|
The Messenger
September 3, 2003
MCC awarded $1.8M grant to boost student achievement
Madisonville Community College has been awarded a $1.8 million Title III grant
from the U.S. Department of Education to target improvements in student success.
“What makes this grant so significant is that it is over a five-year
period,” said David Schuermer, MCC’s coordinator of grants, planning
and effectiveness. “It’s a Strengthening Institutions grant. It’s
about long-term change and about creating a stronger institution. It will have
an impact on virtually every part of the institution.
“They’re highly coveted grants,” he said.
In a typical year, more than 300 colleges apply for the grant and 40 are funded.
Title III grants assist institutions that have limited financial resources and
serve a high proportion of students through financial aid resources. This is
the first time MCC has received the grant.
MCC will receive $364,182 annually for five years, beginning with the current
academic year. The funding will be used to develop and implement classroom and
student service interventions.
“Student success is MCC’s No. 1 priority and this Title III grant
will give us the resources to improve retention and graduation rates,”
Dr. Judy Rhoads, MCC president, said in a news release. “We have a wonderful
opportunity to make systemic changes in how we assess and advise students, how
we track their performance, how we engage when they experience difficulty and,
most importantly, how we engage them in the classroom so that we can have a
demonstrable impact upon learning outcomes.”
Teaching methods in key courses will be reviewed and revised if needed.
“MCC will create and staff a Teaching and Learning Center to promote faculty
development and curriculum reform which will impact our students in the classrooms,”
Rhoads said.
A teaching and learning specialist will be hired to provide faculty “essentially
an in-house consultant” to help design instructional strategies, Schuermer
said.
“What we have found, certainly in western Kentucky, is that many of our
students are coming underprepared for college-level work,” he said. “Our
task is not only to graduate students but to enable them to be successful in
the classroom.”
The college also plans to develop a Web-based system that will allow better
tracking of students who need extra help with classes. The system will identify
when “an academic intervention” is needed, Schuermer said.
U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning’s office in Lexington announced the award, college
officials said.
“MCC is in a position to enable residents in our service area to successfully
acquire the postsecondary education to prepare them for a rapidly evolving 21st
century work force that places a premium upon technical skills and problem-solving,”
Rhoads said.
Messenger-Inquirer
September 3, 2003
OCTC tech center goes nowhere
Henderson project higher on building wish list
A $24 million advanced technology center at Owensboro Community and Technical
College may top Owensboro's wish list of state-funded buildings, but it's less
of a priority elsewhere.
In fact, a $13 million technology center for Henderson Community College has
leapfrogged Owensboro's request on the Kentucky Community and Technical College
System's 2004-06 capital budget request, officials said Tuesday.
The priority list was submitted Friday by KCTCS to the Council on Postsecondary
Education, which will make its funding recommendation to the governor and legislature
by Nov. 15.
Henderson's Tri-County Technology Center is ranked fourth on the KCTCS priority
list -- up from 10th in 2002 -- while Owensboro's advanced technology center,
to be shared with Western Kentucky University, is ranked fifth -- unchanged
from 2002.
Western Kentucky University ranks the project 10th on its list of wanted projects.
But lists and rankings are meaningless so long as the state has no money, said
Ken Walker, KCTCS vice president of finance. No projects were built during this
biennium because of state budget cuts, he said.
"I think the thing to be most concerned about is the limited revenue and
the tight budget situation," Walker said. "We've got 50 projects totaling
$404 million and we don't have a dollar to spend. This list looks a lot like
the list two years ago."
And even though one project is technically ahead of another, "it's pretty
hard to distinguish between a four vs. a five," Walker said.
Owensboro's position on the priority list shouldn't be taken to mean the project
is not important to KCTCS, Walker said.
"The Owensboro project is very important to KCTCS," Walker said.
"We've requested money for that project two bienniums in a row. We have
worked very closely with WKU in the development of that project."
But seeing Henderson's project ranked ahead of Owensboro is "surprising,"
OCTC President Jacqueline Addington said Tuesday.
"Those are decisions that are made at the system level, not locally,"
said Addington, who declined to comment further.
"I guess any project that would go ahead of ours would be disappointing,"
said Jon Lawson, chairman of the OCTC board of trustees and president of the
Bank of Ohio County. "Ours has been on the drawing board since 1992. We've
been very patient. We think it's time for our region to get this technology
center. The advanced technology building is a centerpiece of an effort to try
to make sure our region has the work force to supply the economic development
in our area."
"We're certainly disappointed," Owensboro Mayor Waymond Morris said.
"It's my understanding that our community college is the (second) largest
in the state and we seem to continually be neglected. We haven't moved up any
(on the priority list) from last year. Gov. (Paul) Patton promised us that we
would be next on the list and since then, there's been four or six buildings
built on other community and technical college campuses. It's just frustrating
to be promised one thing and then continue to be ignored by Frankfort."
