Emmanuel III

Only 27% of Xavier College graduates passed the licensure exam of the California Board of Vocational Nursing & Psychiatric Technicians in 2006.

Why should we care? Xavier College has been touted as the sister school of our own Emmanuel College. Take this Saipan Tribune press release for example.

I'm trying to be fair, because I think the college is a great idea. We always need nurses and foreign students would be a boon to the economy. They're basically long-term tourists with minimal impact on the community.

Emmanuel College's instructors are from the CNMI, according to the press release. Recently we've heard that it's using Northern Marianas College to provide, umm, accredited English instruction to foreign students. That's a plus for NMC, too.

I hate to keep harping (Mean sheets) and carping (Decena redux) on Sedy Demesa. I'm sure she's a nice person.

After all, it's the graduates who take the test. Only, Xavier doesn't stack up very well against the other institutions on the list.

During the run-up to Emmanuel's approval we were papered (especially by the Pacific Times) with glowing depictions of Xavier and the connection with Pleasant Care.

I was happy to finally see a newspaper finally ask about Pleasant Care Corporation: Palau may send students to Emmanuel College (Marianas Variety). Well, once anyway. It's problems were obvious for years with a simple Google search. Here's a summary. Ms. Demesa told the Marianas Variety its bankruptcy was to "save jobs, retain assets and the company’s engine of profitability.” No questions about the deaths, fines and lawsuits, I guess.

There's no connection to Emmanuel, she told the Variety. According to the reporter: "She said she will continue to pursue her investments in the CNMI and that her investment plans — existing and future —are independent of Pleasant Care, and will not be affected by anything that concerns the California-based company."

So, what? The benefit of the doubt? No doubt. They're halfway through the first class. I truly hope this works, for the students, for the company and for the CNMI.

Decena redux

Here's what I don't understand.

As far as I can determine, Ms. Sedy Demesa first popped up locally in the Saipan Tribune as President of Willis Management, Inc. Reporter Aldwin Fajardo (soon-to-be Editor of the Pacific Times), quoted Demesa as saying "NMC and Willis Management have joined forces to “recruit, educate, graduate and assimilate” individuals into the nursing profession". Remember the "Global Education Strategic Initiatives"?

You might also be interested in this story (I couldn't reach into their archives):

CNMI: Health Care Firm Willing To Provide Scholarships
By Ulysses Torres Sabuco Variety News Staff
(Marianas Variety, 2/21/2005)

A California-based health care industry executive says her company is willing to provide scholarships for qualified local students. Sedy Demesa, the vice chairwoman of Willis Management Group Inc., is also proposing a partnership with Northern Marianas College through a “Global Education Strategic Initiatives Nursing Program.” Willis Management wants to recruit students from Asia for NMC’s nursing department. Gov. Juan N. Babauta said NMC should “take advantage” of this proposal from Willis Management which, he added, is in line with his administration’s plan to make the CNMI an “education hub” through the Pacific Gateway Project. “NMC should get moving because there are a lot of opportunities knocking at their door. They have to take that opportunity,” Babauta told Variety. Demesa said under their proposed partnership with NMC, one scholarship for a local student will be made available for every 10 international students enrolled in the Global Education Strategic Initiatives Nursing Program. Demesa said they can start the “accelerated” nursing program in the fall semester this year. She said they are also in the process of finalizing the criteria for their proposed local scholarship program. NMC President Deleon Guerrero was unavailable for comment when reached by Variety last week. Press Secretary Pete A. Callaghan said the proposed Global Education Strategic Initiatives Nursing Program is an “indirect result” of the Los Angeles business conference that the Department of the Interior hosted for the insular areas. Over 50 Filipino doctors who want to work as nurses in the U.S. have already expressed a strong interest in signing up for the accelerated nursing program this fall, Demesa said. “We have shifted our marketing efforts to a higher gear in order to spread the word around Asia, particularly China, Korea and the Philippines, that American education is now only about three hours away,” she said, citing the “very strong demand” for licensed nurses in the U.S. and Europe. Financial assistance will also be made available to local students wanting to pursue a career in nursing under Willis Management’s proposed program, Demesa said.

Decena then pops up in the road show (pdf) "Department of the Interior’s first Business Opportunities Mission to Palau, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands" from May 12-20 1995. Within a week, we had Volume 01, Issue 01 of the Pacific Times. The Top Story, "Commerce Chief: The best is yet to come" featured this New Outlook: "Taken in the light of the Secretary's words, any entity or individual that is quick to weave negative spins against Governor Juan Babauta ought to first go back to his primary school Arithmetic that he may, at least, be fair with his judgments." Note that these are the reporter's words.

Now if her Pleasant Care Corporation is the $224 million behemoth it's advertised to be, why would she start up a newspaper in California to mix into CNMI politics? Hmm, also in Issue 01: GOP reveals 2005 candidates.

Ooh, this just in: I had only begun googling Pleasant Care. During a break from that arduous duty, I found one answer on Middle Road. Well, you know, people die in any nursing home. They're old.

Ah, well, I'm getting there too, time for bed and this was just getting interesting.

Mean sheets

Okay, so I like to make fun of the Pacific Times. After all, nobody really takes that dreck seriously, do they? Hmm, maybe I'm wrong.

I was meandering through The Saipan Blog and noticed the uproar caused by Libra Mae Sparks' monorant and decided to pay more attention. So I asked my wife to grab a copy when she went by Winchell's. They didn't have it and told her to check the next day, when they said the same thing. Now I'm wondering if it's actually widely distributed. Maybe because it's so hugely popular, and free, copies just fly off of the shelves as the CNMI spreads economic wings (Pacific Times)*.

That's the Top Story this week, in case you weren't able to pick up a precious copy. Strangely, the article says absolutely nothing, but says it pretty well if you've got the proper attitude. Well, actually it does say that Praxedes Sedy Demesa is working to have the Board of Regents approve Emmanuel College in the CNMI. That's not really news, though; that story is in every edition of the Pacific Times. Okay, then, "Another California-based investor, the Loyola Medical College Foundation, Inc., has decided to revisit its previous plan to establish a medical/nursing school in the Northern Marianas." Strangely, I thought the Foundation was based in the Philippines, and I vaguely remember their plan involving government funds, not investment.

Emmanuel College is obviously the burning issue here, because there's another story saying Over 30 students on waiting list for new nursing program(Pacific Times)*. It's advertised as a sister school of Xavier College in Stockton, California, which just graduated its first class. It looks like we'll have to wait a few months to see how it did on the exams.

But the Times can't wait, and neither can we darn it: Higher ed body proposed(Saipan Times)*. According to the Times "This is in line with the Fitial Administration's plan to centralize government operation as a way to eradicate bureaucratic processes for businesses and investments." OK, I can see that adding a new office would do that.

But hey, we can't blame Demesa for touting one of her companies, can we? Actually Aidem, the publisher of the Times, is a clever joke: media backwards.

Ah well, let's save the rest for another blog. I've got to reheat a potroast and do some real work.


*I've given up on linking to their stories individually; it's a lost cause. For future reference, the stories are in Vol 02 Issue 40 Feb 2007