Gateway gets cash infusion

Tech center project key to economy

Technical college gets equipment

BSCTC tuition at $98 per credit hour for 2005/06

Colleges Are Urged to Remain Open to 'Unit-Record' Tracking of Student Progress

Times They Are A Changin’

Bush Touts Job-Training Bill at Maryland College

Gateway gets cash infusion
State money will expand its buildings

Gateway will receive $15.5 million in capital funding, and those dollars are already earmarked for expansion of the college's health facility in Edgewood and the design of the second phase of its Boone County campus, a 150,000-square-foot Center for Manufacturing Competitiveness.

President G. Edward Hughes said the projects are needed to ensure a well-trained and up-to-date Northern Kentucky workforce.

"We know that without these kinds of new facilities, we would be limited in our growth, and we know the community needs us to grow as quickly as we can," he said.

The Edgewood campus will see both extensive renovations and the construction of a new 55,000-square-foot Allied Health and Science Center set to open sometime in 2007.

Terry Mayo, Gateway nursing coordinator, said the Edgewood campus needs extra space to accommodate students wanting to fill the region's nursing void.

"An administrator like me can work out of a trailer, but nursing students need a proper classroom environment to be successful in school and in their field," she said.

Gateway also hopes to add more health-related programs to its current menu of nursing, pharmacy technician, medical assistant and massage therapy degrees offered in Edgewood.

Radiography and paramedic programs are just a few being considered.

"Right now, there's literally no physical room to do it," Mayo said. "We have to be extremely creative in our scheduling so when one group is in the building, the other group is on their clinical rotation at the hospital."

The past two years Kentucky has spent without a budget have been difficult for students like Jeff Leftin of Florence.

He will graduate this year as a registered nurse and said he and his classmates had hoped they might see some campus improvements before they left.

"When we go in for our labs, we have 50 students crammed in together, and that makes it hard to get everything done in the time we're given. It's great that we're finally getting the money this time," he said.

The first phase of Gateway's Boone campus, a 30,000-square-foot, high-end industrial manufacturing center off Mount Zion Road, should open in late summer or early fall.

Madisonville Messenger
March 31, 2005

Tech center project key to economy
MCC hopes to start offering virtual mining classes in fall

When the planned Energy and Advanced Technology Center goes up on the Madisonville Community College campus, its focus will be on one thing — training workers.

“It’s all about the work force and improving the work force for the community, whether it be manufacturing or mining,” said Dr. Judy Rhoads, MCC president.

New training to prepare individuals for coal mining jobs is expected to start next fall, more than two years before the facility opens. The college will receive $14 million in the state budget to construct the building, which is estimated to cost $15 million. MCC also has the authority to spend an additional $2 million if the money can be raised locally.

Local officials anticipate a boom in the coal industry — with prices near 1970s levels — and say they want to get in on it from the start.

Coal company officials anticipate adding jobs, Kenny Allen, general manager of Peabody subsidiary, Patriot Coal Co., said during a recent roundtable discussion at the Hopkins County-Madisonville Chamber of Commerce involving college and business officials.

Allen said he hired 27 inexperienced miners last year for the first time. Alliance expects to hire 250 miners during the next 11 months, he said.

Curriculum and certificate programs are being developed for eight mining jobs, including surface mechanic, underground mechanic/electrical technician, equipment operator and welder — both surface and underground — supervisor, and equipment service worker.

Much of the training will be done using virtual equipment software.

“That virtual mining equipment can put miners to work,” said Mike Davenport, director of community and economic development for MCC. “It is the latest, the greatest technology for putting miners to work — whatever kind of curriculum you want to build.

“They will literally go into our surface mines or our underground mines and videotape them,” he said. “So, you’re not looking at a generic mine. You’re looking at one of Kenny Allen’s mines or one of Don Bowles’ mines.”

The average age of today’s miner is 48, said Tom Cornette, coordinator of lean operations for the college.

“If there’s not another new job that comes into the market, you’re still looking at a 60 percent turnover,” he said. “There’s just not any young people out there who have the experience to go into the mines.”

The chamber plans to offer an energy fair for high school students in September. Officials hope the virtual reality equipment will be part of the display.