KCTCS President Michael McCall was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
While they have similar names, the two technology centers won't directly compete
with each other, officials said.
The OCTC advanced technology center will be a "glass-walled factory"
that would teach cutting edge manufacturing technology skills. Students would
learn skills in the classroom and then apply those skills to making an actual
product in a modern manufacturing lab.
The center will also house the WKU-Owensboro campus now at the Longfellow Education
Center on Frederica Street. WKU-Owensboro will have 24 classrooms and office
space.
In 1999, lawmakers appropriated $375,000 for design of the building, but nothing
since.
Henderson's technology center will allow the college to move its growing technical
degree program from a 60-year-old former factory in downtown Henderson to the
main campus, said Henderson President Pat Lake.
Henderson uses nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year in private donations
and grant money to lease the building, said Lake, who said the new center has
been in the works since 1993. The college is in the third year of a five-year
lease and will likely run out of money for the lease before the lease expires,
he said.
The new center will simply give Henderson what OCTC and other colleges have:
On-campus space for a state-of-the-art technical college program, Lake said.
"If you look at those (colleges) that have both a community and technical
college program, they have space and equipment," Lake said. "Our challenge
is to move into that arena with the proper space. The concept behind the center
includes space that we don't presently have."
The "tri-county" name refers to Henderson, Webster and Union counties,
the college's service area, he said.
Morris said he has not heard "a sound 'yes' " from either candidate
for governor -- Democrat Ben Chandler or Republican Ernie Fletcher -- on the
issue of funding for the Owensboro technology center.
"According to this list, we're already fifth and we could drop even more,"
Morris said.
Top 10 Priorities
Here are the top 10 capital construction projects recommended by the Kentucky
Community and Technical College System for funding in the 2004-06 biennium:
1. Systemwide information technology infrastructure upgrade -- $12 million.
2. Post-secondary education center at Ashland Technical College -- $28.7 million.
3. Renovations at Prestonsburg Community College and Mayo Technical College
-- $5.6 million.
4. Tri-County Technology Center in Henderson -- $13 million.
5. Advanced Technology Center in Owensboro -- $24 million.
6. Master plan development -- $650,000.
7. Technical building at Madisonville Community College -- $12.5 million.
8. Renovate aircraft maintenance lab at Somerset Community College -- $1.5
million.
9. Renovate Gray Building at Madisonville Community College -- $3.7 million.
10. Construction of phase II of Mount Zion campus at Gateway Community and
Technical College in Covington -- $27.8 million.
The Daily Independent
August 31, 2003
Stacks of Knowledge
ASHLAND - Students who go to the Mansbach Memorial Library at Ashland Community
and Technical College these days will see a new face there.
It belongs to Yiki Zhou, who joined the staff Aug. 1. Zhou, 26, puts in half
her working hours there and the other half in the library at the technical school
campus on Roberts Drive.
Zhou, who received her master's degree in linguistics in May, has been in the
United States for two and a half years.
Born in Hunan Province, China, Zhou studied English at the university there
and then linguistics once she was admitted to the graduate program.
She continued her graduate studies at the University of Illinois before taking
a position at ACTC. "I'm still missing Illinois a lot," she said.
Her husband, Xi Shi, is still a doctoral student there.
Before she came to the United States, Zhou worked for a time at a television
station in her native province. Her job was to translate stories, mainly economic
news, from the wire services. She also edited video for the station.
ACTC hired Zhou after a national search, said director of library services
Carol Greene. "We chose her because of her strong academic background,
her interest in integrating technology with traditional library services and
her enthusiasm for the job," Greene said.
Zhou had other opportunities but chose the Ashland job because of Ashlanders,
she said. "The people here were the most important factor in why I accepted
the position," she said. "They make me feel at home, which is important
for foreign people."
She splits her time between the two campuses, which suits her because one of
her goals is to encourage students at the technical campus to use the library
more.
The Mansbach library already has a strong collection; she wants to strengthen
the holdings on Roberts Drive.
Also, the circulation system needs to be upgraded to an electronic system,
she said.
She wants to work with the faculty to determined their library needs too, she
said.
Technical students today are different from vocational students of past years
because the jobs they take will require specialized materials, she said. "They're
being trained for a future work force that relies on technical knowledge,"
she said."They may believe they only need to learn the trade, but in the
information age, it's necessary to get information on what's happening in the
field," she said.
Working with technical students is a high priority, Greene said. "The
library has so much to offer technical students, but the first step is to get
them to visit us so they can see what's there."
Zhou hasn't had time to visit her native land since coming to the U.S. but
hopes to get back at the end of the year. China's traditional spring festival
is in December and January, so that would be an ideal time to visit, she said.
Zhou also has a background in Web design that will be useful, Greene said.
|
