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College Community Discusses Options for College at 2009 Retreat

Palikir, Pohnpei (College of Micronesia): June 4, 2009 - FSM held its 2009 President's Retreat from May 12 - 14 2009, at the FSM-China Friendship Sports Center.

The retreat participants considered some recommended options for the future structure of the college. The options were recommended to the retreat by the college's planning and resources committee. The need to reevaluate the current structure of the college became even more pressing given the current financial constraints that the college is facing.

The following options were evaluated during the retreat:

• Status quo - to keep the current structure of the college without any changes and to identify money to maintain it. The current structure currently has one national campus, four state campuses and an additional fisheries and maritime campus in Yap. It is administered by a president and four vice presidents who are responsible for setting standards and ensuring consistency at all campuses. Each campus also has a campus director who ensures the programs and services are provided and maintained at each campus.

• One college with centers - to have one dedicated campus while having education centers located in all states. The centers are mainly for continuing education purposes and will not require the need to have all the programs and services that are required of a dedicated campus. Some administrative positions will be made redundant.

• Breakup College and have different colleges in each state - to break up the college and to allow each state to run its own independent college.

• One national campus with FSM State supported centers where courses can be delivered (VPAS model) - to have only the national campus and to offer some programs at state-owned centers. The prospect of offering courses or programs at state-owned centers is dependent on the need of each state and the suitability of each center to host courses for the college.

The retreat participants were given the opportunity to evaluate trends in economic growth of the FSM, enrollment at the college, program completion rates at the college, college readiness of incoming students, and other important issues that the college is facing.

After three days of discussions, the retreat participants were not ready to commit the college to any structural changes regardless of the trends that the college is currently facing. Instead, the current structure or status quo is recommended to be maintained with some streamlining of positions and functions to reduce costs and to ensure consistency.

The college is also faced with the immediate need to make up for a projected shortfall in its FY 2009 - 2010 budget due to a reduced government funding commitment and the downward trends in enrollment. The college is now faced with a budget deficit and is currently working to identify solutions.