October 19, 2002
JCC says most problems fixed
Accreditation was threatened by poor 2001 report
Jefferson Community College officials think they've rectified all but one of 57 deficiencies that have endangered the school's accreditation since last year.
''It won't be official until December, when the Commission on Colleges meets, but we have received a preliminary report -- and it was very positive,'' said JCC's new president, Anthony L. Newberry.
His optimism stems from a three-day visit this week by a committee from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which confirmed the school is on the rebound.
JCC was placed on warning -- a public sanction -- last December after a 15-member inspection team issued a critical report in spring 2001. It noted such problems as failing to update or evaluate its strategic plan and not assessing how well its students do when they go on to four-year colleges, take professional licensing exams or get jobs.
It also was skewered for upkeep and maintenance and some transfer students not knowing how many hours of academic credit they would receive for their previous course work.
Such problems, if not resolved, threaten a school's accreditation and jeopardize federal student aid.
Newberry sent a memo to faculty and staff on Wednesday saying he expects the committee to recommend that JCC be removed from warning status and that its accreditation be reaffirmed. He based his conclusion on a briefing he received from the committee at the end of its visit Wednesday.
''It was a very encouraging report,'' said Newberry, who took over July 1. ''The committee was very affirmative.''
It means the school has reached the end of a struggle and the start of a new phase that will allow it to focus on teaching and learning, he said in an interview.
''This has been a long haul for everyone,'' Newberry said in his memo. ''Our success at this stage is a cause for celebration.''
And it's clearly lifting morale.
''The faculty and staff are overjoyed,'' said Randall Davis, who teaches anthropology and is interim academic dean of the downtown campus. ''. . . It's amazing what we've been able to accomplish in 18 months.''
JCC is part of the Jefferson Community and Technical College district, which includes nearly 9,600 JCC students in Louisville, southwestern Jefferson County and Carrollton, Ky., as well as about 3,500 students at Jefferson Technical College.
Before this week's committee visit, JCC already had been cleared on 36 of 57 deficiencies, leaving 21 for the committee to review, Newberry said. Those mainly focused on the school's planning and evaluation process.
The committee concluded that the college has resolved 20 of the 21 remaining issues, Newberry said in his memo.
That bodes well for JCC's chances of the committee making a good recommendation to the association's Commission on Colleges, which will decide whether to reaffirm JCC's accreditation, Newberry said.
''We were given to believe that we're in really good shape, but the commission is independent of the committee,'' Newberry said. If the committee makes a positive recommendation, ''I would expect that the commission would accept that recommendation,'' but he stressed that he can't speak for the group.
Gerald Lord, associate executive director of the commission, said he could not comment on the committee's findings or what action the commission might take, but the committee ''did observe progress having been made at the institution.''
The single deficiency that still needs to be addressed is a financial report for the year ending June 30, which was available only in draft form but will be final shortly, Newberry said. ''That really is a formality,'' he added.
After receiving the critical report in spring 2001, the faculty and staff began reorganizing the school's planning and evaluation system from scratch, Newberry said. That effort was led by JCC's former interim president, Diane Calhoun-French, who filled in after Richard Green retired in summer 2000, and Mary Jones, director of institutional effectiveness, research and planning. Calhoun-French is now provost and vice president for academic and student affairs.
As a result of much work, ''every single recommendation having to do with planning and evaluation has been met with room to spare,'' Newberry's memo states.
The planning and evaluation system will help the school track how well it's doing and make decisions based on delivering a good education for students rather than allowing the budget to drive decisions, said Davis, who was part of the response team that worked to resolve the deficiencies.
In that sense, the crisis may have been the best thing that ever happened to the college, Davis said.
Michael Ginsberg, an associate professor of English, expressed a sense of relief. ''It seems like things are heading in the right direction.''
