President's Message to the Community

The College of Micronesia-FSM is a learner-centered institution of higher education that is committed to the success of the Federated States of Micronesia by providing academic, career and technical education programs characterized by continuous improvement and best practices.

Dear Colleagues and Fellow Members of the COM-FSM Community,

Accreditation: A thirteen member team from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) presented its Exit Report to the College community. The report ends the one weeklong accreditation visit as part of the college’s self-evaluation.

Led by team chair Dr. Rachel Rosenthal, the team members arrived at the state campuses the week of March 8, 2016, and finally congregating as a whole at the college’s National Campus. During the one week visit, members of the team met with various administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other college groups assessing the college’s Self-Evaluation Report.

As part of the Exit Report the team provided seven commendations as well as seven recommendations to the college on its continuous path of self-improvement. Dr. Rosenthal iterated that the outcome of the visit is a decision that the Commission alone will have to make as part of the final accreditation process; and will remain confidential until that decision is communicated to the college in July. The commendations and recommendation are provided in a “broad sense” and are only preliminary findings.

Dr. Rosenthal also thanked the college as a whole on behalf of her team, expressing that it was a trip she will “never forget”.

The accreditation process requires the team to leave the college immediately after providing the Exit Report. The findings of the team will be provided to ACCJC to which a decision will be officially communicated to the college as to its accreditation status.

Core Value Working Group: August 2015, a nine-member Core Values Working Group (CVWG) was formed by vice president for institutional effectiveness & quality assurance (VPIEQA) to continue a review of college values that had begun in April 2013. The CVWG composition included: Grilly Jack, Pohnpei Campus and Career and Technical Education Director, Kind Kanto, Dean of Chuuk Campus, Lourdes Roboman, Dean of Yap Campus, Jonathan Maver, Student Services Specialist, Kosrae Campus, Muity Nokar, Instructor, Chuuk Campus, Nena Mike, Acting Dean of Kosrae Campus, Ringlen Ringlen, Faculty, National Campus, and Alvin Sinem, Instructor, FSM-Fisheries and Maritime Institute (FSM-FMI).

January 2016, the CVWG presented work completed for college-wide review at the Governance Summit. Summit input was used to refine the core values to a list with an overarching value for community and five core values. A college wide-survey was conducted before the CVWG finalized its recommendations to the Executive Committee (EC) in the Core Values Working Group Report. A statement was produced to express value for the community:

We value the higher education community in which we work and those diverse island communities we serve. As members of these communities, we strive to embody these core values and to demonstrate them through the following best practices.

The five core values proposed to EC were: excellence, learner-centeredness, commitment, professionalism, and teamwork. Rather than expressing these values with a simple definition, each comes with a set of articulated best practices to guide students and employees on how they can demonstrate these values. This approach was based on one used by Dartmouth (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rpd/corevalues/list.html).

The college will celebrate its 23rd Founding Day on April 1, 2016, at the college’s National Campus grounds and at the FSM-China Friendship Sports Center in Palikir from 8:00A AM to 5:00 PM.  This year’s Founding Day celebration will kick off March 30, 2016, with a coronation ceremony of the King and Queen of the Founding Day that will be held at the FSM-China Friendship Sports Center, 3:00 PM.  

Forum Lecture: On March 4, 2016, in honor of International Woman’s day, Her Excellency Doria Rosen, United States Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia, presented on “Education, Opportunity & Changing Roles of Women”. Her forum featured a puppeteer, Mr. Danny Williams, who through a performance interviewed the Ambassador.

Holiday: Spring Recess for Students (March 23-25, 2016); Good Friday (March 25, 2016); Cultural Day (March 31, 2016)

National All Campus Meeting: On March 30, 2016, there will be an All Campus Meeting held at MITC from 1-2PM.

Agenda

·      Student Success: by Mason Wiley, Executive Director at the Center for Entrepreneurship, and Students

The Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, Mason Wiley, will speak during the all-campus meeting about the role the Center plays in supporting student success.  The Center has found many unique ways for students to demonstrate their prowess in applying their newly obtained school knowledge to both work and play.  Mr. Wiley will introduce students who have started new businesses and competed in competitions to find innovative solutions to problems.  He will also introduce students that have come to the Center to practice business and negotiation skills through a series of activities. 

I convey my appreciation to you for all your work, effort and dedication to the students we serve. Each of us plays an important role in the successful implementation of the mission of COM-FSM.

It is a privilege for me to serve you as president.

Warm regards,

Joseph M. Daisy, EdD

President and CEO