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Lolo urges locals to take advantage of ASCC courses

Admin building at American Samoa Community College
Says tuition is “5 times cheaper” and the credentials are the same
fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Claiming that a private US-based university with a local campus offers much higher tuitions for a college degree, Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga is urging the American Samoa Community College and the Education Department to work with students to attend ASCC where the tuition is “five times cheaper”.

Speaking at last week’s cabinet meeting, Lolo said it was that same morning that he “was advised by a couple of people who graduated with bachelor's degrees” of not being able to get the “salary threshold” set by his Administration.

Lolo had set the salary threshold for all government employees with a bachelor’s degree to start at $23,000 and a starting salary of $27,000 for a master's degree holder. This threshold includes teachers.

“And according to [the] people, Argosy [University] could not release their transcripts. Why? It's because they are paying tuitions of $60,000 to $80,000 for the program,” Lolo told the cabinet meeting. “It’s something that we need to look in to.”

The governor pointed out that ASCC has bachelor degree programs in education “with the same credentials, same benefits; but to pay $60,000 or $80,000 for a program is something that we really have to look into because it's what our people paying that.”

Although,“those come out of financial aid and all that, [but] it’s still way too much,” he said, adding that ASCC and ASDOE “should also look in to [this] and see how we can work with our students to make sure, they take advantage of our college program [which] is much cheaper — 15-times cheaper — than what they get over there” — referring to Argosy.

Lolo’s remarks followed the latest development report for ASCC by college president, Dr. Rosevonne Pato, who thanked ASG divisions and departments that continue to support the college’s programs and services, which has allowed ASCC to have graduations twice a year.

She explained that the college has Memorandum of Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding with several divisions and departments, including ASDOE for the teachers degree program as well as the LBJ Medical Center and Health Department for the nursing program.

She revealed that ASCC recently started working with the Department of Public Works to start certification and licensing for a surveyors program.

“I wanted to say to the cabinet, 'We address your needs, but we will not be able to do it without your expressing or letting us know what your needs are’,” she said, and noted an earlier presentation from the American Samoa Economic Development Authority on projects accomplished in the last two years and moving forward through with proceeds from bonds sale.

“As we become more developed, we also have to remember that we have to develop in our education programs and we need more local certified, licensed and skilled workers,” she said. “Often times we have to reach outside, off island, to contract these licensed and skilled workers.”

“But if we know your needs, we can work with you,” she told cabinet members. “If you know of an area, which your department needs to address, please work with us because we can build these types of programs and we can graduate more students.”

For the upcoming winter graduation on Dec. 14th, ASCC has over 100 students — which has been the same numbers for December graduations, while spring graduations in May usually have about 90 to 100 graduates.

“But it can be more with your support,” she informed cabinet members. “I want to encourage all of you to please let us know your needs, what areas do you need us to work on and build so we can get more local capacity and have more of our people certified, educated, and licensed.”

She thanked the governor and lieutenant governor for the support with additional funding through special projects “to build our nursing program and our teacher education program. And that’s been a real struggle over the past years.”

In response, the governor called on the cabinet for their continued support of ASCC. Degree programs and other information can be found online at <www.amsamoa.edu>.

Samoa News reached out to the Pelenatete Chun, MPA, Argosy Enrollment Counselor for a comment via email, and at this time Argosy does not wish to comment.

Samoa News also asked about the availability of their classes, to which she replied, “All our classes are either online or evening, 5-7pm only.”

Samoa News should point out that Argosy classes are for course work for all degrees — Associates, Bachelors, Masters, as well as Doctorate, and cover the full spectrum of programs in Science, Education, Nursing, Arts, etc.

Speaking to a couple of graduates of Argosy, a common thread for attending Argosy is the flexibility of time — where courses can be taken not only in the evening, but also online as their work schedule permits.