(From left) Anita Borja Enriquez, senior vice president and provost, University of Guam; Thomas W. Krise, president, UOG; Galvin Deleon Guerrero, president, Northern Marianas College; and Frankie Eliptico, vice president of administration and advancement, NMC. ()
Delegates from the University of Guam and Northern Marianas College in Saipan gathered on the UOG campus Tuesday to formally sign and celebrate a Memorandum of Understanding that establishes an NMC imprint, or division, within UOG Press.
The imprint will publish peer-reviewed works about the Northern Mariana Islands and/or by authors from the NMI with a dedication to expanding accessibility to knowledge about the island chain and sharing the knowledge, wisdom, and creativity of its people.
“The University of Guam and the Northern Marianas College each have a legacy of building up island communities through their academic programs, including by creating educational resources about Micronesia’s history and culture,” said Monique Storie, dean of university libraries at UOG. “With this agreement, we are able to combine our efforts in ways that respond to our respective communities’ interests, expand our educational reach, and help the world to know more about these islands that we call home. The possibilities of this agreement are exciting.”
Storie joined UOG President Thomas W. Krise and Senior Vice President and Provost Anita B. Enriquez and other UOG administrators in welcoming NMC President Galvin Deleon Guerrero and NMC Vice President of Administration and Advancement Frankie Eliptico to the UOG campus for a signing ceremony and tour of UOG Press.
The partnership embodies the University of Guam’s 70th anniversary theme of “Transforming Lives, Advancing Communities” and advances a key initiative of the university’s Para Hulo’ Strategic Plan of partnering with organizations and institutions region-wide to improve all aspects of community life.
Under the new imprint of UOG Press, NMC plans to publish one title per year along with an annual journal that will feature academic and literary writing and artwork from NMI authors and artists.
“We hope to give voice to the community’s shared experience of surviving and thriving despite tragedy and trauma,” Deleon Guerrero said. “In other words, having sailed through turbulent waters, the college’s proa now sails ahead with a focus on learning, lifting the tide for everyone.”
The imprint and the annual journal are still at the beginning stages of their development, and further details for how NMI authors and artists can submit their work will be forthcoming.
For additional information regarding this partnership, follow UOG Press on Facebook and Instagram, or contact Via De Fant, marketing and communications coordinator for UOG Press, at defantv@triton.uog.edu or (671) 735-2153.
About UOG Press
University of Guam Press is a publishing house under the Richard F. Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of Guam. Using a peer-review process, UOG Press publishes literary works to advance regional scholarship, develop cultural literacy, and expand accessibility to knowledge about Micronesia. Since the press was revived in 2015, it has produced more than 55 publications and journals and sold more than 40,000 books under its major publishing imprints of MARC Publications and Taiguini Books. The books are available for sale in local bookstores and at www.uogpress.com.
