Section B – Innovations, Honors and Achievements

Governor Ritter visits with MCC nursing students.

U.S. Rep. Udall (right) visits with NJC President Dr. Lance Bolton (left) and Associated Student Government President Waco Phipps (center).

U.S. Rep. Perlmutter (left) visits with CCA Interim Dean of CTE, Business, Computer and Science Bob Matoba (center), Dr. McCallin (second from right) and CCA President/CCS Vice President for Academic and Student Service Dr. Linda Bowman (right).

Gov. Bill Ritter informally met with Otero Junior College students. The meeting allowed students to hear his position on promoting and funding higher education. Students pictured include: (l-r) Adam Clark, La Junta, Danya Herrell, La Junta, Becca Diede, Broomfield and Jessie Lessard, Elizabeth.

Throughout Spring Semester our colleges have received visits from Governor Ritter and U.S. Reps. Ed Perlmutter and Mark Udall.

On February 15, Governor Ritter visited Morgan Community College’s Wray Center. One of the highlights of his visit included seeing nursing faculty-member Debra Stute and her students demonstrate their interactive mannequin-like patient simulator.

On February 21, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall stopped at Northeastern Junior College as part of a tour of northeastern Colorado. While at NJC, Udall who is running for the Senate, told the Sterling Journal Advocate that he was touring the region “to see first hand” some of the alternative energy developments taking place (e.g., Sterling is home to an ethanol plant and Northern Logan County is becoming a “must-see” place for wind energy development). While at NJC, Udall visited with NJC President Dr. Lance Bolton and Associated Student Government President Waco Phipps.

Also on February 21, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter appeared at a news conference and tour to celebrate the establishment of the Community College of Aurora’s Critical Incident Theater (CIT), a training center for disaster command and response. The CIT is based at CCA’s Center for Simulation on the Lowry Campus.

At the conference, participants learned how the CIT will be dedicated to training emergency personnel to dramatically enhance, or possibly replace, many training methodologies that currently exist. Perlmutter discussed his efforts to ensure Congress appropriated $331,692 toward the establishment of the CIT command center and its technology.

Perlmutter toured the CIT to learn how it will provide cross-disciplinary training for response to complex natural or security emergencies. He also was able to see first hand how the CIT will serve as a model for interagency collaboration and workforce training and development.
 
On March 14, Governor Ritter spent several hours on the Otero Junior College campus, where he conducted a community meeting, toured the campus, met with students, and hosted a public officials’ meeting. The Governor spoke to both the community and OJC students about education issues and education funding.

Students asked questions of the Governor on a variety of topics ranging from the cost of higher education, financial aid and what his goals are as Governor. OJC students were particularly interested in a bill that was making its way to the Governor’s desk to relieve some of the spiraling costs of textbooks.

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Douglas County School District and Arapahoe Community College have developed a district-wide agreement, dubbed the “College Ready Program,” to provide college courses to DCSD high school students on their high school campuses.  Beginning this fall, ACC will be offering 12 on-site college classes to all Douglas County School District juniors and seniors.  Students who successfully complete these courses will receive both high school and college credit simultaneously.

According to Dr. Jim Christensen, Superintendent of Douglas County School District, “We see this as an opportunity to create more options for all students, options for increased rigor and meaningfulness, options for career transitions, and options for creating access to college.  We are thrilled to partner with Arapahoe Community College to create seamless pathways for Douglas County students.”

High school junior and senior students are offered a choice of taking a variety of ACC college curriculum that includes both academic and career and technical education courses.  College-qualified DCSD high school faculty will provide the instruction. Course location and time will be determined by student demand and the availability of qualified DCSD faculty.

”This type of dual-enrollment programming with Douglas County Schools is an extremely exciting opportunity for both teachers and students,” stated ACC President Dr. Bert Glandon. “The DCSD-ACC partnership is providing students with exceptional opportunities to achieve success in both the academic and professional technical areas and is a true working model of seamless education.”  