Cornette recently got the chance to try out the virtual trainer.

“I turned something over, an end loader,” he said. “What’s one little piece of equipment? But let’s put that in perspective. I turned over an end loader and it didn’t cost us anything but to push the reset button.”

In the real — rather than virtual — world, an accident like that could cost $1 million and result in a fatality, Cornette said.

MCC once had a program to train mine supervisors, while the old Madisonville Technical College offered mine safety training using a simulated underground mine — now considered antiquated.

“Mining has changed so much, it doesn’t represent what mining is today,” said MCC Dean of Business Affairs Ray Gillaspie.

The virtual mining software costs nearly $500,000, Rhoads said. Cost of equipment, faculty and curriculum for the mining training program totals $1.2 million. The program would have a coordinator and two instructors.

The college is seeking funding from Kentucky Community and Technical College System — which has $3 million in its budget for mining — as well as U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield and Sen. Jim Bunning.

Rhoads is confident MCC will obtain funds in time to start the training in the fall. The virtual trainers would be located at the M-Tech Building and on the technology campus.

The Energy and Advanced Technology Center, which will be named for Madisonville businessman Brown Badgett Sr., will contain flexible spaces that can be used for different purposes in the future if needed. It will also house the adult education program, assessment center and other programs intended to help residents find work.

The current technical programs, which are tailored more toward manufacturing, will continue to be offered. Two of the most popular are industrial maintenance and HVAC.

“We work with many local industries as well as industries across the state to help them hire employees and set up training programs to improve productivity,” Rhoads said.

College officials will consult CEOs and human resources professionals to learn more about their needs and refine the programs in the future, she said.

“It’s very much a hands-on building, where people actually do the tasks hands-on, as well as some virtually,” Rhoads said. “We really believe the virtual learning will attract many young adults to technical careers.

“They’ve been brought up on computers and games on the computer, so they’ll learn very quickly that way,” she said.

About 21.4 percent of jobs in MCC’s service area are in manufacturing plants.

“We project that a number of our plants could add work force in the future,” she said.

In addition to serving existing businesses, the facility is expected to help attract new industries to the area, Rhoads said.

“The key to the long-term success of a community is education,” said Hopkins County-Madisonville Economic Development Corp. Director Danny Koon. “It’s hard for people who are not familiar with energy to understand what that building is going to mean to western Kentucky.”

The region has waited for a resurgence in the coal industry for 30 years, he said. This time, however, working in the mines requires a certain level of education.

“It’s a changed world, that 80 percent of all new jobs will require two years of college and more,” Rhoads said.

Bowling Green Daily News
March 30, 2005

Technical college gets equipment
BGTC obtains computers, X-ray machine, food lab

Bowling Green Technical College students are enjoying nearly $1.2 million of new equipment this semester.

According to President Jack Thomas, the push for new equipment came with the notice that an accreditation team from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools will visit the technical college this year.

“We want to look as good as possible,” Thomas said.

Among the new equipment are 177 new computers, to be distributed among all programs; a $78,000 X-ray machine for the radiography program; a $40,000 frame machine for the collision repair department; a cold lab for culinary arts valued at more than $15,000; new carpet in all four campuses and much more. Much of the equipment was bought this semester.

Earlier this year, the BGTC administration asked faculty in each department what they needed to make their program better. Most of those wishes were honored.

“You will not find another technical college ... with this kind of equipment available,” Thomas said.

Most of the money came from carry-forward funds, an account set up to hold excess money gained through state allocations, tuition and auxiliary enterprises. Money that is gained but not spent is put into the carry-forward fund as a sort of an emergency reserve. Upon anticipating the economy’s downturn a few years ago, BGTC began saving more than the Kentucky Community and Technical College System required, which saved the school from being hurt too much by subsequent state budget cuts.

“Now that the economy is picking up, we’re not as likely to have severe budget cuts, so we’re spending some of that money on new equipment,” Chief Business Affairs Officer Wendell Honeycutt explained after the board meeting Tuesday for the technical college. “But we’re still holding some reserve back in case there is a budget cut. We still have more than what KCTCS is asking us to hold, so we’re still financially sound.”

