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M E M O R A N D U M

 

June 11, 2008

MEMORANDUM

To : All Concerned

From : President

Subject: President's Update #311

 

Budgets Consultation Meeting with OIA Staff

The College of Micronesia-FSM had a consultation meeting with the OIA staff from the Honolulu Office regarding its FY 2009 Education Sector Grant Funds and the FY 2008 Supplemental Education Grant Funds. The College informed OIA staff that the college's submitted operation budgets of FY 2009 has been recommended for reduction from $3.9 million to $3.8 million. The College also informed OIA staff that the shortfall in budget will impact fuel and utility costs, especially with the high rise of fuel and utility prices.

OIA staff informed the College representatives at the consultation meeting that they will sent the College's SEG funds to FSM's bank account and then FSM Finance will transfer the funds to College's bank account.

Dean Yudin from UOG Visited COM-FSM National Campus

The College of Micronesia-FSM hosted Dr. Lee Yudin, Dean, College of Natural and Life Sciences, University of Guam during the week of May 2-6, 2008 . Dr. Yudin is a senior administrator of the CariPac grant. While in Pohnpei, he visited both National and Pohnpei Campus facilities including a demonstration of the new Smart Boards and Elluminate Program, the RI training farm, and the Traditional and Medicinal Botanical Garden . A field trip around the island included a stop at the Pohnlangas training farm and the Sei Pepper Farm in Wone, Kitti. Discussions were also held with COM-FSM President Spensin James, Executive Director of COM-FSM Land Grant Programs Singeru Singeo, and Mr. Amena Yavouli, Office Manager, SPC Northern Region. During the week, Dr. Yudin also worked with VPIA Jean Thoulag, VPCRE Jim Currie, Agriculture Instructor Kiyoshi Phillip and Lyle Baconguis to plan articulation of courses and to prepare a recent agriculture graduate to apply to University of Guam to continue his studies.

COM-FSM Institutional Priorities for FY 2009

The institutional priorities for FY 2009 guide major improvement efforts for the College of Micronesia-FSM . The institutional priorities form a basis of allocation of resources (human and financial) to support improvement efforts of the college and are a foundation for reporting on the college to Board of Regents, FSM National Government, and other key stakeholders.

A working group has been established to work on FY 2009 priorities and have re-written all of them into action items. The group has met and converted these priorities to action items. These draft priorities will be reviewed by the members of the Planning and Resources Committee in about a week and then adopted as the FY 2009 priorities.

Summer Session 2008 Enrollment

The following are the unofficial enrollment for summer session:

Chuuk Campus 153 students
Kosrae Campus 105 students
Pohnpei Campus 301 students
National Campus 532 students
Yap Campus 162 students
  Total ----------- 1253 students

Student Information System Training at State Campuses

Consultant Ken Girrard, Director of Information Technology Gordon Segal, and Registrar Joey Oducado have traveled to the Sate campuses during the week of June 3-16, 2008 , to conduct training on the Student Information System to Admissions and Financial Aid Offices staff and other staff. The Student Information System will simplify and speed up the sharing of information on students between the national and state campuses. It will also allow the faculty and staff at the campuses to monitor the academic progress of students easily and quickly.

Window Tinting Saves Energy and Money

Experts say applied solar window film or tint can reject 80 percent or more of the incoming solar energy, and that can reduce your energy cost by 30 to 50%. The Navy in Hawaii just completed a solar window film project that is estimated to save it $130,000 annually on energy cost.

I strongly recommend that the College look into this as it might be one means of reducing the utility cost at all campuses.

CariPac News

The Caribbean and Pacific (CariPac) Consortium is supporting education in agriculture and natural sciences and food sciences at Land Grant Institutions serving the US Insular Territories through efforts to improve and provide distance learning has been very active in this past month or so. Jim Currie, VPCRE and CO-PI of CariPac and Jean Thoulag, VPIA, have been informed that with the passing of the US Farm Bill, COM-FSM will be receiving both the past years approved budget and the current proposed program will most likely be accepted. This could provide more than $120,000 for equipment, training, scholarships, library support and staff to expand current education opportunities in agriculture and natural sciences and food sciences.

Through this program, one staff and one student from Kosrae have been fully funded to attend training at the University of Puerto Rico for the month of June. They will be training in food safety, human nutrition and the outreach efforts used by UPR in these fields.

Pohnpei State Government Executive Retreat

The College of Micronesia-FSM has been contracted by Pohnpei State Executive Branch to conduct a two-days retreat for about 80 key staff during the week of June 12-13, 2008 at the FSM-China Friendship Sport Center at National Campus. The focus of this retreat is going to be on these questions: where are we? where are we going? how do we get there?

Yap Campus Update

Interscholastic Basketball Tournament in Yap State ended on May 8, 2008 , with the final championship games between Yap Campus' teams, sharks 1 and 2. Sharks 1 won first place and Sharks 2 came in second. The tournament was fun and exciting and provided an opportunity for students to participate in sports. A community organization which promotes basketball among young boys and girls in villages provided assistance to Yap Campus teams during the championship games. Two other teams, Yap High School and FSM-FMI participated in the tournament.

Thank you.