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Green
River College begins college program prioritization
Green River
College is seeking input from faculty, staff,
students and the community for its new program prioritization
process. The process will help the college improve its programs
as well as save money as it faces a potential $4 million to $5
million budget deficit, said Derek Brandes, Green River's vice
president of instruction.
Kent Reporter, Oct. 15, 2015
Smart
software developer training strategies
To resolve the worldwide shortage of software developers, the answer
is education.But that doesn't necessarily mean a college degree, or
even a vocational-technical school certificate. ... In
Washington state, the shortage is so severe -- 10,000 unfilled
software development jobs just in the Seattle metropolitan area, as
of September 2015 -- the community college system is applying for a
grant to begin offering a credential program to give residents fast
and inexpensive access to coding skills. "This is targeted at
people who already have a bachelor's degree, because companies in
Washington want employees with college degrees," said Maureen
Majury, director of the
Center of Excellence for Information and Computing Technology
at Bellevue
College in Bellevue, Wash. "Our tuition can be a
lot cheaper than those private programs, and the goal is to
eventually have this in most of our 32 locations across the
state."
TechTarget, Oct. 16, 2015
CBC
Student Safety Day draws many
Long lines formed for popcorn, and other more important reasons at Columbia Basin College's
pavilion. "We hand out candy, we also hand out popcorn, but
mostly we get them encouraged to understand campus safety," said
Brady Brooks of CBC's administration. Now in its sixth year,
Student Safety Day educates students about campus safety
options. And this year it has many students more at ease in the
wake of the Oregon campus shooting earlier this month.
KEPR TV, Oct. 16, 2015
Drone
technology flies into Bellevue College
A new Bellevue
College course is addressing the next wave in
technology: drones. “Now we’re beginning to see the next wave,
it’s the wave of robots and they’re coming. There’s going to be all
different kinds of automated vehicles out there,” said Greg Foy, a
veteran of the technology industry and one of the men behind the
drone course.
Bellevue Reporter, Oct. 16, 2015
Former
WCC president Harold Heiner dies
Former longtime Whatcom
Community College President Harold Heiner died
Saturday, Oct. 17, at the age of 76 after a battle with Parkinson’s
disease. Heiner was instrumental in creating a central campus
for WCC during his 24 years as president. Family and former
colleagues say he will be remembered for his compassion toward
students. ... Current WCC President Kathi Hiyane-Brown, in a
statement released Monday, said Heiner will be remembered for his
belief in the power of education and for his work to make college
accessible for all students.“Dr. Heiner’s can-do spirit was
infectious. His passionate advocacy on behalf of students inspired
colleagues and community members, who carry on his students-first
philosophy today,” Hiyane-Brown said.
Bellingham Herald, Oct. 19, 2015
WSU,
state college board start new transfer student program
Washington State University Tri-Cities will participate in a pilot
program that will allow transfer students to apply credits earned at
the campus toward unfinished associate degrees. The State Board for Community
and Technical Colleges and the Washington Council of
Presidents are working in partnership with the WSU system on the
program. As many as 1,000 transfer students will be eligible to
participate. ... About 200 new transfer students are enrolled at
WSU Tri-Cities, according to initial enrollment estimates. The north
Richland campus has frequently been a destination for students who
start at Columbia
Basin College in Pasco.
Tri-City Herald, Oct. 18, 2015
10
campuses receive $2.9 million grant from U.S. Department of Education
to strengthen educational opportunities of Native American, Pacific
Islander, Asian American students
... Arne Duncan, the nation's secretary of education, said that
"these funds will enhance the quality of these schools to better
prepare Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander students
for success in college and careers, by giving them the skills they
need to compete in the 21st century, global economy." This
program has set specific requirements to be eligible for the grant.
From the enrollment statistics of the school's undergraduates, at
least 10% of the total undergraduate population are Native American
Pacific Islanders and Asian-Americans. Grantees include ...
Washington's Highline
College ...
iSchoolGuide, Oct. 19, 2015
Running
Start program brings more than 350 North Olympic Peninsula students
into college early
More than 350 area high school students are gaining a lead on their
education this year by already being enrolled in college thanks to a
program that continues to grow steadily on the North Olympic
Peninsula. In the fall 2015 quarter, 354 high school juniors
and seniors registered for classes at Peninsula College,
representing every high school in the area.