The rest of the money spent on equipment came from Perkins funds, federal money that funnels down to technical education and is usually used to buy equipment and provide professional development for teachers.

In other action, the board heard a report about online registration, which began March 14. So far 125 people have registered for summer and fall classes online, said Irene Meisel, chief student affairs officer. She expects that number to grow this week and next.

“All faculty department chairs on all four campuses have been trained, and we are one of seven colleges in KCTCS to engage in online registration,” Meisel said.

Students with more seniority get first crack at classes, and new students will still have to register in person for their first semester because they need an established e-mail account.

It was the last board meeting for Thomas, who is leaving BGTC for a position overseeing corporate and industrial training in KCTCS. A search for his replacement is under way.

Judith Hansen and Nathan Hodges, two of four finalists for the president’s position, have been interviewed in public meetings. Two others, Katherine Persson and Luke Robins, will be interviewed next week – Persson on April 4 and Robins on April 5. Both meetings will be from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Kentucky Advanced Technology Institute Campus.

KCTCS President Michael McCall will meet with the board of directors April 13 to make a decision on who will be hired, board Chairwoman Doris Thomas said. The new president will be announced at BGTC’s graduation April 29.

Salyersville Independent
March 17, 2005

BSCTC tuition at $98 per credit hour for 2005/06
Additional state funding allows for 6.5% increase

Big Sandy Community and Technical College (BSCTC), with campuses at Hager Hill, Mayo, Pikeville and Prestonsburg announced tuition rates today for 2005-2006.

The board of regents of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) took action today to set in-state tuition rates (including fees) at $98 per credit hour for the 2005/06 academic year.

The decision for a 6.5 percent increase from the 2004/05 tuition rates was made following the passage of the 2005 state budget which included an additional $45 million in base funding for the state colleges and universities

"We are extremely appreciative of the commitment and acknowledgement of KCTCS from the governor and the General Assembly,” said Cynthia L. Read, chair of the board of regents. “With the additional funding provided in the budget, we were able to set an affordable tuition rate that allows us to continue our momentum and offer our students the highest educational value in the Commonwealth.”

“This tuition rate along with the additional state appropriations will allow us to accomplish our college goals and meet the needs of our students,” stated Dr. George D. Edwards, president of BSCTC. “Tuition at a KCTCS institution still represents the most affordable and accessible educational opportunity in the Commonwealth.”

KCTCS is expected to receive approximately $12.6 million in additional base funding, plus an additional $1 million for enrollment growth.

Regents said the new tuition rate will provide funding to continue the progress of KCTCS toward achieving its vision of being recognized as the nation’s best system of two-year colleges. The funding raised by the new tuition rates will assist KCTCS in achieving the following priorities:

• Protect access to quality KCTCS programs.
• Provide funds for additional student services.
• Provide for faculty and staff salaries and benefits.
• Provide for implementation of the 2006-2010 Strategic Plan initiatives.
  

All regents who attended the meeting approved the new tuition rates, including the two student regents. Student regent Cynthia Osborne, Hazard Community and Technical College, said she was very proud that the board was able to maintain affordable tuition rates.

“This increase allows us to maintain the quality education and programming that is expected of KCTCS with minimal financial burden to our students” Osborne said.

Leading up to the board meeting, KCTCS held 16 hearings across the state to receive comments from students, faculty, and staff about potential tuition increases.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
March 31, 2005

Colleges Are Urged to Remain Open to 'Unit-Record' Tracking of Student Progress

Colleges should not reject out of hand a U.S. Education Department proposal to create a new national database that would track the progress of every student enrolled in college, a top higher-education advocate told university administrators on Wednesday.

Speaking on a panel at the annual meeting here of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, said that colleges have raised legitimate concerns about the plan, particularly about how government officials could misuse this data.

But with the Bush administration and Congressional leaders demanding greater accountability from colleges for the performance of their students, he said, it's in the best interest of higher-education officials to work with policy makers and provide them with the most accurate data possible.

"Will the demands that we are facing in this area go away? I don't think so," said Mr. Hartle. "We have been getting a great deal more money in the last decade from the federal student-aid programs. More money is always accompanied by greater demands for accountability, information, and data. Our responses to these demands tend to be, 'It can't be done,' or 'It's a flawed indicator.'

