Community College Week articles from January 2006

Community College Week archives from January 2006

Biomass plant economic answer to rising energy prices.(around the nation)
January 2, 2006... Gardner, Mass. -- Dr. Daniel M. Asquino, president of Mount Wachusett Community College, wants his school to be a premier center for renewable energy resources in the future. "Our vision is to put in place what I hope will be a natural...

Adjunct e-mail sparks conservative firestorm.(around the nation)
January 2, 2006... Washington, N.J. -- When Rebecca Beach checked her e-mail in mid-November, one of the messages in her inbox shocked her. It was from instructor at Warren County Community College in Washington, N.J., where the 19-year-old was a student. ...

Survey offers options for at-risk students.(around the nation)
January 2, 2006... They may be working harder to do well in their coursework, but the community college students at greatest academic risk are less likely than others to get the boost they need from such efforts, according to new results from a national survey....

CUNY Community College senate must open its meetings to the public.(around the nation)
January 2, 2006... Albany, N.Y. -- A recent unanimous decision by the New York Supreme Court could spell a dramatic shift in how higher education senates in the state operate. The court ruled that Hostos Community College's senate and its executive committee are...

Leading the Community College baccalaureate astray.(point of view)
January 2, 2006... As one of the founders of the Community College Baccalaureate Association, I am now concerned about the direction this baccalaureate concept has taken. I never thought that offering bachelor's degrees would influence some two-year colleges to...

Accountability gone mad.(point of view)
January 2, 2006... I would like to share with you, my American colleagues, a tale of accountability. It is a story familiar to us all, but it is one in which we in Britain play character roles on a daily basis. We are overworked bit players in a never-ending...

Publisher's note.(point of view)
January 2, 2006... We at Community College Week want to wish our readers a Happy New Year and a successful 2006. We often look forward to the changes that ring in a new year and resolve to embrace those changes that bring us closer to new goals. This is...

A fragile balance: Community Colleges continue to weigh the pros and cons of granting baccalaureates.(Cover story)
January 2, 2006... A growing number of community colleges across the country are conferring their own baccalaureate degrees. It's happening slowly because it takes time to develop the curriculum and clear the myriad educational and legislative hurdles. And it's...

Committee to hold public hearing on the future of higher ed.(dateline washington)
January 2, 2006... The chance to speak directly to the federal government on the future of higher education comes Feb. 7 in Seattle, when the Commission on the Future of Higher Education plans its first public hearing. The Secretary of Education's commission will...

Congress passes major education spending bill.(CAPITOL briefs)
January 2, 2006... Almost three months after the start of the 2006 fiscal year, Congress narrowly approved an education spending bill before breaking for the holidays. The maximum Pell Grant will remain at $4,050 this year, as Congress rejected a House of...

Loan repayment an imperfect science.(CAPITOL Briefs)
January 2, 2006... It's practically impossible to figure out the costs to the taxpayer of student loans. Or so says the Government Accountability Office, which compared cost estimates and re-estimates of the Federal Family Education Loan Program and the Federal...

Defense bill helps schools hit by Katrina.(CAPITOL Briefs)
January 2, 2006... Another $200 million to help institutes of higher education affected by Hurricane Katrina got passed into law in the waning days of Congress' 2005 session. The 2006 defense appropriations bill includes a provision earmarking $95 million to...

Florida College to create manufacturing training program.(workforce training)
January 2, 2006... Winter Haven, Fla. -- Polk Community College's Corporate College has been chosen to develop and implement a pre-engineering and manufacturing training program for Polk County manufacturers. The Corporate College provides customized training...

Report details fraud, oversights in federal loan office.
January 2, 2006... Washington -- According to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General, many gainfully employed student-loan takers avoid repayment of their loans by improperly claiming disability status. Rules allow the Office of...

Polk Community College.(professional notes)
January 2, 2006... Dr. Eileen Holden recently became the fourth president of Polk Community College in Winter Haven, Fla. She had previously served as vice president for academic affairs and technical education for Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale,...

Community College of the Air Force.(professional notes)
January 2, 2006... Col. Thomas D. Klincar has been named president of the Community College of the Air Force at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. He was most recently dean of academics at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany. Klincar earned a...

