Community College Week articles from December 2006

Community College Week archives from December 2006

Alabama AG steps down from two-year college probe.(around the nation)
December 18, 2006... MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Attorney General Troy King has removed himself from the investigation of Alabama's two-year college system because he asked fired chancellor Roy Johnson to hire the mother of one of his staff attorneys. King said...

Illegal immigrant sentenced to five years in death of educator.(around the nation)
December 18, 2006... YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- An illegal immigrant with a history of drug arrests has been sentenced to five years and a month behind bars for the traffic death of a popular community college educator. The prison term for Marcos Ramos Medina, 35,...

Free college tuition offered to 400 Southwest-Virginia Students.(around the nation)
December 18, 2006... WYTHEVILLE, Va. (AP) -- High school seniors in two Southwest Virginia counties are about to get something unavailable to their counterparts across the state: free community college tuition. The program would begin next fall for about 400...

California professors approve no confidence resolution.
December 18, 2006... OCEANSIDE, Calif. (AP) -- Professors at MiraCosta College have passed a vote of no confidence in President Victoria Munoz Richart. The vote came after faculty leaders launched an investigation into allegations that employees had sold palm...

ISU taking community college grads automatically.
December 18, 2006... DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Iowa State University has agreed to grant automatic admission to students who graduate from community colleges in central Iowa. Iowa State is expanding an automatic admission program for students at Marshalltown...

Tennessee colleges propose 5 to 7 percent tuition hike.
December 18, 2006... NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee's colleges need about $40 million in additional state funding and a 5 to 7 percent tuition increase to maintain current programs, a top higher education official said. Richard Rhoda, executive director...

Free speech suit rejected as Calif. Court backs college policy.
December 18, 2006... LONG BEACH, Calif -- After being arrested for conducting an unauthorized demonstration on the liberal arts campus of Long Beach City College, anti-abortion protesters have lost their suit accusing the district of false arrest and violations...

Student engagement: more counseling, tutoring and better communication with professors are considered key to improving the success of community college students.
December 18, 2006... Saxon Martinez was barely into his first week of developmental math when he started to have second thoughts. The material was difficult "too difficult," Martinez thought. The second-year student at Cedar Valley College in Lancaster, Texas,...

Group urges lawmakers to help solve higher ed 'crisis'.(dateline washington)
December 18, 2006... WASHINGTON -- State legislatures are going to have to get a lot more involved in dealing with the "crisis in American higher education," according to a new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures. The group's Blue...

Education Dept. seeks comments on aid forms.(CAPITOL briefs)
December 18, 2006... The Department of Education is seeking suggestions on two forms it plans to use next year, one to be filled out by millions of students, the other by a handful of grantees. First. the department wants comments on the Student Aid Report...

OIG faults tracking of Education Dept. IT equipment.(CAPITOL briefs)
December 18, 2006... The federal education department is losing track of some of its information technology equipment, according to the department's inspector general. The department is required to inventory its equipment annually. But a recent report by the...

Report finds loan money for black colleges going untapped.
December 18, 2006... Not a single eligible community college has taken advantage of a low-cost loan program available to them for 14 years. And almost "haft of special federal loan money available for Historically Black Colleges and Universities "has never been...

Hearing focuses on flaws of federal tuition tax credits.
December 18, 2006... Though community college students arguably need more financial help than any other group of students, many federal tuition tax credits are not reaching them, according to a recent heating in front of the Senate Finance Committee. Harvard...

Reuse, recycle or simply throw it in the trash? Tips on giving your old computer a new life.(technology today)
December 18, 2006... Holiday time is gift time, and among the gifts commonly given and received are new computers. What, then, should you do with your old PC? Whether you use computers in your home, small office, or large organization, you have five main...

Bits & bytes.(technology today)
December 18, 2006... There could be a dynasty in the making at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, in Gulfport, Miss. For the second year in a row, students from the college's Web development technology program won first place in both the state and national...

Available jobs are plentiful now for qualified students completing their associate of applied science degree in administrative medical assistant/medical transcription at Casper College in Casper Wyo.(around campus)
December 18, 2006... Available jobs are plentiful now for qualified students completing their associate of applied science degree in administrative medical assistant/medical transcription at Casper College in Casper Wyo. The interdisciplinary program provides...