"Those responses," he said, "don't work forever."

The debate over the proposed unit-record database has heated up in response to a report, released by the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics last week, that stated that it would be technically feasible for the government to create such a system without compromising the privacy of students (The Chronicle, March 23).

Department officials have argued that the proposed system would allow it to measure a college's performance more accurately by generating better information about retention and graduation rates and by enabling it to track transfer students. It would also allow the department, for the first time, to calculate an institution's net price, or what students actually pay after financial aid is taken into account.

The unit-record plan would replace the current system in which colleges report data in summary form about total enrollment, student aid, graduation rates, and other measures for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System survey. That survey -- which is composed of about 10 reports -- is the only such central database and is heavily used by federal and state officials to develop higher-education policy.

Proponents of the change, including lobbyists for state colleges and universities, argue that the current system does not provide an accurate measure of how well colleges educate students.

Advocates for private colleges, however, object to the proposal. While they agree that a unit-record system would lead to more-accurate higher-education statistics, the lobbyists worry about the risk to student privacy and the need to potentially make changes to their campus computer systems to provide the data.

But C. Dennis Carroll, associate commissioner of the postsecondary studies division at the National Center for Education Statistics, or NCES, said that colleges could face more "onerous" reporting requirements if the department doesn't shift to a unit-record system.

"NCES does what Congress tells us to do," said Mr. Carroll, who was also on the panel. "And a lot of lawmakers have been asking us for numbers that we haven't been able to give them."

The statistics center, which is part of the Education Department, conducts the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System survey, or IPEDS, and would be responsible for the unit-record system if that plan is approved.

If Congress demands more information on various subjects, such as on college transfer rates or institutions' net prices, the statistics office would have to significantly expand the IPEDS survey and probably create new surveys as well, Mr. Carroll said.

"I fundamentally believe that moving to a unit-record system for most institutions would actually be less burdensome," he said.

The Republican leaders of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce have introduced a bill (HR 609) that would require colleges to report the average net price that student-aid recipients on their campuses pay.

Echoing Mr. Carroll's comments, Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the admission officers and registrars group, said that the choice for college leaders is not between the unit-record system and IPEDS, but between it and "what IPEDS is likely to become."

Mr. Nassirian, who served as the panel's moderator, said his organization had not taken a stand on the proposal yet. But administrators who attended the panel discussion seemed to have been swayed -- at least somewhat -- by what they heard.

At the conclusion of the session, Mr. Nassirian asked for shows of hands from those who supported the unit-record proposal, who opposed it, and who were willing to "wait and see" before forming a final opinion. While only a handful responded in favor of the proposal, a majority of those in attendance indicated that they were open to learning more about it.

"Dennis Carroll has managed to at least take the opposition and turn it around to neutrality for the moment," Mr. Nassirian said.

Community College Week
March 28, 2005

Times They Are A Changin’

In January, Drs. James Martin and James E. Samels sat down with Community College Week reporter Kristin Bagnato to talk about their new book, “Presidential Transition in Higher Education: Managing Leadership Change.” Here’s an edited transcript of their conversation.

Q. Over the past 25 to 30 years, presidential tenures have dropped from more than 12 years to less than six in some institutional categories. Why are so many presidents leaving their jobs years ahead of their predecessors, and will presidential tenures continue to shorten?
A. I think it’s going to get even shorter; it’s gone from 15 years to under five years, in some cases. By the time they get training wheels off of a new president, even if you asked them to stay, they aren’t going to. There’s going to be a trend toward younger and younger presidents. And as the length of tenure decreases, the presidents are going to rationalize that they did much over the course of their career, rather than at one institution.

Q. Since completing the manuscript about a year ago, what new lessons about presidential transitions have you learned?
A. We were careful to look at trends five or 10 years out. We’re pretty satisfied with how the book will stand up. We couldn’t believe how naïve people were about the process. The speed with which change happens is scary even for us — and we’re futurists. In the old days we could predict a year out, and now we need to be able to predict in six-month increments.

