The Northern Marianas College Board of Regents has renewed Dr. Galvin Deleon Guerrero’s contract as NMC president for another four years. Board chair Charles V. Cepeda announced the renewal of Deleon Guerrero’s contract in a news briefing yesterday morning at the college’s conference room.
In attendance were other regents, NMC Foundation chair Vicente Babauta, NMC vice president of Administration and Advancement Frankie Eliptico, and NMC faculty and staff.
Deleon Guerrero said that he is “humbled and honored” about his contract renewal.
“This is a great team. I appreciate the trust that the Board of Regents have been given to me for a four-year contract. I look forward to continue working with a great team at the college to keep sailing ahead,” he said.
He said the highlight of his tenure has always been the students. “I’m so proud of our students. … A lot of these students have overcome so much and that’s what I’m most proud of—how much our students have overcome and they stick with it, they continue to sail on, and it’s a privilege to be able to help them do that,” he added.
He said his first official act under his new contract is to hopefully have the groundbreaking of the new campus’ Student Center this summer.
Cepeda said that Deleon Guerrero went through an evaluation with the involvement of NMC faculty, staff, and some students. The final results were presented on Tuesday in a board meeting where the board accepted the evaluation results and approved his new contract.
Cepeda said that Deleon Guerrero’s leadership stood out in his evaluation. “He’s just been very open. A lot of what I read in the evaluation is that he set up the community open dialogue for different college groups. And vice versa with the board. As chairman, I’ve been privileged to be meeting with him every week. We schedule once a week to meet and he updates me on what needs to be updated for the college and vice versa…”
He added, “He has proven effective in forging partnerships, initiating new programs, and expanding workforce development efforts. …We will continue to work with…‘Dr. G’ to continue the college’s momentum, especially as we rebuild our college buildings. …There are many challenges and obstacles that lie ahead for the college, but together with our president, the staff, and faculty, we will be able to overcome these and ensure our students continue to receive the high-quality education and services they expect to receive from NMC.”
Babauta congratulated Deleon Guerrero and said, “We’re looking forward to another four years as we also establish our signature events for our college and more so for our new buildings. Congratulations.”
Deleon Guerrero’s contract was set to end on June 30 and his new four-year contract will begin on July 1, 2023.
He was first chosen as NMC’s president back in May 2021. Some of his accomplishments include increasing enrollment numbers while other colleges and universities are seeing declining numbers; launching of the Health Squad to coordinate health and wellness activities to support employee health; overseeing the management of $100 million to build new, state-of-the-art facilities; securing an eight-year accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Seniors Commission on Colleges and Universities, the longest accreditation term in NMC history; reconstituting the NMC Foundation to aggressively raise more funds for the college; facilitating the expansion of research on food science, agriculture, and aquaculture through NMC-CREES through grant awards from the US; and leading coordination of more campus events and community outreach activities that engage students and college stakeholders.