Prairie State College dental hygiene students recently provided free dental care to more than 75 students from St. Kieran School and the college's Children's Learning Center.(around campus)
December 18, 2006... Prairie State College dental hygiene students recently provided free dental care to more than 75 students from St. Kieran School and the college's Children's Learning Center. The services were part of the first Healthy Smiles Day. Care...

Central Piedmont Community College.(Grants & Gifts)
December 18, 2006... Central Piedmont Community, College, in Charlotte. N.C., recently received a legacy gift from the Crowder Construction Company of Charlotte. The gift, given in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of Crowder Construction. will...

Morton College.(Grants & Gifts)
December 18, 2006... Morton College in Cicero, Ill. received a $100,000 grant from The Chicago Community Trust to purchase new laboratory equipment for its science and nursing laboratories and support professional development activities for full-time science and...

Montgomery County Community College.(Grants & Gifts)
December 18, 2006... Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell. Penn., has been awarded a federal Title III grant under the Strengthening Institutions Program of more than $1.5 million. The program will provide expertise and resources in addition to grant...

Jim Williams.(faculty lounge)
December 18, 2006... Jim Williams, dean of the business and technology division at Johnson County Community College, is retiring in January after 35 years of service to the college. Williams, who has a doctorate of education, started working at the college as a...

Houston Community College's adult-education program.(faculty lounge)
December 18, 2006... Houston Community College's adult-education program--the largest in the state--has been selected to participate in a distance learning literacy program. The adult education division pro, vides Adult Basic Education, General Equivalency...

Patricia Nestler.(Honors & Awards)
December 18, 2006... The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has recognized Patricia Nestler, associate professor of English at Montgomery County Community College as Pennsylvania's 2006...

Raul Ramirez.(Honors & Awards)
December 18, 2006... Raul Ramirez, president of Pima Community College's East Campus, in Tucson, Ariz., has received the 2006 John F. Grede Board Service Award from the National Council for Workforce Education. Ramirez received the award for his outstanding...

Lincoln Land Community College.(Honors & Awards)
December 18, 2006... Trevor Kubatzke, associate vice president of enrollment services and interim chief information officer at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield. Ill., has been named to the International Practitioners Board of the Chair Academy. The...

Warren County Community College.(Honors & Awards)
December 18, 2006... Bill Faust of Warren County Community College in Washington, N.J. was recently honored as New Jersey's "Educator with Outstanding Contributions to EMS" at an awards dinner in Atlantic City. The award was given by the New Jersey Statewide...

Hudson County Community College.(APPOINTMENTS)
December 18, 2006... Kris Krishnan has been named associate dean for institutional research and planning at Hudson County Community College in Jersey City, N.J. Most recently, Krishnan served as the director of research for the New Jersey Commission on Higher...

Clark College.(APPOINTMENTS)
December 18, 2006... Rassoul Dastmozd is the new vice president of instruction at Clark College, in Vancouver, Wash. Before joining Clark, Dastmozd was dean of the Applied Technology Division in the Eastern Iowa Community College District. He is currently working...

Anoka-Ramsey Community College.(APPOINTMENTS)
December 18, 2006... Dr. Janet (Shelli) Lampi is the new dean of the nursing and physical therapist assistant programs at Anoka-Ramsey Community College in Cambridge and Coon Rapids, Minn. Lampi previously taught in the dental hygiene program at Minnesota State...

Highline Community College.(APPOINTMENTS)
December 18, 2006... Shirley Bean has joined Highline Community College in Des Moines, Wash., as financial services director. Bean's career in financial services began at Highline in 1992 when she served as a fiscal technician. Most recently, she was director of...

Calendar.(Calendar)
December 18, 2006... JANUARY January 31, 2007 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES Workforce Development Institute San Diego, CA www.aacc.nche.edu/WFI January 31-February 2, 2007 NACADA Assessment of Academic Advising Institute San Antonio, TX...

Amid discovery of misdeeds with state contracts, embattled Alabama college chancellor is officially fired.(The Alabama Case)
December 4, 2006... MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Former two-year college system Chancellor Roy Johnson, who was put on paid leave for eight months when his contract was terminated in July, was fired with cause last month by the state school board, which was told...

