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Herald-Leader
August 18, 2003
Despite tuition hike, only KSU shows lower enrollment
Most of Kentucky's eight public universities appear headed toward modest growth
in enrollment this fall, despite fears that increased tuition would keep students
away.
But university administrators are worried that more shortfalls in state revenues
will force another state budget cut this fall, making it even harder to handle
increased enrollment.
The only institution that may be headed for a loss in total enrollment is Kentucky
State University, the state's historically black university. As of early Friday
morning, 2,074 students had registered, a drop of 7.9 percent from a year ago.
KSU's classes start today, and university spokeswoman Akiia Richardson said
the university hopes to pick up more students during the late registration period
this week.
Five of the public universities forecast slightly increased enrollments: Western
Kentucky University; Northern Kentucky University; Murray State University;
Eastern Kentucky University and Morehead State University.
Enrollments at the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville
should remain about the same. UK, EKU, Morehead and Western had record enrollments
last year.
Provost Mike Nietzel, UK's chief academic officer, said part of the difficulty
in projecting UK's enrollment is uncertainty about the effect of tougher immigration
standards that may prevent some international students from entering the United
States.
UK is also intentionally keeping its total of entering freshmen roughly equal
to last year's number, because it did not have enough money to add faculty,
Nietzel said.
"If you feel an obligation to maintain the quality of your programs for
the students who are already there, you simply cannot let everybody in when
your state appropriation is being cut and you don't have the money to add faculty
and the other things you need to accommodate a lot more students," he said.
UK isn't anticipating a housing shortage this fall like it experienced last
year, said spokeswoman Mary Margaret Colliver.
With the approval of the state Council on Postsecondary Education, U of L is
letting its undergraduate enrollment drop while increasing its graduate school
enrollment, spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said.
UK and U of L are the state's only research universities, and the council expects
them to put added emphasis on doctoral and research programs as part of a long-term
plan to improve higher education in Kentucky.
Enrollment at KSU has almost certainly been affected by the tumult surrounding
the school's presidency. Former President George Reid left when his contract
was not renewed when it expired June 30, 2002, in the wake of allegations that
Reid had misused university funds and left KSU in organizational shambles.
Reid sued KSU but eventually settled with the university. In the meantime,
KSU brought in Interim President William H. Turner on Jan. 1.
The Daily Independent
August 16, 2003
ACTC to offer credit for radiology program
ASHLAND Students in King's Daughters Medical Center's radiology technology
program will soon be able to get college credit for it through Ashland Community
and Technical College.
The Kentucky Community and Technical College System Board of Regents on Friday
approved a proposal to accept the program.
"We're very pleased the program's been approved. We think it's a model
program," ACTC President Greg Adkins said in a phone interview from Henderson,
where the board of regents met Thursday and Friday.
The radiology agreement is ACTC's first partnership program in the in-house
sciences department.
King's Daughters and ACTC have yet to hammer out all the details of the agreement,
said Keith Brammell, chairman of the Division of Health Sciences at ACTC. Adkins
said he and KDMC President and CEO Fred Jackson will make a joint announcement
when the agreement is finalized.
ACTC will offer credit for the two-year radiology program; that credit combined
with the appropriate general education credits will earn an associate of applied
science degree, Brammell said.
King's Daughters has been training radiologists - X-ray technicians to the
layman - for more than 40 years in its in-house program. The hospital's School
of Radiologic Technology was established in 1959 and graduated its first students
in 1961, according to Julie Marsh, public relations specialist. It has continuously
received accreditation and most recently received a 10-year accreditation last
fall.
The program accepts eight or nine students each year and is very competitive,
Marsh said. There are nine students registered for the fall session, which begins
Monday, Adkins said.
The school's basic course work takes two years to complete, Marsh said, following
which students can go on to specialize in a number of fields, including mammography,
CAT scanning and ultrasound. Many of the graduates go to work at KDMC, she said.
Currently, students can get certification through the KDMC program. Making
it part of a degree program makes the students "more marketable,"
Brammell said.
Students would pay King's Daughters tuition for the radiology classes and ACTC
tuition for other classes in their degree program, Brammell said
Courier-Journal
August 17, 2003
Ex-miners find job security in hospitals
Medical field is booming as coal sputters
PIKEVILLE, Ky. — As a father trying to feed a growing family on a miner's
wages, Michael Trivette grew tired of the pink slips that had become as much
a part of life in the Appalachian coalfields as black dust.
