TQEG) for the Yap DOE teachers. The module must meet COM-FSM course design requirements to allow teachers to earn college course credits. Yap DOE will take the lead and design the module because they have the expertise. However, assistance and guidance from Damian Sohl with this project will still be needed. Fundraising Committee: The Fundraising Steering Committee will be meeting on July 15, 2004, in the BOR conference room to finalize some of its action plans for Fall Semester activities. Thank you.
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