Haywood Community College.(professional notes)
January 2, 2006... Dr. Rose Harrell Johnson has been appointed president of Haywood Community College in Clyde, N.C. She had previously served as vice chancellor of workforce development services for the Virginia Community College System. Harrell Johnson holds a...

Nine California community colleges will split a $3.5 million grant recently awarded by the James Irvine Foundation.(Grants & Gifts)
January 2, 2006... Nine California community colleges will split a $3.5 million grant recently awarded by the James Irvine Foundation. MDRC, a social policy research organization, will administer the funds for American River College in Sacramento, the College of...

Calhoun Community College.(Grants & Gifts)
January 2, 2006... Calhoun Community College in Decatur, Ala., has been awarded a $2,465,656 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to fund the Alternate Health Education Asynchronous Delivery project, which will improve and expand training programs targeting...

Rockingham Community College.(Grants & Gifts)
January 2, 2006... Rockingham Community College in Wentworth, N.C., has received a $3 million grant from the McMichael Family Foundation to help establish a civic center on campus. The grant is the largest ever received by an organization in Rockingham County....

LaGuardia Community College.(Grants & Gifts)
January 2, 2006... LaGuardia Community College in New York has received a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation as part of the foundation's "Difficult Dialogues" initiative. The program hopes to counter increasing intolerance on U.S. campuses by creating an...

Coming events.(Calendar)
January 2, 2006... January 9-12, 2006 Company of Experts.net Department Chair Institute 2006 Palm Springs, Calif. http://www.departmentchairinstitute.net January 17-20, 2006 American Association of Community Colleges and Company of...

Mexicans cross border daily to attend Community College.(around the nation)
January 30, 2006... Throughout the day and into the evening they come. Residents of Mexico cross the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, into El Paso, Texas, sometimes submitting to a checkpoint border-crossing of up to 20 minutes or longer. But once they hit...

Fla. Community College to award doctorates in education.(around the nation)
January 30, 2006... AVON PARK, Fla. -- Residents of rural southern Florida for the first Lime can get a doctorate without leaving home. South Florida Community College begins offering its first doctorate degree, a Ph.D. in leadership and education in May. The...

Measuring success for teacher training programs.(point of view)
January 30, 2006... In order to prepare the best and most qualified teachers, community colleges must hold a vision for quality teaching and identify measures for program accountability. Colleges that prepare future teachers should build preparation programs that...

Back to school to learn how to teach.(point of view)
January 30, 2006... The means by which I got into public school teaching was, as we say in my profession, "an accident looking for a place to happen." Coming home from the ranch after being on horseback all day, I received a phone call from my wife asking me to...

Schools in shining armor: colleges are helping states meet federal requirements for teacher quality by developing paraprofessional programs and alternative licensing tracks.(TEACHER EDUCATION)(Cover story)
January 30, 2006... A June deadline is looming for teachers and teacher aides in K-12 districts that receive federal Title I funding to meet standards that would make them "highly, qualified teachers" under the No Child Left Behind Act. Teachers must meet the...

Study: only 38 percent of two-year faculty have tenure.
January 30, 2006... Almost two-thirds of full-time professional employees at two-year colleges maintain faculty status, but slightly less than a quarter of them have earned tenure, according to "Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2004, and Salaries of...

Grants direct to students likely.(Capitol briefs)
January 30, 2006... As much as $4.53 billion in direct federal student aid may become newly available over the next five years. Congress has approved a bill to reauthorize the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, and the new bill would expand college aid in some ways....

Delgado Community College bounces back after hurricane Katrina's devastation.
January 30, 2006... NEW ORLEANS -- Delgado Community College is looking to regain its status as the largest community college in Louisiana this spring as it rebounds from Hurricane Katrina. As soon as the storm hit Aug. 29, Baton Rouge Community College...

Rural Virginia school gets high tech, culture grants.(workforce training)
January 30, 2006... RICHLANDS, Va. -- Two federally funded grants were recently awarded to a southwest Virginia community college as part of an initiative to anchor high-tech jobs there and to market Appalachian arts. "We're pleased," said Dr. Charles King,...

Texas court approves mandatory student fees.(workforce training)
January 30, 2006... DALLAS -- The Dallas County Community College District won't have to reimburse millions of dollars in technology and student services fees, Texas' highest court has ruled. The decision highlights the fact that Texas community colleges have...