The Daily Independent
Following overwhelming endorsements from faculty and staff, area legislators, the business community and its own board of regents, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System wants to know what Joe Public thinks about the idea of consolidating Ashland Community College and Ashland Technical College.
Garnering support is an essential component of the consolidation process, which has been going on for more than a year.
A public forum on the consolidation is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at the AEP Building, 1701 Central Ave.
KCTCS President Michael McCall will be there, as will members of the board of regents, college officials and ACC President Gregory Adkins.
The forum will allow members of the public to speak their piece on the concept.
"This will be an opportunity for anyone we have not already contacted to come and enter into the public record their comments," Adkins said.
The forum is the second of a three-stage process that is expected to be completed by the end of 2003 with the approval of joint accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
It started following passage in 1997 of the Kentucky Postsecondary Improvement Act, which created KCTCS to bring together 13 community colleges from the University of Kentucky and 15 postsecondary Kentucky Tech institutions from the Cabinet for Resource Development.
Since the beginning of this year, much of the effort has consisted of garnering support for the change.
Almost all the faculty and staff of both schools gave the concept a thumbs-up by secret ballot, and Northeast Kentucky members of the General Assembly also endorsed it.
Of 200 business and community leaders approached, 114 responded, and all but one of those approved the consolidation.
The endorsements are critical because ACC and ATC are community institutions, said ATC's Jerry Middleton, one of two people in charge of institutional planning for the colleges. "The whole process has to be community-driven," Middleton said.
A major boost came earlier this month when the KCTCS Board of Regents approved consolidation in three districts, including the Ashland one.
The action meant all 11 KCTCS districts are now officially moving toward consolidation.
The colleges have been taking other steps toward the consolidation, including merger of bookstore and library operations, combining some academic programs, and creating a new organizational structure.
They are in the process of combining student services such as admissions, registration and counseling.
The schools already have had their first joint graduation, in May of this year.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools will vote in December whether to approve the plan, but will then have to schedule a visit to the two campuses sometime in 2003, Middleton said.
The consolidation is expected to be effective by July 2003, with approval by the association of joint accreditation by December of the same year.
October 22, 2002
$3 million to fund major job training initiative here
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell termed it a "happy announcement."
Tri-county business, industry and civic leaders termed that description an understatement.
McConnell came to Henderson Monday to present a giant $3 million "check" to the embryonic Tri-County Industrial Training Consortium for the training, retraining and cross-training of the unemployed, under-employed and general labor force in this area.
The money, to be channeled here over a three-year period, is a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Employment and Training. Henderson Community College will serve as the lead educational institution in the multi-faceted effort and the Henderson Chamber of Commerce will be fiscal agent for the funds.
McConnell's announcement was made at a Henderson Fine Arts Center luncheon. U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield also issued a Monday news release on the grant approval, noting that "these funds will be a major help to those who are unemployed and seeking work ... A more skilled workforce will benefit the entire local economy."
An organizational meeting for the training consortium will take place at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at Wolf's Banquet and Convention Center. Invitations have been extended to a cross-section of business, industry and civic representatives who will help chart a course for the consortium, which is expected to have at least 30 members and a program in place by the first of the year.
The group, which will have a project manager, will create training opportunities in pre-employment skills, initiate expanded high-tech and soft-tech training, close skills gaps among segments of the local workforce, enhance employee recruitment and retention, support the development of new jobs and seek employment for project participants.
Training will take place at several sites, including HCC, a 25,000 square foot plant leased by HCC for its industrial and engineering technology program, the Henderson County Technology Center, the Earle C. Clements Job Corps Center, the One-Stop Career Connections Center on the HCC campus, schools, plants and other locations.
George Warren, local Chamber of Commerce president, said he anticipates initial training efforts to begin in January. He told the enthusiastic audience that the consortium, which will build on existing workforce development programs here, represents a Department of Labor pilot project.
"If we're successful, the Department of Labor will duplicate this format throughout the country," he said. "The light will be shining on Henderson, Union and Webster counties."