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On March 3, CCCS presented its third annual “Day at the Capitol.” The day was an opportunity for the presidents, remarkable students and community leaders affiliated with our colleges to share their accomplishments and priorities with state and legislative leaders and listen to theirs.

The day began in the Capitol’s Senate Committee Room 356 with Vice-Chair of the Capital Development Committee Sen. Bob Bacon discussing the challenges of funding the state’s construction needs. Specifically, Bacon discussed: Pueblo Community College’s request for an Academic Building-Learning Center; Colorado Northwestern Community College’s appeal for a new Academic Building in Craig; Front Range Community College-Larimer’s plea for a Science Classroom Addition/Renovation; and, Front Range Community College-Westminster’s proposal for a Student Services/Math Renovation. Editor’s note: later, after a dimmer than expected economic forecast was released, the legislature was forced to cut the FRCC requests.

Next, Sen. Abel Tapia, sponsor of SB 08-085 which sought to cure a $16 million deficiency in the funding of Colorado’s rural community colleges, spoke. Tapia relayed a powerful story about how Pueblo Community College had set him down a road to success in the engineering field and as a state leader.

Then, Rep. Bernie Buescher, Chair of the Joint Budget Committee, discussed the must-fund demands the state faces and how these might impact future higher education funding. After Buescher, the presidents of the colleges were introduced on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien then addressed the group and discussed how the governor views community colleges as vital toward implementing his vision for the state. After that, David Skaggs, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education told the group how he saw community colleges fitting into the broad scheme of Colorado’s higher education funding.

The group then walked over to the Colorado History Museum for lunch with 20 of the legislators. During the lunch, students from each of the colleges told the legislators stories about how their college had transformed their life.

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In February and April, Trinidad State Junior College teamed up with Grand Rental, the Colorado Contractors Association and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to provide free “Workzone Safety,” “Electrical Safety,” and “Excavation Safety” training.

According to TSJC Director of Customized Training Terrie Baros, “This collaboration was an overwhelming success with 19 businesses represented and thirteen brand new clients participating.” A total of 127 workers from around the region registered for “Work Zone Safety,” 106 for “Electrical Safety,” and 58 for “Excavation Safety.” OSHA Area Director John Healy was impressed by the regional participation in the training sessions and said it is among the best they've ever experienced. 

Besides benefiting local industry, the training sessions enhanced the education students from TSJC’s Energy Production and Industrial Construction, Line Tech, and Construction Tech programs are receiving by giving them the chance to learn from top industrial safety experts. 

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In February and March, through the efforts of the system’s Student Services and Information Technology (IT) divisions, student e-mail accounts became a reality at eight colleges across the system. The remaining five institutions: CCA, FRCC, NJC, OJC and PPCC will launch student e-mail accounts in May.

So far IT has partnered with our student e-mail vendor, Microsoft, to launch 76,000 student e-mail accounts. Ultimately, they expect to have in excess of 150,000 accounts created: the equivalent of medium-sized city.

Student accounts will be automatically created when a student is admitted. Students must then “activate” the account upon logging into the “Banner/My Community Education” interface. Like a “Hotmail” or “Yahoo” mail account, Microsoft will maintain a student’s account beyond the time they’re enrolled in classes which will provide greater opportunities for alumni communications.

Student e-mail accounts are expected to make faculty/staff-to-student communication a lot easier. When a faculty member signs onto to Banner “Self Service” they will now see their class rosters with e-mail links to their students. Administrators will also be able to use Data Warehouse to target specific demographics of students (e.g., all 30-something math majors taking six or more credits) to send out e-mail blasts.

To educate students about their new e-mail accounts, CCCS has sent posters, flyers, table tents and FAQs to each college. Web templates for the new service have also been sent to campuses.

