News Links | November 4, 2014

SYSTEM NEWS | OPINIONS

Opinion: Whatcom guides development of emerging healthcare role The United States health care system is the most expensive in the world, but reports consistently show the U.S. underperforms relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance such as access, efficiency and healthy lives. (Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, 2014 Update: How the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally, Commonwealth Fund) Galvanized by The Affordable Care Act and a genuine commitment to improve, healthcare providers are seeking ways to reduce healthcare costs and increase patient satisfaction. One promising prescription is provided by a fairly new role in the healthcare team – patient navigation. This role has shown to positively increase patient satisfaction, lower readmission rates to hospitals and reduce healthcare costs. As a leader in workforce development and education, Whatcom Community College (WCC) is guiding training of professionals in this emerging field. Bellingham Herald, Nov. 3, 2014 Governor reappoints Armijo to CBC board Sherry Armijo has been appointed to a five-year term on the Columbia Basin College board. Gov. Jay Inslee’s office announced the appointment Monday. Armijo, who was first appointed in 2009, is the vice president of sales and marketing for Abadan in Richland. She is a graduate of Eastern Washington University and is a founding member of the Hispanic Academic Achievers Program. Tri-City Herald, Nov. 3, 2014 Big Bend receives donation of 20 automated external defibrillators The Rotary Club of Moses Lake and Kiwanis Club of Moses Lake purchased 20 automated external defibrillators (AED) that are now installed at Big Bend Community College. iFIBER One News, Nov. 3, 2014 Samaritan Healthcare honored by Big Bend for supporting nursing program Samaritan Healthcare was honored by Big Bend Community College as their Partner of the Year for their support of the college’s nursing program. For the last 12 years, Samaritan Healthcare donated $760,000 in support of the program, according to spokesman Doug Sly. iFIBER One News, Nov. 3, 2014 CPTC: Students empowering other students As the navigator of the Education to Employment Program, Josh Shulkind works to find resources for students in need, decreasing barriers to increase students’ success at Clover Park Technical College. But Shulkind has found it’s not just him who can make that happen. The Suburban Times, Nov. 3, 2014 Bellevue College hires institutional advancement vp as it prepares to turn 50 As part of its preparation for the 50th anniversary celebration in 2016, Bellevue College named Gayle Barge as its vice president of institutional advancement last week. Bellevue Reporter, Nov. 3, 2014 High school students get help writing their personal statement essays for college applications Talking about yourself is easy. Most of us do it without even thinking about it. But writing about yourself? Not so much. With college application season getting underway, it’s a challenge teens face as they begin writing their personal statement essay — a crucial part of most college applications. ... Tacoma Community College staff member Shelly Peterson read both girls’ essays and offered advice. ... Kevin Ly, a student at Tacoma’s Science and Math Institute, gets friendly advice about college admission essays from Pierce College librarian Rachel Goon on Saturday at an event that paired community volunteers with high school seniors seeking help with their writing. The News Tribune, Nov. 1, 2014 Port Townsend agency seeks funding for Fort Worden building renovation; clouded vow from Olympia inspires effort An effort to secure funding for renovation of an empty building on the Fort Worden State Park campus has kicked into high gear because of fear of losing money promised by the state Legislature. Turning 14,000 square feet of space in Building 202 into a home for Peninsula College has been planned since 2011, but action has been postponed because of funding availability and change in the management of part of Fort Worden. Peninsula Daily News, Nov. 1, 2014 Local chef has 'sweet success' Bob Lombardi is a local culinary artist who was recently featured on the Food Network show, "Halloween Wars." Although his team did not win, they made it until the final episode, which is certainly reason enough to be proud. Bob also said his run on the show built credibility in his classroom. Because when he is not making creepy zombie hair on national TV, he is teaching future Spokane sugar chefs