A former president of the Northern Marianas College and a newly appointed member of the Board of Regents, Agnes McPhetres, said she is not surprised with the college's downgraded status.
The rating, by the Western Association of Schools, evaluates the quality of a school's programmes.
Ms McPhetres says in her time, the accreditors had called it a star college.
She believes the college's downgrading began when Dr. Kenneth Wright became its president and involved it in Project Gateway which cost it over seven million US dollars.
Dr Wright, who was president till February 2004, had been trying to attract foreign students with the aim to earn millions of dollars a year.
But that never happened and staffing had to be cut.
Ms McPhetres says the delivery of some of the college's programmes is not effective and there has now been a drop in enrolment.
