Thomas R. Murray explains the Community College of Micronesia originated from a teaching training center on the grounds of the Pacific Islands Central School, later known as Pohnpei Island Central School (PICS) and now
Bailey Olter High School, established in 1962. The official school history alternatively says it originated in 1963 when the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) contracted the University of Hawaii to administer the Micronesian Teacher Education Center, an in-service training facility for selected TTPI teachers. According to Thomas R. Murray, Community College of Micronesia began operations in 1969 as a way of enhancing the training of area teachers, and it initially issued elementary education associate degrees. Teachers of elementary school students who desired more advanced degrees formed the bulk of the student bodies of the College of Micronesia-FSM extension centers. However, the school's official history says the change occurred in 1978 when an act of the Seventh Congress of Micronesia joined CCM with the then Micronesian Occupational Center in Palau and the College’s nursing school in Saipan to form the College of Micronesia (COM) as a public corporation governed by a Board of Regents. In 1987, the newly independent nations of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands signed a treaty affirming a desire to continue supporting COM. However, in 1991, the three nations signed an agreement to restructure COM to allow more local autonomy. As a result, in 1992, the Seventh Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia passed Public Law No. 7-79 establishing the College of Micronesia-FSM as a public corporation under its own Board of Regents. Thus, on April 1, 1993, the College of Micronesia-FSM became the national college of the federation. In 1999, through a memorandum of understanding with the national government, COM-FSM accepted management of the Fisheries & Maritime Academy (FMA) in Yap, renamed the FSM Fisheries & Maritime Institute. ==Academics==