Marshalls College President Questions Accreditation Process MAJURO, Marshall Islands (Marianas Variety, April 04, 2014) — The College of the Marshall Islands’ president has criticized a United States-based accreditation body for not discovering fiscal problems at the Majuro-based institution until they were already being fixed. College President Carl Hacker raised concerns that the Western Association of Schools and Colleges did not discover serious financial problems at the college in the late 2000s and only put the college on “warning” status well after it began solving those problems. Hacker delivered his concerns to presidents and officials from colleges around the region at the Pacific Post-secondary Education Council meeting held recently in Honolulu, and also in a widely circulated report issued Wednesday. “During our report on accreditation (at the meeting), I mentioned that we were placed on ‘warning’ primarily concerning our finances,” said Hacker. “I reported that our unaudited year-end figures do show a dramatic improvement over previous years and that we have replenished our Contingency Fund.” Deficits and lack of money in the Contingency Fund were two items red-flagged by the Western Association of Schools and College for immediate action by the college. But Hacker expressed concern over a WASC process that didn’t discover the problems in a timely manner, commenting that “the accreditation process did not catch what was happening at CMI when CMI was racking up major deficits, and now that we are solving this problem we are placed on sanction and those who were responsible do not have to provide answers (and are) not (held) accountable.” He said he raised the issue with WASC during a visit to Majuro a year ago, pointing out that the college had submitted financial reports nearly two years before hearing anything back from WASC and by then, the problem was on its way to be solved. “This did not absolve CMI from tackling the problem, but those who were responsible for this finance situation have effectively gotten away with poor transparency and financial management and the accreditation process picked up nothing,” he said. Unaudited financial records for the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2013 show the Majuro college generated its first financial surplus in more than six years. As a result of the “warning” sanction, a two-person WASC team will visit the College of the Marshall Islands from April 15-16 primarily to address financial concerns the accreditation body listed in its earlier sanction. Last year, WASC put CMI on warning because of ongoing financial deficits and the college’s limited reserve fund. In response, the college has submitted both a 51-page follow-up report and a 23-page special report on “fiscal stability” at CMI. The two-member WASC team coming to Majuro will be headed by Dr. Sharon Hart, president of Northern Marianas College, who will be joined by Milton Higa, Vice chancellor of Kapiolani Community College in Honolulu. The WASC team will present a report from the review of CMI to the WASC commission that meets from June 4 to 6.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 09:12:05 +0000