at Spokane Community College's Inland Northwest Culinary Academy. KHQ, Nov. 1, 2014 Weigh the Pros, Cons of a Community College Bachelor's Degree Ask Daron Vchulek where he did​ his undergraduate degree and he'll proudly tell you Bellevue College. "I'm happy and proud to be part of that whole system," says Vchulek, vice president of ancillary services at a physician-owned clinic in Seattle. "I know I got a great education." Once strictly a two-year institution offering associate and technical degrees, Bellevue College is one of more than a dozen community colleges in Washington state that now offer bachelor's degrees in select fields. U.S. News and World Report, Oct. 31, 2014 YVCC Offers 4-year Degree in Business Management Yakima Valley Community College has now joined 12 other community and/or technical colleges throughout the state in offering at least one baccalalureate four-year degree program. ​Yakima Valley Business Times, Oct. 31, 2014 YVCC Offering Degree in Aerospace Machining This fall, Yakima Valley Community College (YVCC) began offering a two-year associate of applied science degree in aerospace machining technology. ​Yakima Valley Business Times, Oct. 31, 2014 CBC to offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing Columbia Basin College will offer bachelor of science degrees in nursing starting fall 2016. The Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges gave the final approval needed for CBC to add the program during its Thursday meeting in Tacoma. The goal is to help area nurses finish their last year of education and get the bachelor’s degree that is becoming an industry standard, CBC President Rich Cummins said. The industry aims for 80 percent of the nursing work force to have bachelor’s degrees by 2020. Tri-City Herald, Oct. 30, 2014   Looking For Work, Children Of Migrants Bone Up On Formal Spanish There are more than 37 million native Spanish speakers in the U.S. today. For businesses and service providers, that’s 37 million people who might prefer speaking Spanish. That has led to higher pay for bilingual employees and higher demand for language classes around the country. As the oldest daughter of farm workers who came to the Yakima Valley from Mexico, Arlette Rodriguez is used to helping her parents navigate the English speaking world. ... Now a student at Yakima Valley Community College, Rodriguez is trying to polish those skills in a course for “Heritage Learners” or formal instruction in the language she grew up speaking. ... This year, Yakima Valley Community College added a second section of Spanish for Heritage Learners for the first time; nationally, the proportion of universities offering similar classes has more than doubled since 2002. Northwest Public Radio, Oct. 29, 2014 YVCC brings four-year degree to Grandview For the first time this fall, Yakima Valley Community College offered a Bachelor of Applied Science degree at the Grandview and  Yakima campuses. Christi Kitt, BAS Coordinator for YVCC, visited the Grandview campus earlier this year to talk with students interested in registering for it, provide information, and answer questions. Grandview Herald, Oct. 22, 2014 Expertise, encouragement in 'not-native accent' at YVCC ESL Language has been a defining factor in virtually all of Inna Emeliyanenko's life. Her studies in and mastery of languages have provided unique opportunities for this Russian émigré. Those opportunities have brought her from her original home in a large, metropolitan city near the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains to a rural campus in the shadow of the Cascades, and her role as an ESL teacher. ... Eventually, she got a call from Yakima Valley Community College, with an offer to work as an ESL teacher out Outlook. Grandview Herald, Oct.22. 2014 All By Design: Behind Every Cool Building There's An Architect's Vision Architects may seem like engineers when they work with angles and forms, and yet their work also requires a highly developed sense of artistry as well. They are not handicapped by being right-brained or left-brained; they use their entire brain to design buildings whose form fits the terrain or the desires of the owner. ... Sheri Brockway and Allen Opfer are partners in BORArchitecture of Yakima. ... Brockway, who is a Yakima native, attended Yakima Valley Community College before transferring to WSU and Opfer moved to the valley as a teenager. ... BORArchitecture designs everything but residential buildings, specializing in community colleges and universities. ​Yakima Valley Business Times, Oct. 17, 2014

TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION

Getting Women to Run The American Student Government Association estimates that about 40 percent of colleges, including community colleges, have female student body presidents. That share would be lower if community colleges were not included, though no precise data seems to exist. Out of the top 100 institutions ranked this year by U.S. News and World Report, about one-third have female student body presidents or other top executives. At the same time, the number of women going to and graduating from college outpaces the number of men. Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 4, 2014 Open, but Undiscovered When faculty members choose which textbooks to assign to their students, they look for trusted names and a track record of quality -- not the price tag, a new survey suggests. While those priorities may stymie the growth and adoption of open educational resources (OER), the Babson Survey Research Group’s report on faculty members’ attitudes and opinions about those resources contains both “terrible” and “incredible” news for proponents of OER, depending on your interpretation. On one hand, faculty see open resources as just as good -- if not better -- than the products produced by traditional publishers. On the other, few faculty members have actually heard about OER. Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 4, 2014 Study: Customer Relationship Software Use Growing Nearly two-thirds of all colleges and universities are using a customer relationship management system for services such as admissions and recruitment, but only one-quarter of institutions say they are fully taking advantage of those systems, according to a report from the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 4, 2014 Missing Minority Ph.D.s The Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, whose annual meeting just concluded here, gathers 1,300 minority Ph.D. students and postdocs, and some of their advisers in what is billed as the largest annual gathering of minority doctoral students. Many here talk about the challenges created for black and Latino students who end up -- as doctoral candidates or later as junior faculty -- with few colleagues who share their backgrounds. The institute celebrates the success of new minority Ph.D.s in a ceremony in which they put on their doctoral robes, but what of those who didn't make it to the finish line? Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 3, 2014

POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL

Lamar Alexander Wants to Simplify, Simplify, Simplify Ask the average American to describe Senator Lamar Alexander, and they’ll probably mention the red-and-black plaid shirt that became the senator’s trademark when he campaigned for Tennessee's governorship in the late 1970s. Ask the average college lobbyist or education aide, and they’ll paint a different picture: Lamar standing beside a tower of boxes stuffed with regulations, railing against the burden those rules impose on colleges. Or this image: Lamar waving the 10-page paper federal student-aid application, appealing for a shorter form. For years, the Republican senator has been trotting out those two props in an effort to persuade his colleagues to roll back regulations and simplify, simplify, simplify student aid. And for years, the regulations and programs have kept on multiplying. Now, with Republicans poised to reclaim the Senate in Tuesday’s elections, Mr. Alexander may finally be in a position to change things. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 3, 2014 The Long View Critics of for-profit colleges were disappointed by the final “gainful employment” regulations. They said the Obama administration caved to industry pressure and put out a watered-down, inadequate set of rules. The U.S. Department of Education calls that narrative “misleading.” The department said the regulations are strong, legally sound and will protect students from underperforming academic programs. Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 31, 2014 With McCleary Mandate Looming, Will Wash. Class Size Initiative Help Or Hurt? If a recent poll is any indication, Washington voters appear poised to again pass a ballot initiative that calls for steeply reducing public school class sizes, this time by hiring more than 7,000 teachers over the next four years. Voters passed a similar measure in 2000 that had little effect. Lawmakers repealed it two years ago and the state's student-to-teacher ratio remains one of the nation's largest. But the group behind that 2000 class-size initiative has urged voters to reject this year's version, Initiative 1351. The group joins skeptical lawmakers and newspaper editorial boards who fear a class size-reduction measure would complicate their task of meeting a state Supreme Court order to pump another $2 billion into the state's K-12 budget. KPLU, Oct. 30, 2014 What the Wonks Are Saying About the Final Gainful-Employment Rule The U.S. Department of Education released the full text of its final gainful-employment rule on Thursday morning, and it’s a big one, weighing in at 945 pages. But sheer volume has never been enough to discourage the most devoted of higher-education observers: the diehard policy wonks, who took to Twitter with observations and analysis. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 30, 2014 In the Final 'Gainful Employment' Rule, a Key Measure Vanishes The Education Department will release on Thursday the final version of its "gainful employment" rule—the subject of years of intense debate,revision, and litigation. When it does so, it will add one last twist to the rule’s winding plot: One of two metrics for judging career programs has disappeared altogether. Under the revised rule, programs will no longer be held accountable for their cohort default rates, which describe the percentage of borrowers who are defaulting on their student loans. Instead, the programs will be evaluated based solely on their graduates’ debt-to-earnings ratios. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 30, 2014