Students will need to be advised that they should activate their e-mail accounts or else they might miss crucial communications from their instructors and the college. Students who wish to solely use a pre-existing non-student e-mail account can set their student e-mail account to forward to their preferred address.

To e-mail a student the format is [first initial+middle initial+last name@student.cccs.edu]. After activating their accounts through Banner/”My Community Education” students can then access their accounts directly at https://www.exchangelabs.com

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In Colorado Springs and across the country, minority male students are dropping out of college at alarming rates. A statistical study analyzing the male cohort of first-time male college students showed that over a two-year period, male multicultural students had a 71% drop-out rate, while Black male students as a subgroup had an astounding 82% drop-out rate – 40% higher than their white male members of the same cohort.

PPCC President Dr. Tony Kinkel says his institution is doing something about it. “We’re making a strong effort to battle this trend, and directly address the specific needs of minority male students,” explains Kinkel.

“Our Multicultural Male Retention Initiative, which was launched in August 2007, works with our minority male students to provide a host of tools and resources to help them stay in school and succeed.”

PPCC is the first community college in the state of Colorado and one of only a handful in the country to implement such a program.

Leading this program is Eddie Hughes, a retired NBA player with the Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets, who has been associated with PPCC for more than ten years. Mr. Hughes works with the 1200+ multicultural male population through mentoring, networking, academic advising, and tracking with the goal of increasing retention. “I’m here to advocate for students of diverse cultural backgrounds,” says Hughes. “We want to enhance their college experience, and support them in their efforts to persist in and graduate from college.”

He makes himself very visible and accessible to students throughout the campuses, and makes a strong effort to meet as many students as possible. “The personal connection is so important,” says Hughes. “The students need to know that there’s someone in their corner, who they can turn to when they have questions or problems, who will provide support and encouragement, and refer them to campus and community resources for help when they need it.” Hughes works with student organizations such as the Black Student Union, on cultural events and social activities for students. The initiative aspires to create a community for participants that actively encourages academic success, as opposed to the active discouragement that often permeates their peer groups. “We’re here to win,” says Hughes.

Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, The Daniels Fund’s Daniels Opportunity Scholarship program will provide $105,000 in scholarships to qualifying nontraditional minority male students at PPCC. Jon Stepleton, the Executive Director of the Pikes Peak Community College Foundation says, “The Daniels Fund has provided us with enough funding to provide ten $5000 scholarships to new PPCC students and twenty $2500 scholarships to current PPCC students. The Daniels Fund Scholarship for Multicultural Male Students is a historic initiative at PPCC, allowing us to seed success throughout our entire minority male student population by creating role models and mentors. This scholarship says to the students, ‘We believe in you.’

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Concurrent with a pledge of $1 million from the W.C. Striegel Company, Colorado Northwestern Community College recently announced the creation of the W.C. Striegel Engineering Center at the Rangely Campus.  

“The W.C. Striegel Engineering Center will quickly become one of the most important facilities within our community, because it focuses on building minds in the subjects necessary for securing our children’s and community’s future,” stated CNCC President John Boyd. 

Boyd continues, “the W.C. Striegel Company, and particularly Bud Striegel, have been a significant factor and dedicated supporter of the college and our community; it is an honor for the college to recognize the significant service and support that he and his family have given over the years.”

W.C. Striegel recently pledged the $1 million to CNCC to support the operation of the new center. On February 29, Striegel and his daughter, Teri Wilczek, presented a check to CNCC for the first installment of $400,000.  “This is the largest private commitment the college has ever received and it is with great gratitude and appreciation that we accept this check,” stated Boyd.  

The W.C. Striegel Engineering Center will house CNCC’s Rangely engineering programs to include Associate Degrees in Civil Engineering Technology, Energy and Facilities Management, and the Engineering Transfer Degree.  It also includes Certificates in Surveying, Computer Aided Drafting, and Construction Management.   The facility will contain classrooms along with a renewable energy lab and a soils lab. 

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