Displaced workers get solid advice

Spectators pack room to hear from Fletcher, Chandler

Colleges, students scramble as states boost tuition rates

News-Enterprise
August 27, 2003

Displaced workers get solid advice

While working at E-Town Sportswear, Kay Whitlock never imagined life without her factory job — until she lost the position in October 2001 when the plant closed.

"After that, I thought, ‘I'm just a factory worker, what am I going to do?,'" said Whitlock, 52. "But I soon realized there is life after production."

Providing inspiration and hope for those who will soon find their jobs taken from them, Whitlock, now a student taking classes at both Elizabethtown Community and Elizabethtown Technical colleges, spoke to a handful of Hardin County's soon-to-be displaced workers Tuesday at the first of several "Perspectives" workshops hosted by the North Central Education Foundation.

The seminars are designed to educate people affected by local plant closings with information on finding another job or going back to school, ECC/ETC spokeswoman Mary Jo King said.

The sessions are in response to the announcements that two Elizabethtown factories will close. In July, VAC Magnetics announced plans to shut down, costing 140 employees their jobs. A couple weeks earlier, Gates Rubber Co. said it would close one of its Elizabethtown operations, putting 430 people out of work.

Tuesday's session was one of three scheduled workshops for displaced and unemployed workers. The first session focused on resume skills, filing for unemployment and asking for help. Two more sessions are scheduled in September.

Representatives from the Financial Planning Association, Lincoln Trail Career Center, United Way of Central Kentucky and the Elizabethtown-Hardin County Ministerial Association attended the seminar and spoke with workers.

Whitlock, who is taking classes in ETC's medical office program, encouraged those in attendance to plan early and not wait until their last day of employment.

"Start planning now for the rest of your life," she said.

Whitlock said many people may think they can't handle school after working in a factory for so long.

"I felt like the dumbest country bumpkin on the first day of class," she said. "But I proved to myself I belonged here."

Gary Lawrence, a Gates Rubber employee, said he has many questions about further education and insurance. He said he has tried to get in touch with agencies individually but has not had luck.

But he got many of the answers he wanted Tuesday.

Perspectives "is a godsend for us," Lawrence said. "We can get all of our questions answered."

Al Rider, president of the North Central Education Foundation, said the session exceeded his expectations and pushed those wanting help in the right direction. He hopes to see more workers come to future sessions.

"The interest is there," Rider said. "I know we can deliver aspects that can help them."

Messenger-Inquirer
August 27, 2003

Spectators pack room to hear from Fletcher, Chandler

Lindsey Marks, a senior at Daviess County High School, won't turn 18 until after the Nov. 4 general election.

But she was leaning against the wall Tuesday near the front of Blandford Hall in the Humanities Building at Owensboro Community and Technical College, closely watching the candidates for governor -- Republican Ernie Fletcher and Democrat Ben Chandler -- debate their positions before an overflow crowd of 500 people in the 300-seat auditorium.

"I came in with an open mind," Marks said. "I didn't know who I wanted to choose. But the issues they talked about -- education, economic development -- are important to me. I think it helped me make up my mind."

While she can't vote for either, Marks said she'll make her views known to her friends.

Eric Davis, president of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce & Industry Inc., which sponsored the noon debate, said 500 people signed a registration book.

"We had more than 100 people standing along the walls," he said. "We couldn't be happier."

Chamber officials had urged people to get to the lecture hall by 11:40 a.m. -- 20 minutes before the debate -- to be sure they got a seat.

By 11:30, the hall was more than half filled. And by 11:45, people began lining the wall all around the auditorium.

Jack Gist, a Chandler supporter from McLean County, arrived at 11:20 a.m. to claim one of the seats near the front of the hall.

"This is the first time I've had a chance to see both of them together," he said. "I thought it was a good debate. I was amazed that there were a whole lot of similarities in some of their positions."

Todd Inman, a Fletcher supporter from Owensboro, was in the back of the room.

"I thought it was great," he said. "Both of them did a good job. It was great to have this in Owensboro."

State Sen. David Boswell, a Sorgho Democrat, said he was glad to hear both candidates say that Owensboro won't be left out of the gambling debate.

But Inman said he was concerned about Chandler saying that Owensboro would have "a seat at the table" when expanded gambling is discussed. "It's great to be at the table," he said. "But will they pass any food down our way?"

State Rep. Brian Crall, an Owensboro Republican, said he doesn't believe the legislature will pass a bill that includes anything more than video slot machines at horse tracks.

Owensboro would be left out of such legislation, he said. And he said he would oppose legislation that hurts Owensboro.

Both candidates had done their homework on local issues. Both praised local schools and talked about local needs.

Davis said the chamber will sponsor a "get-out-the-vote" drive this fall, encouraging people to support the candidate of their choice.

Associated Press
August 25, 2003

Colleges, students scramble as states boost tuition rates

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- In the days before the start of his senior year, Brandon Cox joined hundreds of other University of Kansas students in a bid for something vital to continuing his education: a job.

The crowd filling out applications at a campus job fair last week was just one sign of the times as Kansas and other public universities raise tuition this fall by percentages that often hit the double digits.

Students attending four-year public colleges and universities in 49 of the 50 states will feel the pinch of tuition hikes ranging from 1.7 percent in Montana to 39 percent in Arizona. Only Mississippi kept tuition at 2002-03 levels.

And while most of the roughly 6 million students at public, four-year colleges will be paying more, they'll be getting less in the way of services as schools struggle with budget cuts.

Students like Cox, an in-state philosophy major paying his own way through college, have been particularly hard-hit. He is taking 20 credit hours per semester and expects his tuition to rise by $800 this year.

"It's almost come to the point of starvation a few times, but I've always managed to find something," said Cox. "The plasma center will pay you $20 a pint -- if you're willing to bleed for two hours."

Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, said the tuition hikes were part of a pattern that began when governments gradually began shifting the burden of funding education to students and their parents in the late 1970s.

With family wealth supporting students at the high end of the economic spectrum, and increased financial aid assisting those at the lower end, Nassirian said students from middle-class backgrounds have borne the weight of cost increases.

"For the middle class, the basic, implicit social contract is beginning to fray," Nassirian said.

The increasing costs are evident in student loans: Sallie Mae, the country's largest provider of guaranteed loans, granted $6.8 billion in student loans during the first half of 2003 -- compared with $5.6 billion in loans issued during the same period in 2002.

To offset budget cuts, Kansas is in the second year of a plan that will see tuition rise by $600 annually over five years.

Provost David Shulenberger acknowledged that the increases -- 17.7 percent this year to $4,100 -- induced "sticker shock" for upper classmen who arrived as freshmen expecting to receive an undergraduate degree at a uniformly low tuition rate.

Some schools are trying out innovative ways to make themselves more attractive.

Miami University of Ohio is preparing for the 2004 introduction of a plan that will charge identical tuition to in-state and out-of-state students.

Director of Admissions Mike Mills said the school hopes the plan will bring in more out-of-state students who have been considering expensive private schools. Residential scholarships of up to $10,000 annually will keep the school affordable for in-state students, he added.

The five-year plan at the University of Kansas will cap in-state tuition at $5,900 in 2006, aiming to give future students the promise of an education at a relatively low price.

But that won't help Fox.

"I think it's pretty unfair," he said as he filled out applications at the job fair. "I came here thinking it would be pretty affordable and pretty flat as far as tuition. But that hasn't been the case."