The Woodford Sun
November 18, 2004
KCTCS is settling into old Texas Instruments building
Since the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) was created
by the state's General Assembly in 1997, President Michael B. McCall has been
searching for a permanent home for its headquarters.
A renovated Texas Instruments building at 300 North Main Street has become
that home.
"It's a place that we needed to be able to adapt and modify to our own
very specific needs," said McCall during a recent interview on the mezzanine-level
of the renovated facility.
McCall said geography also played a role in making Versailles attractive to
KCTCS.
"People from all parts of the state can come in here," he said. "It's
very accessible through the interstates and the Bluegrass Parkway. You can get
to Versailles very easily."
But McCall noted that the move into the old TI building only became financially
feasible after Texas Instruments donated the building to the City of Versailles
for an educational purpose, and Versailles Mayor Fred Siegelman approached him
about moving the KCTCS headquarters to Versailles.
KCTCS has entered into a 20-year lease-to-purchase agreement with the City
of Versailles.
While no classrooms are yet housed at the Versailles headquarters - space has
been earmarked for future educational expansion - the employees here do provide
necessary support through the facilitation of training for KCTCS faculty and
staff from 65 college campuses in 16 districts across the state.
McCall noted that the community and technical college system was organized
to provide consistent educational opportunities and training to Kentucky residents
in communities across the Commonwealth.
"So if you go to Hazard, you get the same training as you get in Lexington
or Paducah or anywhere else,' he said. "So, we provide that same uniform
consistency. And that's the value of a system all working together."
The General Assembly set goals for KCTCS:
" Provide a two-year course of general studies designed for transfer to
a baccalaureate program.
" Provide training necessary to develop a workplace with the skills to
meet the needs of existing companies and to attract new and expanding businesses
and industries.
" Provide remedial and continuing education to improve the quality of life
and employability of the citizens of the Commonwealth.
"They're all interconnected and so that's what has made it easier for
us to be successful. You can link one to the other, or in many cases, you can
take one separate piece," McCall said. "But they're all part of building
a comprehensive community and technical college system."
"The legislation was very clear on what we needed to do, and we've focused
on that," he added.
McCall said KCTCS has come a long way since its creation.
"When we were established, it was a very controversial piece of legislation,"
he acknowledged.
He said no one knew if KCTCS could provide quality educational and training
opportunities, while also responding to the needs of business and industry in
the communities across the Commonwealth.
But because KCTCS was able to build upon what had already been established
on Kentucky's community and technical college campuses, KCTCS has been able
to increase enrollment, McCall said.
"We adapt to change. If it needs to be changed, we'll change," said
McCall. "We take curriculums and phase them out. If we don't need them,
we phase them out."
He said KCTCS has also made "tremendous strides" toward its vision
of becoming the nation's best community and technical college system.
"We feel that we are very close, if not there right now," he said.
"We've far-exceeded the expectations of Kentuckians, members of the General
Assembly; business and industry have applauded us."
"We weren't going to be satisfied with being second, third, or fourth,"
he added. "So, we've always been striving to do the best in everything
that we do."
He said other states are already beginning to look at Kentucky as a model for
its community and technical college system.
The mover to Versailles, he said provides a permanent home for KCTCS as it
seeks to become an integral part of the community.
"One of the things that we're going to do is assess," said McCall.
"What are the needs, the educational needs within this area? So, we're
going to bring a public piece of education to Versailles that hasn't been there
before."
For example, KCTCS offers high school student dual-enrollment opportunities
so they can earn college credit prior to graduation. McCall said KCTCS would
work with educators from Woodford County High School on providing those opportunities
for students here.
In its strategic plan for the next five years, McCall said KCTCS would address
how it can help Kentucky become more competitive in the global economy. He knows
technology such as teleconferencing will continue to play an important role
in allowing Kentucky to remain globally competitive.
The new KCTCS headquarters features a visualization and immersion center that
will incorporate 3-D imagery in virtual reality learning rooms, and a distance
learning center.
"Technology has really enhanced us, enabled us to do some things that
we weren't able to do years ago," McCall said.
KCTCS will host a dedication ceremony at its new headquarters on Friday, Nov.
19.
Messenger-Inquirer
November 18, 2004
Community college needs local support
Editorial
The Owensboro region has a history of reaching deep into its pockets for worthy
causes -- and for stepping up when its goals receive less assistance than we'd
like from outside sources such as state government.
And increasingly, this is a community that values education and wants to be
seen as placing that high value on it.