HCC President Patrick Lake said the announcement represents "a defining moment" in his career. "It's such a wonderful opportunity," he said, noting that the local application for the grant "was gotten together in less than two days" in mid-September when it was learned that the grant money was available.
A number of factors lent themselves to the grant approval, including the Tri-County's high unemployment rate, the Department of Labor's inclination to fund a program for the Southeastern part of the U.S., and efforts by area leaders to convey needs to McConnell, his wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, and other legislators. Chao was featured speaker at the Chamber of Commerce annual banquet this year.
McConnell said that communities "have to be able to jump through several hoops to be eligible" for such funding. He said he and his wife have been impressed with leadership here, and those leaders have repeatedly stressed the need for expanded workforce training.
B.J. Jones. manager of the Van Houtte gourmet coffee plant here and convener for the Wednesday organizational meeting, told those gathered, "I know the benefits of training and cross-training." He pointed out that in 1975, "I started as a maintenance man."
He said training and cross-training programs have been put into place at the plant and are "paying big, big benefits."
Henderson Mayor Joan Hoffman said though it has been difficult to "see jobs going South" to Mexico and also to Turkey and China, those losses are spurring more intensive efforts and are likely to see things "working out for the best" with a more skilled work force and expanded job opportunities.
County Judge-executive Sandy Watkins noted that people "work together" for the common good in this area, and he told McConnell, a Republican, "On behalf of this yellow dog Democrat, thank you so much."
October 25, 2002
Skyrocketing Public-College Tuition Renews Calls for Better Policies
States find new ways to raise tuition and
tighten residency requirements
Back when state coffers were flush with revenues in the late 1990s, politicians
were eager to score points with their constituents by freezing, and in some
cases even cutting, public-college tuition. But in the midst of that economic
euphoria, higher-education experts and some college and state officials warned
that scaling back tuition and holding the line on increases could return to
haunt states when the budget picture dimmed.
Today, public colleges across the country, scrambling to fill financial holes
caused by dwindling state appropriations, are reversing course. The University
of Virginia, for instance, where students saw a 20-percent cut in their tuition
bill in 1999, is planning a midyear tuition "surcharge" as bad state-budget
news continues to pour in.
"Institutions are going to be looking at every opportunity they can to
raise more tuition revenue," says Donald E. Heller, an associate professor
of higher education at Pennsylvania State University at University Park, which
this year enacted its largest tuition increase in 20 years.
Public colleges are seeking more money from students in nearly every way imaginable.
The simplest, and most popular, is to raise tuition. But state institutions
are also levying even larger tuition increases on new students and those from
out of state, and are making it harder for students to qualify for in-state
rates. At many institutions, the tuition increases are the biggest in several
decades: In Iowa, for example, it's the largest jump since the late 1960s. As
a result, college officials and policy makers are calling for a saner approach
to tuition policy that would even out increases over time.
Mr. Heller is among those who believe that states should resist cutting tuition
during good times so that increases during tough budget years won't be as severe.
He says states should encourage institutions to create rainy-day funds, and
to alter laws that limit how much money colleges can carry over from one fiscal
year to the next. He adds, however, that it's unlikely lawmakers will want to
give up control of state funds so that colleges could set dollars aside.
The mind-set of lawmakers and governors is that they can cut college budgets
to ease budget crunches because institutions can raise their own revenue. "It
becomes easier and easier to rationalize raising tuition because they've gotten
used to it," Mr. Heller says.
Other higher-education analysts add that it is difficult to get lawmakers to
adopt a long-term budget strategy that would help colleges plan for regular
tuition increases, particularly since term limits in many legislatures are beginning
to kick in. What's more, the outlook for state budgets is gloomy, given skyrocketing
health-care costs and lawmakers' propensity for tax cuts.
