August 1, 2014
Dear Colleagues and Fellow Members of the COM-FSM Community,
I want to take a moment to welcome all of you to a new academic year. Many new students are arriving on campus from Pohnpei, Chuuk, Yap and Kosrae states in anticipation of student orientation, the first week of classes and immersion into a year of study, learning and personal growth. The feeling of energy and excitement on campus is palpable.
As well, please join me in welcoming our new faculty and staff joining the COM-FSM community. We are pleased that you are with us and trust you will find your experience in service to our students both meaningful and rewarding. Welcome.
To our returning faculty and staff, welcome back! I hope and trust that each of you found some time to rest and to renew. As you make your way back to campus, whether it be here, or at our respective state campuses please know that I am looking forward to an exceptional year. Given how well we pulled together last year, and as a result the significant improvements we were able to achieve, I believe we are poised for great things again this year.
For those of you who may not have heard the news, the college successfully provided the venue for several of the competitions for the 8th Micro Games including wrestling, weightlifting, table tennis and basketball.
On Monday, July 21st we officially expressed our thanks to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China for funding the $200,000 renovation of the FSM-China Friendship Sports Center. The renovation includes major updates to the facility. A refurbished court, replaced lighting, new sound system, new scoreboard, and new windows are among the many improvements. We are grateful for the continuing and generous support from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China for COM-FSM.
While we have much to celebrate, we remain mindful that we are once again at the “starting line.” The work of accreditation continues. Yet, our work will continue with a now familiar and embedded paradigm of participatory governance, purposeful dialogue and continuous quality improvement.
If you feel proud and inspired to be a partner at COM-FSM in “confronting our challenges and creating our future,” please know that you are not alone. We have successfully confronted a number of challenges and have taken important steps in creating our future.
We will continue to address challenges, especially the impact of the cumulative $2.8 million Compact decrement by 2016 and beyond, and seek continued commitment from the FSM government to offset any shortages. As the Commission clearly articulated in its July 3, 2014 Action Letter, “The Commission expects that the government of the Federated States of Micronesia will guarantee the funding necessary for the College to carry out its mission.”
The commitment and level of financial support from the FSM Congress is and will continue to be essential to the long-term sustainability and continuous improvement of COM-FSM.
Please be reminded that the Faculty Workshop for the National and Pohnpei Campus will be held on August 4-5. The Academic Convocation will be held on August 15, and brings us together to celebrate the beginning of a new academic year and to renew our commitment to the success of our students.
As we look forward to this coming year and beyond, the college is required to complete a self-evaluation and submit its next Institutional Self Evaluation of Educational Quality and Institutional Effectiveness Report in preparation for the comprehensive review in March 2016. The process to complete the required self-evaluation and report will be clearly delineated during the College Summit on August 6-7. Additionally, the summit will include opportunities to review and assess several case studies to further inform our understanding of the challenges faced by institutions of higher education and necessary decision-making. We are pleased that Sandy Pond Associates will facilitate the case study segment of the summit.
Participating faculty and staff, please plan to arrive at the practice gym by 8:00am on both days for morning refreshments and to ensure we can begin the program each day promptly at 8:30am. Your cooperation and assistance are greatly appreciated.
We must and will continue to fully embrace and integrate Accreditation Standards into the fabric of the college. Please know that this responsibility is shared among us all. We must continue to strengthen the college’s culture of assessment and accountability. We have a responsibility to our stakeholders to demonstrate that we are successful, we are continuously improving, and our students are learning and are successful.
Our facilities plan proposal based on the Beca Study is near completion and we anticipate presenting our request for its support and funding by JEMCO at its meeting in late August.
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. When I joined you as president, I called upon us to, “confront our challenges and create our future.”Given how well we have all come together, how well we communicate with each other, and our shared purpose to secure the future for COM-FSM and our students, we can only grow stronger.
I share with you some of what I said on February 6, 2012, when I proudly joined COM-FSM in service as your president:
“Successfully confronting them [challenges] will require the very best of each of us working TOGETHER to marshal all of our, individual and collective intellectual and human capital and resources. Only TOGETHER, and by that I mean everyone gathered here today, and members of our community dispersed across the country, will we be successful.”
As we begin a new academic year, let us once again join together at the “starting line” and “lace up our running shoes” as we begin the next leg of the race. It promises to be a great run. It is a privilege for me to serve you as president.
Warm regards,
Joseph M. Daisy, EdD
President and CEO