North Carolina administrator wins suit against former instructor for libel.(around the nation)
December 4, 2006... SYLVA, N.C. -- A former health and physical education instructor at Southwestern Community College must pay one of the college's vice president more than $15,000 for breaking an agreement made after the instructor distributed two libelous...

Report recommends expansion of Maine community colleges.
December 4, 2006... SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- An advisory panel called for dramatic growth in Maine's community colleges to help the state meet an increasing demand for skilled workers. The Governor's Community College Advisory Council said the state...

Interpreting the numbers.(SPECIAL REPORT: THE FASTEST-GROWING TWO-YEAR INSTITUTIONS)(Cover story)
December 4, 2006... The tables that appear on the following pages list the public, two-year colleges that have experienced the largest percentage growth between Fall 2004 and Fall 2005, the two most recent years available through the federal government data...

Colleges wading in rising tide: some community colleges are swimming upstream against climbing enrollments.(SPECIAL REPORT: THE FASTEST-GROWING TWO-YEAR INSTITUTIONS)
December 4, 2006... Some people might consider it the perfect storm. About six years ago, Wayne County Community College District set out to recruit a greater number of the county's underserved population--urban residents, many of them first-generation...

As enrollment in technical education grows, so does its scope.(SPECIAL REPORT: THE FASTEST-GROWING TWO-YEAR INSTITUTIONS)
December 4, 2006... Once derided as the province of the underachieving and poorly-motivated, vocational education is experiencing a renaissance. In fact, it is not even called vocational education anymore. That disparaging term has been replaced by the more...

Students, faculty members at Calif. college fight to prevent sale of district's private island.
December 4, 2006... COSTA MESA, CA -Orange Coast College students and professors are protesting a plan to sell a beautiful but isolated wilderness island in British Columbia that was donated to the college by a wealthy benefactor in 2003. Rabbit Island has...

Report: IRS privacy laws restrict education department and colleges from verifying financial aid applications.(dateline washington)
December 4, 2006... WASHINGTON -- A confidentiality provision in Internal Revenue Code is blocking a potential major check on Pell Grant fraud. It also is requiting colleges to do a lot of old-fashioned paperwork they could otherwise avoid. The code's...

Foreign enrollment down at two-year colleges.(CAPITOL briefs)
December 4, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The number of foreign students attending American community colleges fell 1.4 percent in the last academic year from the high a year earlier. According to the Open Doors 2006 report, 83,160 students from abroad were enrolled...

Benefits approved for military families.(CAPITOL briefs)
December 4, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The House approved legislation that would allow family members of severely injured service members to obtain education' benefits before discharge. Present law does not allow spouses and children of permanently disabled service...

Aid office asks for comments.(CAPITOL briefs)
December 4, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The Office of Federal Student Aid is seeking comments on information collection requirements on the annual Student Right-to-Know form. Colleges participating in Title IV programs must make available graduation rates and...

Supporters of Mont. college say momentum building.
December 4, 2006... MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) -- Some people who want the Bitterroot Valley to have a community college say their campaign is gathering momentum. The Bitterroot Valley Community College Exploratory Committee has collected petition signatures from...

Bismarck State wins OK for four-year program.
December 4, 2006... DICKINSON, N.D. (AP) -- The state Board of Higher Education has approved a four-year degree program at Bismarck State College after assurances that it is not the start of turning the two-year college into a four-year institution. The...

Student leaders vote to drop pledge of allegiance.
December 4, 2006... COSTA MESA, California (AP) -- Student leaders at a community college voted to drop the Pledge of Allegiance after a tense meeting in which one flag-waving pledge supporter berated them as anti-American radicals. Orange Coast College's...

Idaho lawmakers fail to produce system plan.
December 4, 2006... BOISE, Idaho (AP)--Idaho lawmakers, unsatisfied with a lack of progress from an interim legislative committee in coming up with ways to create more community colleges in the state, say they plan to turn to Gov.-elect C.L. "Butch" Otter to...

Making a name for your site.(technology today)
December 4, 2006... Some people don't care what you call them as long as you call them. Some Web site owners feel the same. Yet a Web site's "domain name" can be a powerful way to get people through your virtual door. A domain name, as it's most commonly...

