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| March 22 - Palikir, Pohnpei | ||||||||||||||||
M E M O R A N D U M March 22 , 2006 To: All Concerned From: President, COM-FSM Subject: Update #271 Accreditation The Accreditation Working Group members that had been working on writing and editing of the Progress Report has completed the report and submitted an electronic copy of the report to President Barbara Beno, ACCJC of Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) on March 15, 2006. The final copy of the report incorporated comments and inputs from the College Community. The College of Micronesia-FSM's Board of Regents also reviewed and adopted the report. Three hard copies of the report were air-mailed to WASC office. Copies were also air-mailed to the members of the Accreditation Visiting Team. A three member accreditation visiting team will be visiting the College on April 24-25, 2006, to verify the content of the Progress Report. The Accrediting Commission has informed President James that a three member visiting team has been organized for the visit in April. One of the members of the team will be visiting Chuuk Campus to verify the accomplishments made, especially on facilities there. The members of the visiting team are:
On behalf of the administration of the College of Micronesia - FSM, I would like to express my appreciation, gratitude, and thanks to the following members of the Accreditation Working Group that worked so hard on the writing of the report:
Special appreciation and thanks are also extended to Mr. Joe Saimon for his leadership on the completion of the report and also to those college community members who read and submitted their comments and inputs on the report. The College will also be busy writing its Annual Report to be submitted to the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) of Western Association of Schools and Colleges on April 1, 2006. Mr. Joe Saimon, Accreditation Liaison Officer, will be working with the administration on this report. Board of Regents The Board of Regents will be having their special meeting in Kosrae on April 21-23, 2005. One of the major items of discussion at the meeting will be the review of the COM Treaty. COM-FSM FY 2007 Budget Hearing The President and key cabinet members represented the College at a budget hearing regarding the FY 2007 budget with the FSM Budget Review Committee on March 13, 2006, at 9:00-10:30 a.m. in the FSM President's Conference Room. The College's representatives were requested by the FSM Budget Review Committee to submit the following documents to the Chairman of the Committee: Annual Strategic Goals for the FY 2007 budgets for the BOR and the College, updated list of employees, and a supplemental request for the BOR budget. The College representatives were informed by the FSM Budget Review Committee that the FY 2006 budget for the Board of Regents have been reduced by 10% by the FSM Congress at their January 2006 session because the strategic goals were not submitted to the FSM Congress per Ways and Means Committee hearing recommendations. The FY 2007 budget submitted to FSM President on January 2006, had an increase of 0.24% over the FY 2006, budget. The FSM Budget Review Committee did not indicate to the College to cut its FY 2007 budget at the hearing. Fundraising Activities for Endowment Fund The Local Fundraising Steering Committee has conducted a series of fundraising activities during the Spring Semester 2006. These activities have generated over $3,500. The Fundraising Steering Committee also auctioned used cars and computers on March 18, 2006, at the National Campus and funds generated from this activity will also be added to the amount shown above. The Administration of the College would like to express its appreciation and thanks to members of the Local Fundraising Steering Committee as well as the Fundraising Steering Committee members that have contributed their efforts and time on these fundraising activities. Implementation of Pohnpei Accord President James received a letter from Dr. Harold Allen, President of the University of Guam, regarding the review and the follow up on the Pohnpei Accord made by the Pacific Postsecondary Education Council (PPEC) Presidents meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 6-8, 2006. Pohnpei Accord was an agreement established by the PPEC's Chief Academic Affairs Council and Registrars in December 2003. The goal of the Accord was "to establish academic transfer and articulation guidelines and to exchange knowledge and expertise in cooperative transfer policies with the framework of accreditation and current best practices." The Pohnpei Accord also established an "Inter Institutional Agreement of Cooperation for Transfer and Articulation" and made explicit the transfer of credit policy affecting students holding associate degrees. As a follow up on major issues of Pohnpei Accord, especially Article IV, the University of Guam has established an Interdisciplinary Arts and Science degree program that will accept students from the IDP with varying amounts of coursework. It also allows for specializations in consultations with a faculty advisor. The letter also indicated that the University of Guam will be offering 36 courses in the region, subject to funding. In addition, the letter also indicated that the University of Guam has the following in place:
This is good news for the COM-FSM students who are interested in transferring to the University of Guam after they completed the requirements of their associate degrees. Planning Council and Strategic Plan Development On Friday, March 17, 2006, the Planning Council discussed ways to complete the college' strategic plan by the May 2006 BOR meeting. The following is the agreed upon process: ` Process to complete the strategic plan:
Vital to the process is the active involvement of all stakeholders especially faculty. An invitation is extended to all interested faculty staff to attend various working sessions. If your schedule is tight, you are also welcome to drop in the working sessions for whatever length of time you can spare. Suggested schedule ( 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - site to be announced):
To help put the development of strategic plan in perspective, the following is the WASC recommendation to the college regarding integrated planning. The College must develop and implement college-wide planning that:
Assessment Plan Development The Assessment Working Group in its meeting on March 15, 2006 agreed to establish a small working/writing group to draft the institutional assessment plan. The group is to be composed of national and state campuses faculty (minimum of two from national and two from state campuses), support and administrative services staff and other interested faculty and staff. If you are interested in participating in the assessment working/writing group for drafting the institutional assessment plan, please contact IRPO for additional information. Yap Campus Update Good News! Yap State government has been approved by the US Department of Labor to be a sponsor for the Apprenticeship Program. Thanks to Lt. Governor Habuchmai and Grilly Jack, COM-FSM Apprenticeship Program Coordinator, for their leadership role in making this a reality. Yap Campus vocational education faculty will be working closely with Grilly to get the program off the ground. YCA has been provided an application package, and they are still reviewing it. Yap Campus staff is working with Yap Department of Education to prepare for teacher training to take place this coming summer. An MOU will be drafted for everyone’s review and approval with regards to services and payment. The Yap Campus's staff are still in the process of updating the Yap DOE teacher's IDP to identify the courses to be offered. Yap Campus will celebrate Founding Day on Friday, March 31, 2006, on campus. The day will be filled with games, skits, contests, and music. Students with music talents will be performing throughout the day. Construction of FEMA Projects for the local student center and repair of the vocational education building will begin on March 20, 2006, now that funding is available. The two projects are expected to be completed by the end of May 2006. Update from HRO No new hires. Resignations from National Campus:
furthering her education off-island. Resignations from Pohnpei Campus:
Resignation from Yap Campus:
Staff Development Initiative: Twenty-nine (29) college supervisors and mangers participated in a two-hour informal workshop session. focusing on their responsibilities as supervisors. This workshop organized by HRO was focused on two areas of supervising: Developing Employee and Managing Conflict in the workplace. From the evaluations at the end, the participants found the workshop insightful, excellent and informative. Most participants also wished to invite the speaker back or others in similar topic that lasted more than two hours. The presenter was Mr. Jerome R. Nance, an experienced trainer and adjunct faculty at USDA Graduate School. Mr. Nance was on island delivering a five-day course training on "Supervising and Managing Human Resources: Principles and Practices" through the Pacific Island Training Initiative (PITI). Thank you.
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