Miners, it seemed, had to worry more about layoffs than rock falls in the ups
and downs of a struggling mountain economy.
"In the coal mines, it's feast or famine," Trivette said. "You
can't count on anything, except maybe being laid off."
Trivette wanted job security, and he, like many other blue-collar workers in
Appalachia, looked to the booming health-care industry to provide it.
Now, they're the new faces of the health industry in the mountain region, staffing
clinics and hospitals where they care for some of the people they once worked
with in and around the coal mines.
"It's a tough job," said Trivette, who channels his decade of coal
experience into empathy as the lone physician serving a small mining community
about 10 miles from Pikeville. "Only someone who has had to shovel and
dig doing manual labor for 10, 12, 14 hours a day understands that."
Trivette's transition from miner to doctor is unusual. Most who trade in their
hard hats, tools and trucks become nurses, radiology technologists and even
medical transcriptionists.
No one tracks the shift of mining workers into health-care jobs, but Kentucky
Coal Association President Bill Caylor estimated that hundreds of the 15,000
mine workers who lost jobs in the state over the past decade have made the move.
Considering the diverging fortunes of the two industries, it's plain to see
why.
Over the past two decades, employment in Kentucky's mining industry dropped
to 15,500 from 46,395, and some economists predict a 25percent to 30percent
drop in earnings and employment over the next decade.
The health-care and social-assistance industry, by contrast, already has a
higher payroll than mining in Eastern Kentucky's largest coal-producing counties,
and it is still in need of workers.
A state occupational outlook predicted hospitals in Kentucky will need to increase
the number of registered nurses by 23percent over the next three years. Last
year alone, the state hospital association estimated a shortage of about 1,700
nurses.
"Clearly, health care is one of the few opportunities in the Appalachian
coalfields where workers can turn from the coal industry," said Ewell Balltrip,
executive director of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission.
Balltrip said he sees the move as good not just for the worker, but for the
patient.
"For many of these men, especially coal miners, they have not only learned
about an injury, but they have probably experienced that injury themselves,"
Balltrip said. "They bring a different perspective they wouldn't have had
if they had been in health care all along."
For Michael McNeely, a pink slip from Coastal Coal in Whitesburg last year
was his ticket to a new life.
"I'm the type (of) person, I like being around people, and I love to help
people," said McNeely, who is working as a nursing assistant while he takes
nursing classes at a community college. "With the nursing shortage, health
care offers job security."
Of the 60 students enrolled in the nursing program at Southeast Community College
in Cumberland, 10 are men — three times the national ratio.
"Some are coal miners, some mechanics, some factory workers," said
Milton Borntrager, director of the program. "And they're excelling as nurses.
Often, they're quickly promoted into administrative positions."
Patrick Bailey, a 34-year-old former factory worker from Middlesboro, said
health care is about the only industry in central Appalachia that is not threatened
with automation.
"When it comes to care of people, that can't be turned over to a machine,"
said Bailey, a 34-year-old nursing student at Southeast. "This work can
only be done by people, and there is a growing need. That, to me, represents
job security."
Jerry Gibbs, a registered nurse from Partridge, spent the first 20 years of
his working life as a mechanic, maintaining the trucks used in mining and quarrying.
Now, he is in his third year of caring for some of the region's sickest patients
in the intensive care unit at the Hazard Appalachian Regional Hospital.
Gibbs, 44, said nursing brings a gratification he never would have known as
a mechanic. It also more than doubled the $24,000 a year he earned previously.
"I'm doing something now that allows me to make a real living for my family,"
he said. "That means a lot."
At King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, Carl Keyes is an emergency room
nurse. Keyes, who was one of hundreds of men laid off from their jobs at a steel
mill in Ashland more than a decade ago, chose nursing.
"It's probably the toughest job I've ever done," he said. "You
deal with life and death. It kind of tears your heart out sometimes. But there
also are times when you save someone and they come back and thank you. It makes
it worth it."
Keyes, 50, said the work force at AK Steel had been anxious about job cuts
that had been rumored for months. He already had been temporarily laid off four
times.
"It's horrible, not knowing if you have that next paycheck coming in,"
he said. "You knew it was coming. You just didn't know when."
In the past 10 years, since he became a nurse, he has not had that worry. When
the steel mill offered him his job back, he didn't hesitate to reject the offer.
"I absolutely love what I'm doing," he said. "I can't see myself
doing anything else."
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