We face another challenge in reaffirming those commitments with the campaign
publicly launched this week by Owensboro Community & Technical College.
OCTC is one of the gems of this community -- and a tribute to the tireless
efforts of many citizens to persuade the state nearly two decades ago to open
the community college campus here. Since its inception, it has contributed to
the development of a more highly skilled work force, assisted business and industry
in preparing and adapting employees to changing needs and boosted the region's
once greatly disappointing rate of sending kids on to college after high school.
In short, it has done much for the community.
Now it is asking the community to help continue and enhance those efforts.
The college is seeking to raise $3 million in a major gifts campaign. College
officials and campaign leaders and benefactors Monday celebrated their success
so far -- and opened the phase of the campaign where they call on the community
at large to help.
Already, the campaign has raised $1.8 million in funding and pledges -- $850,000
of it from an internal campaign soliciting employees and members of the board
of directors and the OCTC Foundation, the rest from corporate benefactors.
The need is heightened by the failure of state funding to keep up with the
growth and expansion it has asked of its higher education institutions. Despite
the fact OCTC is a public college aimed at providing entry into college education
for the broadest possible spectrum of students, it is only partially publicly
funded. Indeed, as OCTC President Jackie Addington pointed out at Monday's ceremony,
"with continued budget cuts over the past few years, state appropriations
are at a record low."
The state provides just 39 percent of the college's annual budget this fiscal
year. By comparison, in 1998-99, the first year for a consolidated community
and technical college system, state appropriations constituted 63 percent of
the budget.
OCTC officials said their goal in this campaign is to establish endowments
for student scholarships, college advancement through technology upgrades and
a student retention/success initiative.
The latter is especially important as colleges here as elsewhere struggle to
make sure most of their incoming freshmen are motivated and helped to make it
all the way to graduation.
In a region that is trying to increase the educational opportunities for its
citizens and its attractiveness to new businesses, ramping up the contributions
of the community college is critical -- and that takes money.
We urge folks to support the college's campaign.
The Kentucky Post
November 17, 2004
Morehead to name president soon
Gateway Community and Technical College President Edward Hughes should know
within two weeks if he will be president of Morehead State University.
Hughes is one of three finalists for the post and Morehead officials say they
anticipate announcing their selection within two weeks.
Other finalists are Peter Hoff, former president of the University of Maine,
and Wayne Andrews, vice president for administration and chief operating officer
of East Tennessee State University.
Morehead's board of regents will meet Thursday to get a report from a consultant
in the presidential search and to discuss qualifications of the three finalists.
Morehead spokesman Keith Kappes said a decision isn't expected Thursday.
All three finalists visited campus last week for a series of public meetings
with faculty, staff, students and local residents and private sessions with
the president's cabinet, alumni and foundation volunteers, locally elected officials
and the regents.
The new president is expected to take office in January to succeed Ronald Eaglin,
who is retiring at the end of December after more than 12 years in the position.
Hughes, who was president of Hazard Community College 16 years before becoming
the founding president of Gateway three years ago, has been widely praised for
getting Gateway off to a good start.
Hughes said Morehead officials asked him to be a candidate late in a presidential
search that went on several months.
"This is an opportunity that came to me," he said. "I didn't
seek it out."
Hughes said he was "flattered to be considered for the presidency of a
university with 9,000 students" and felt that he should respond to the
school's interest.
"It's an option that doesn't come along very often," he said. "Later,
you might regret that you hadn't looked into it."
Courier-Journal
November 15, 2004
2-year-old school off to quick start
WHAT WE KNEW
Two years ago the Shelby County campus of the Jefferson Community and Technical
College District held its grand opening ceremony.
About 230 students had enrolled that August for classes in business, machine-tool
technology, nursing and general education subjects such as math, English, psychology
and art.
Classes were limited, but the school expected to offer an associate's degree
in a few years.
The $10.8million campus, about 2miles outside Shelbyville, consisted of a 48,000-square-foot
building.
WHAT'S NEW
"We're bursting at the seams — not a bad problem to have," public
relations director Lisa Brosky said last week.
Enrollment this fall is 850. Work-force training and development programs,
including customized training programs for manufacturers, are quickly growing.
Students now may earn diplomas in technical programs such as practical nursing,
office systems technology and machine tool technology without leaving the Shelby
County campus.
The college also has a fire science and technology program, through which firefighters
are trained.
WHAT'S NEXT
The college plans to add a horticulture program, Brosky said. The campus plans
to continue to be a center of community activity, as it was last month when
more than 800 people attended a Halloween party there.
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