College looks to legislature to relieve students of building debt.(the money tree)
January 30, 2006... WELLS, Maine -- Educators at York County Community College are hoping that the current session of the Maine legislature will finally free them of a funding formula that has worked against increasing student enrollments. "One way or the...

Fla. College to develop mobile courses for soldiers in war zones.(technology today)
January 30, 2006... JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- No longer do members of the military wait to finish their service before completing their college education. Now the military wants them to earn their degrees while they serve. Not only is this beneficial to those who are...

Pell Grant flat in 2006 ed bill.(Capital Briefs)
January 30, 2006... The maximum Pell Grant will remain at $4,050 this year. Almost three months after fiscal year 2006 began, Congress approved an education spending bill for the year and rejected a House proposal to increase the maximum grant size by $50. The...

Calhoun Community College.(Grants & Gifts)
January 30, 2006... Calhoun Community College in Decatur, Ala., received a $15,000 grant from the Wachovia Foundation to start a Workforce Certification Testing Center, part of the college's new Center for Manufacturing Innovation. WCTC will test students for the...

Cuyahoga Community College.(Grants & Gifts)
January 30, 2006... Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland received a $1.86 million job training grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to implement creative ways of increasing the number of nurses and radiologic technologists in the Cleveland Clinic Health...

Morton College.(Grants & Gifts)
January 30, 2006... Morton College in Cicero, Ill., received a $225,000 grant from the MacNeal Health Foundation of Berwyn, Ill., to upgrade the school's nursing labs.

Southwest Tennessee Community College.(Grants & Gifts)
January 30, 2006... Southwest Tennessee Community College won a $1.8 million three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to train the local workforce in the biosciences. The grant established a partnership between STCC, Memphis Bioworks Foundation, the...

Phyllis Owens.(Honors & AWARDS)
January 30, 2006... Phyllis Owens, coordinator of Camden County College's Computer Graphics Program, was named 2005 New Jersey Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of...

Joe Lee Smith.(Honors & AWARDS)
January 30, 2006... Dr. Joe Lee Smith, College Ambassador for Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Fla., won the Taino Award from United Third Bridge, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to interracial awareness. Smith also serves as vice mayor of Rockledge, Fla. He was...

James Jackson.(Honors & AWARDS)
January 30, 2006... Professor emeritus James Jackson was named to the Wall of Honor at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan. The Wall of Honor was initiated in 2001 to recognize retired and deceased JCCC faculty, Staff and administrators for...

Robert Lorenzi.(Honors & AWARDS)
January 30, 2006... Robert Lorenzi, an English professor at Camden County College in Blackwood, N.J., won the 2005 Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award, the school's top faculty honor. Lorenzi has worked at CCC for 36 years, at various times as chairman of the...

Sinclair Community College.(APPOINTMENTS)
January 30, 2006... Dan A. Brazelton was appointed dean of Sinclair Community College Learning Centers in Englewood, Huber Heights and Kettering, Ohio. At Sinclair since 1977, Brazelton served as dean of SCC's Corporate and Community Services division since 1986....

Collin County Community College.(APPOINTMENTS)
January 30, 2006... Lynn Ellis was named director of the Small Business Development Center of the Collin County Community College District in Piano, Texas. Previously, Ellis owned a coaching business and was an account manager for several finns. Ellis holds a...

Technical College.(APPOINTMENTS)
January 30, 2006... The Technical College of the Lowcountry in Beaufort, S.C., appointed Dr. Michael Helmick as vice president for academic affairs. He most recently served as dean of technical education at Waiters State Community College in Morristown, Tenn. He...

Metropolitan Community College.(APPOINTMENTS)
January 30, 2006... Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Neb., named Dr. Terry Murrell vice president of campuses and student affairs. Previously, Murrell served as director of student services at MCC's Fort Omaha campus. He earned bachelor's and doctorate...

Coming events.(Calendar)
January 30, 2006... January 29-31, 2006 Valencia Community College The Valencia Conference: Legal Issues in Community Colleges Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa Lake Buena Vista, Fla. January 29-February 1, 2006 American Association of Colleges for Teacher...