Thomas J. Kane, a professor of policy studies and economics at the University
of California at Los Angeles, argues that state lawmakers need to pay at least
as much attention to the economic ramifications of increasing tuition as they
do to analyzing the effects of tax increases. Mr. Kane says that state unemployment
rates can increase by as much as a full percentage point when higher tuition
bills force people to drop out of college or not enroll at all.
"Very few things governors and state legislators vote on affect local labor
markets the same way tuition policy does," Mr. Kane says. "I'm not
sure that people appreciate the larger economic impacts of those decisions."
State lawmakers and governors who are confronting large budget deficits and
ballooning costs say that, to maintain basic state services, they have little
choice this year but to limit funds for colleges and allow tuition increases.
Last week, Gov. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, a Democrat, ordered a new round
of cuts, ranging from 8 percent to 13 percent, in public-college funding as
part of a larger plan to help close a $1.5-billion gap in projected revenues
over two years.
"These decisions have not been easy, and I have not made them lightly,"
the governor said in a speech, which acknowledged that the cuts will probably
lead to undesirable results, including more tuition increases.
Increases for Newcomers
Some higher-education analysts say they are especially concerned about the growing
popularity among public institutions of charging higher tuition rates for new
students than for those returning to campus.
Travis J. Reindl, director of state-policy analysis at the American Association
of State Colleges and Universities, says that the practice might leave more
students from low-income families unable to afford college even if institutions
try to give them more financial assistance. At the very least, he argues, it
could increase sticker shock and discourage more students from believing they
could pay for college.
"We have to be concerned about the signal that it sends," Mr. Reindl
says.
The Chicago and Urbana-Champaign campuses of the University of Illinois began
charging new students higher rates last year, and several other institutions
have followed their lead. Ohio State, Purdue, and Texas A&M Universities
are among the institutions where new students are paying more than their returning
classmates this fall. Similar "tiered tuition" plans are set to take
effect next fall at all campuses of Indiana and Penn State Universities. Many
of the institutions have pledged to provide aid to help students who cannot
afford to pay the higher rates.
Ohio State raised tuition for new students this fall by 18 percent, to $5,692,
while returning students pay only 9 percent more. At Purdue's West Lafayette
campus, the rate for new students this fall is $5,580, 34 percent higher than
in 2001-2, while returning students face a 10-percent increase. And new students
at Texas A&M are shelling out $4,758, a 27-percent increase, compared with
an increase of about 5 percent for returning students.
"These are fairly aggressive fees, regrettably," Ray M. Bowen, Texas
A&M's president until this past July, told the system's Board of Regents
before they approved the increases in March. "But we see no more obvious
areas for budget reductions, other than taking draconian measures."
The institution is facing a $6.1-million budget shortfall this year, and university
officials estimated that they would bring in $33-million more over five years
with the fees charged to new students.
David W. Breneman, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of
Virginia, says he prefers the approach of raising rates for new students to
that of luring students into college and then raising tuition once they are
hooked on the institution. "At least students come in with their eyes open,"
he says.
Meanwhile, other public institutions are increasingly turning to out-of-state
students to help ease their budget woes.
California State University increased out-of-state tuition at all of its campuses
this year for the first time in more than a decade, raising rates by 15 percent,
to $8,460. The increase was expected to provide the system with $11.7-million,
as the state faces a $24-billion deficit. The University of California, too,
increased out-of-state rates by 10 percent, to $12,009, allowing the institution
to avoid increasing in-state tuition for the ninth academic year in a row, and
generate $11.9-million. Out-of-state tuition increases at the University of
California have averaged about 4 percent annually in recent years, and university
officials note that the rates still compare favorably with peer institutions.
"We have an extraordinary budget situation in California this year, and
the regents are concerned about meeting health-care costs for employees,"
says Hanan Eisenman, a spokesman for the University of California. Increasing
tuition for out-of-state students is a "piece of the puzzle" to help
the institution cover those expenses and allow it to continue important programs,
such as outreach efforts to public schools, he adds.