Arkansas Bigfoot legend is topic of administrator's new e-book.(Bits & Bytes)
December 4, 2006... EL DORADO, Ark, (AP) -- Folklore or real creature, the mysterious South Arkansas Fouke monster seems to emerge from time to time in various forms. Now the legendary Bigfoot has made its way into a new e-book by South Arkansas Community...

Miami Dade College.(around campus)
December 4, 2006... In October, Miami Dade College in Miami, Fla., took a major step toward making more high-quality preschool education opportunities available to area residents by inaugurating its new $5.6 million pre-school laboratory at its North campus. The...

Daytona Beach Community College.(around campus)
December 4, 2006... Assisting with Central Florida's "Thanksgiving Brigade" goal of feeding 1,000 families this year, the Student Government Association at Daytona Beach Community College in Florida reached out to the college community to help bring Thanksgiving...

Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pa., has received a grant in the amount of $35,000 from the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center, in partnership with the U. S. Department of Labor.(Grants & Gifts)
December 4, 2006... Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pa., has received a grant in the amount of $35,000 from the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center, in partnership with the U. S. Department of Labor. The grant will be used to promote...

Midlands Technical College in Columbia, S.C., will receive $1.8 million over the next five years to implement new strategies to positively impact the retention and graduation rates of at-risk students in the college's developmental studies department.(Grants & Gifts)
December 4, 2006... Midlands Technical College in Columbia, S.C., will receive $1.8 million over the next five years to implement new strategies to positively impact the retention and graduation rates of at-risk students in the college's developmental studies...

The biology department at Queensborough Community College, in Bayside, N.Y., received a $561,653 three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program.(Grants & Gifts)
December 4, 2006... The biology department at Queensborough Community College, in Bayside, N.Y., received a $561,653 three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program. This grant will enable the college...

The Kenneth A. Picerne Foundation has teamed up with MiraCosta College, in Oceanside, Calif., to offer a new pilot program, the Youth Development Initiative.(Grants & Gifts)
December 4, 2006... The Kenneth A. Picerne Foundation has teamed up with MiraCosta College, in Oceanside, Calif., to offer a new pilot program, the Youth Development Initiative. The program will provide ten current or future MiraCosta students the opportunity to...

Honor society names Brookdale CC educator.(faculty lounge)
December 4, 2006... Angela Saragusa, faculty member at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, N.J., was recently named vice chairman of the association of chapter advisors of phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year colleges. Association...

Thomas Nelson Community College.(Honors & AWARDS)
December 4, 2006... Thomas Nelson Community College, in Hampton, Va. excelled this year at the Virginia Community College Association Excellence in Communications Competition. The public relations office received the first place award in the billboards and...

Morton College.(Honors & AWARDS)
December 4, 2006... Morton College in Cicero, 111., will receive an Innovation Award from the Illinois Council of Community College Administrators for its Round the Clock 29-Hour Registration Rave. Morton remained open for 29 consecutive hours over two days in...

Denise Grupp-Verbon.(Honors & AWARDS)
December 4, 2006... Adjunct faculty member and harpist Denise Grupp-Verbon of Owens Community College in Toledo and Findlay, Ohio, has been chosen to receive the Ohio Association of Two-Year Colleges' prestigious Adjunct Teacher of the Year award. The award...

Louisiana Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.(Honors & AWARDS)
December 4, 2006... Louisiana Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators named Kim Dudley, director of student financial aid at River Parishes Community College in Sorrento, La., Woman of the Year. Since January 2006, River Parishes Community College...

National Council for Resource Development.(APPOINTMENTS)
December 4, 2006... Steven G. Budd, assistant vice president for institutional advancement at Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield Mass., has been elected president of the National Council for Resource Development. Based in Washington, the...

San Jose/Evergreen Community College District of San Jose.(APPOINTMENTS)
December 4, 2006... Local businessman and community activist Balbir Dhillon will begin his tenure on the Board of Trustees of San Jose/Evergreen Community College District of San Jose, Calif., as the Area 2 representative in December. He is the first...

Calendar.(Calendar)
December 4, 2006... JANUARY January 8-11, 2007 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP "Entrepreneurial Leadership: Revolutionizing Community Colleges" Disney's Coronado Springs Resort Orlando, FL (413) 755-6111;...