Q. What key longer-term trend or trends related to presidential transitions have you identified, and how might presidential transitions in the future be different?
A. We find several different trends. We’ll see a rise in female presidents and a rise in presidents from the corporate sector. There are new pressures on the president, such as the pull from admissions to get more bodies through the door and the pressure to have a sophisticated marketing plan. For community-college leaders, the trends are encouraging — higher education needs to think about preparing future leaders, choosing faculty who have the interest and ability to be administrators. And for the job of president, presidents are going to develop networks to learn from each other, and schools will move toward co-presidencies, team presidencies.

Q. What key aspect or aspects of their own transition processes do current presidents most often take for granted and should not?
A. New presidents should be prepared to be welcomed into an environment that is more corporate than in years past, more rough-and-tumble since more community-college presidents are coming in from the corporate sector. When you look at the leadership team welcome, expectations are immediate and high, sometimes spelled out by day one. Many presidents are saying that there’s no honeymoon period, saying, “I began the job before my first day.” We’ve had it independently verified that the honeymoon period is short, the expectations are high, and there is very little loyalty to an institution. These changes keep people on their toes, and college presidents need to be nimble. Most presidents move slowly and think they can outlive change. Information technology has changed the whole playing field. Community colleges are competing for students and have to keep changing with the times.

Q. Is this trend toward treating a college like a business a good thing for the schools?
A. More corporate influence could be detrimental, to the degree that colleges are run like business, as distinguished with the beneficial ways. It’s one thing to take good things and apply them to institutions; it’s another to turn them into businesses.

Q. What are the most stressful aspects of the presidency based on your interviews?
A. First, the immediate pressure to raise money outside of the general appropriation process, often around 50 percent of the budget. Second, huge pressure to stay on the campus and answer to the constituency. Third, the intense public scrutiny. Fourth, the tradition has been that the president is the face of the institution. These new presidents view themselves as efficient managers, not as a public spokesperson.

Q. Why would anyone take the job of college president?
A. It’s a chance to leave this world a little bit better than you found it — they pull at the heartstrings; and you can do good. With 1,134 community colleges, there’s a challenge factor. It’s an opportunity to be engaged and have some fun. There are people who would be interested in that, thinking “here’s an opportunity to make a difference.“

Q. You have written in your book that many presidents, upon reflection, admitted to you that they should have fired adversaries on their new campuses much earlier in their presidencies, and they did not. What does this say about the changing nature of the presidency of community colleges, and other types of institutions, as well?
A. I once ran into a board chair who thought he did a president a favor by giving him a brand-new vice president to work with. Needless to say, the president was not pleased. To summarize what a lot of presidents said to us, “I should have fired this person sooner.” Presidents are coming into this environment where they face people who are loyal to the old president, people who might have been contenders for the position — it can be a minefield. What we heard was: Vanquish your adversary sooner, but give them a chance to earn your loyalty. There are three kinds of people; the early adopters; accepters who get on board with the changes; then the laggards, the late-starters, who are gradually won over.

Community College Week
March 28, 2005

Bush Touts Job-Training Bill at Maryland College

ARNOLD, Md. (AP) — President Bush recently visited Anne Arundel Community College to promote his latest community-college initiative. His program seeks to make the nation’s community-college system more effective in training workers for 21st-century jobs.

“Community colleges are available. They are affordable. They are flexible,” Bush said.

Congress has approved $250 million for workforce training at community colleges, and “now the money is going to starting heading out,” the president told about 800 people who filled the college auditorium.

While community colleges are the most affordable component of the higher-education system, “We’ve got to recognize people still need help coming to community college,” Bush said.

Anne Arundel Community College President Martha Smith said two-year colleges provide the kind of short-term courses that train the unemployed and underemployed for the jobs private industry has the most trouble filling.

The college has more than 52,000 students who take credit and noncredit courses — many of these the sorts of courses Bush is promoting.

Before the president’s speech, student Jeanine Adams said two-year colleges “offer a great opportunity for people to go back to school and start their second careers.”

Adams, 35, is working toward a degree in education. She said community colleges are a perfect fit for someone like her who “may not be comfortable in a full-size university.”