Many public research institutions can get away with charging increasingly higher
rates to out-of-state students because those prices are still lower than tuition
at private institutions, which often compete for the same top students, college
officials say. States such as California that are projecting large enrollment
growth over the next decade also do not need to worry about losing students
by enacting larger increases.
But institutions in states where populations are dwindling, such as those in
the upper Midwest, may risk losing students -- and tuition revenue -- if
they are too aggressive about increasing out-of-state rates, says Mr. Reindl.
Take the University of South Dakota. Between 1994 and 1997, the institution
experienced a 15.6-percent drop in full-time students after officials pushed
through double-digit percentage increases in out-of-state tuition for three
straight years.
Even in some high-growth states, college officials are beginning to worry that
they may be approaching the upper limits of how much they can financially rely
on out-of-state students.
Phyllis Palmiero, executive director of the State Council of Higher Education
for Virginia, the state's coordinating board, notes that out-of-state students
pay an average of 115 percent of the cost of education at a Virginia college.
As Virginia grapples with its largest decline in state revenues in at least
40 years, its public institutions may have less incentive to admit Virginia
residents, Ms. Palmeiro says.
This year, Virginia residents are seeing their first tuition increases since
1996, when the General Assembly froze rates. Lawmakers cut tuition by 20 percent
in 1999-2000, and kept rates there until this year. During that time, out-of-state
tuition continued to increase by 6 percent or more at many institutions. Now
just over half of the state's public-college-tuition revenue comes from other
states' residents. Those students make up a quarter of college enrollment in
Virginia.
Limiting Residency
Elsewhere, some universities are seeking to make money by toughening residency
requirements. At the University of Washington, officials want the state's Higher
Education Coordinating Board to alter how it interprets a law that broadly spells
out when a student may be eligible to pay in-state rates. Washington uses relatively
lenient standards, compared with other states, by allowing students to be considered
residents after their freshman year if they demonstrate financial independence
and show, by such means as obtaining a driver's license and registering to vote,
that they have attempted to become permanent Washington residents.
Of the out-of-state students who entered the university in 1996, 30 percent
had been reclassified as residents at the beginning of their junior year and
40 percent by their senior year. About 19 percent of the university's students
are from other states this year.
University officials said the state's budget shortfall of $1.9-billion this
year prompted them to consider proposing tougher practices for determining residency.
They hope to have such changes in place by next fall. "It doesn't make
sense to leave money on the table that the institution needs," says Carol
S. Niccolls, executive assistant to the president at the University of Washington.
In Utah, a similar strategy seems to have backfired. This year, a tightening
of the residency requirement led to a drop in freshman enrollment at Utah State
University, where the nearly $7,700 annual-tuition rate for out-of-state students
is more than three times what residents pay. The university, which is about
30 miles from the Idaho border, had at least 300 fewer entering freshmen from
other states this year, a 10-percent drop, even though more students applied
for admission. The institution's yield -- how many students accepted offers
of admission -- fell to 42 percent from 54 percent.
Under the new law, a student from another state must first earn 60 credits (at
least two years' worth) to be considered a Utah resident. Until this academic
year, students from other states, who make up about 11 percent of the Utah State
student body, could qualify for resident status after attending a state institution
for one year. Lawmakers who supported the change estimated that it would give
Utah's public colleges $5-million more each year.
Utah State officials, however, say they lost money. In addition to having fewer
students, and their tuition payments, the university and its community also
will lose money from fewer people buying books, eating in area restaurants,
and paying to live there, says Stan L. Albrecht, executive vice president and
provost at Utah State. Institution officials also felt compelled to use $1.5-million
of their own operating funds to aid about 350 students from other states who
had been attending Utah State and expected to pay resident tuition rates this
year.
"The intent of this really was to help balance the state budget,"
Mr. Albrecht says, "but it is having just the opposite effect."