Colleges launch fund-raising drive

Colleges launch fund-raising drive

Skilltrain earns monetary reward

The Kentucky Post
Otober 21, 2003

Colleges launch fund-raising drive

Kentucky's two-year colleges, which includes Gateway Community and Technical College in Northern Kentucky, have launched what they hope will be the biggest private fund-raising campaign by two-year colleges in the nation's history.

The five-year "Fulfilling the Promise" campaign was announced Monday by Michael McCall, president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), which oversees the 16 community colleges in the state.

A financial goal is to be set later, but organizers hope it will top $43 million, the amount raised in the mid-1990s by the Kentucky community college system, the largest such campaign to date.

In 1997, the Kentucky General Assembly merged the community colleges with the state's technical institutions to form KCTCS.

The private fund-raising campaign was organized after state funding to community colleges was cut by $7 million over the last two years.

"KCTCS must supplement its public funds with support from the private sector to fully meet the demands of students and our business, industry and community partners," said McCall.

Money raised in the campaign will be used for scholarships, program support, state-of-the-art equipment and technology, faculty and staff development and new facilities.

Two gifts were announced to help kick off the fund-raising campaign:

• Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, contributed $500,000 to start "The KCTCS Center of Excellence in Automotive Manufacturing."

The center is to "enhance the skill levels of automobile industry employees and increase the viability of automotive manufacturing in Kentucky."

• The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels contributed $320,000 to establish scholarships for single, working parents who need financial help to afford a college education.

The "Kentucky Colonels Better Life Scholarship Program" will award $2,500, renewable for a second year, to one student in each of the state's 16 community colleges.

The first scholarship recipient at Gateway Community and Technical College will be Rebecca Belcher of Butler, a single mother of two children.

Belcher has a double major in accounting and finance and administration. Her goal after graduation is to transfer to Northern Kentucky University to pursue a bachelor's degree in accounting.

Messenger-Inquirer
October 21, 2003

Colleges launch fund-raising drive

LEXINGTON -- The Kentucky Community and Technical College System is hoping for millions of dollars from private donors as it kicks off a new fund-raising campaign.

KCTCS President Michael B. McCall announced the "Fulfilling the Promise" campaign in Lexington on Monday.

"KCTCS plays a pivotal role in addressing many of the challenges facing Kentucky, but only if we stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on the exciting opportunities that lie ahead," McCall said in a statement.

Officials announced that Toyota, which has an automobile plant in Georgetown, has pledged $500,000 for the campaign to be used "to enhance the skill levels of automobile-industry employees and increase the viability of automotive manufacturing in Kentucky," the statement said.

McCall did not announce a fund-raising goal.

The money would be used for scholarship endowments, program support, new technology and equipment, faculty and new facilities.

Officials hope the five-year campaign will beat a similar one by the Kentucky community college system in the mid-1990s that brought in about $43 million.

The statement said private support is crucial to KCTCS since its state funding has been cut by $7 million in the last two fiscal years.

About 71,000 students are enrolled in KCTCS schools, which includes 62 campuses open or preparing to open across the state.

Owensboro Community and Technical College is in the midst of a separate fund-raising campaign that won't be launched publicly until mid-November, OCTC President Jacqueline Addington said Monday.

Money is being raised through a quiet campaign through the school's foundation and board of directors, said Addington, who declined to say how much has been raised.

"Most gifts so far are from faculty and staff," Addington said.

Addington said money given to OCTC's campaign will go to three primary purposes: creating a scholarship endowment, academic programs and equipment/professional staff development.

Messenger-Inquirer
October 21, 2003

Skilltrain earns monetary reward
Adult education provider surpassed enrollment goal

Skilltrain enrolled 2,774 people, surpassing its 2002-03 enrollment goal of 2,252. The center also met more than half of 15 other performance indicators that are based upon the percentage of students who completed certain types of training.

Those feats earned the center a $27,012 reward, or 7 percent of the center's base state funding for the fiscal year that ended June 30, Boyd said.

Boyd said officials have not decided how to spend the money.

"We're looking at what our needs are," Boyd said.

In addition to helping people earn general education development certificates, Skilltrain provides family literacy, adult basic education, work force education, corrections education, employee assessments and English as a Second Language training.

Daviess was one of 75 counties to earn rewards this year for meeting adult education enrollment and completion goals, according to the Council on Postsecondary Education. Those counties will share $879,555 in reward money.

A record 109,800 Kentuckians enrolled in adult education programs last year, up from 86,413 the year before.

While the number of people enrolled in adult education programs is up, the number of people earning GEDs is down nationwide because of changes to the GED tests in 2002, Boyd said.

In 2002-03 -- its first year -- Skilltrain helped 69 people earn a GED, Boyd said. County-by-county numbers from previous years were unavailable Monday.

Since the switch to a revamped GED test in January 2002, the public relations push to encourage GED takers has not been as strong, Boyd said.

People who had passed some of the five sections of the old GED test, for example, would have had to start over from scratch after the new test was introduced, said Christi Eversole, assistant director of Skilltrain.

Prior to the switch, "a lot of people came back to finish what they had started," Eversole said.

"Because of the switch to a new GED test, GEDs dropped significantly across the nation," said Cindy Fiorella, director of OCTC's Center for Community and Economic Development. "There's not people in the pipeline ready to take the test."

But so far this year, more than 30 people have taken and passed the GED test at Skilltrain, Boyd said.

"We're very pleased with our numbers and our performance," Boyd said.

Adult education programs don't measure their success by the number of people earning GEDs because that's only a small part of the offerings, said Cheryl King, vice president of the Council on Postsecondary Education.

"We measure ourselves by the goal of the individual and whether they met that goal," King said. "About a third of the people enrolled last year, for example, already had high school diplomas, but they were assessed below the 12th grade level in a particular subject area."

Last year, 10,221 Kentuckians went after a GED and 7,124 achieved that goal, a 69 percent completion rate, King said. Those numbers do not include inmates who earned GEDs, she said.

The adult education accountability system is in its third year. To qualify for rewards, programs must meet enrollment and performance goals. The state performance rewards range from 5-10 percent of the programs' base funding.

To earn rewards next year, Skilltrain must serve at least 2,548 students this fiscal year, Fiorella said.

Skilltrain, an extension of Owensboro Community and Technical Colleges' Center for Community and Economic Development, replaced programs offered through Owensboro Public Schools at the Longfellow Education Center in 2002.