Peninsula Daily News, Oct. 19, 2015
LCC
middle hitter's YouTube video (2.8 million views) led to appearance
on 'Ellen'
Not everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame, but Lower Columbia
College sophomore middle hitter Madison Studer’s
time in the sun has now stretched for more than two years. In January
2013, Studer posted a YouTube video of her wisdom teeth removal for
her grandmother to see, not knowing it would become one of the
most-watched videos in YouTube history and earn her an appearance on
the “Ellen DeGeneres Show.” ... More than two years since the
video went viral, Studer is leaning toward a career in video
production. At LCC, she’s the vice president for student activities
for the Associated Students of Lower Columbia College. Besides
her wisdom tooth video, she has done several high school video
productions along with promotional videos for LCC.
The Daily News, Oct. 20, 2015
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TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION
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ASAP
Graduates
The City University of New York will today announce a major expansion
of a program that has had remarkable success at improving graduation
rates of community college students. CUNY plans to enroll all new
full-time students at Bronx Community College in the program, with a
goal of having a 50 percent three-year graduation rate. There
are many efforts around the country showing progress at improving
community colleges' graduation rates. But CUNY's announcement today
-- including a goal of applying one of the most promising of these
programs to an entire college -- represents an effort to take such a
program and bring it to scale, something that has not generally been
attempted. The program, Accelerated Study in Associate
Programs, or ASAP, has many fans in New York State and also in
Washington, D.C., where President Obama has praised it. The program
provides students with much more academic and financial support than
most community college students receive: free tuition, textbooks and
public transportation, and regular required contact with an adviser
who has a relatively small caseload.
Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 16, 2015
As Campus
Gun Violence Increases, So Do Professors' Fears
Gallows humor masks feelings of helplessness and anger as faculty members
speculate on the grim probability of more classroom shootings.
... On social media, their comments are a mix of worry and
anger. "I hate being afraid of my students, but I am,"
wrote one. "If I’m the next professor to die because politicians
refuse to act on gun control, please politicize my death. Thank you
in advance," wrote another. "None of us went into
academia with the idea we'd qualify for combat pay," said Kevin
M. Gannon, chairman of the history department at Grand View
University, in Iowa.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 12, 2015
Older
parents face college-debt crunch
Higher education is certainly a priority for this tight-knit Maple
Valley family.
[Green River] College professor Walter Lowe and
his wife, Annerose Lowe, are determined to help their five children
earn college degrees and start their careers without taking on mounds
of student debt. But the Lowes are also older parents in their
50s and 60s. They have a six-figure mortgage, limited savings and a
break-even cash flow that makes additional savings difficult.
The Seattle Times, Oct. 17, 2015
New grant
will create prizes for faculty using digital courseware
The Online Learning Consortium, in a move to encourage professors to
develop and use digital courseware, will offer new prizes for
faculty-led teams that advance and adopt sophisticated online courses
with “a strong pedagogical focus and a sustained impact on student
success in gateway courses,” the organization announced at its
conference here last week. The organization, formerly known as
the Sloan Consortium, said it would award up to 10 prizes of $10,000
each to the faculty teams, beginning in 2016. It will also provide up
to three prizes of $100,000 each, it said, to institutions that
showcase sustained innovation “on a broader scale” in the use of the
courses.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 19, 2015
High-School
Diploma Options Multiply, but May Not Set Up Students for College
Success
For too many students, high-school diplomas are "tickets to
nowhere" that offer "false assurances" that graduates
are ready for college or a job, according to a report released on
Monday. The report, "How the States Got Their Rates,"
was issued by Achieve, a nonprofit group that works with states to
raise academic standards and graduation requirements. As states
try to increase their high-school graduation rates and tailor
programs to different goals, the number of diploma options has become
"incredibly complex," the report notes. ... Achieve’s
report was released amid growing concerns that students graduating
from high school aren’t ready for college. Last week the American
Association of Community Colleges, the Association of Community
College Trustees, and Higher Ed for Higher Standards announced a plan
to work together to push for more-demanding standards for high-school
graduation. The three groups reported that about half of
first-year students at two-year colleges and one in five of those
entering four-year institutions require remedial coursework before
they can start college-level classes.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 19, 2015
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POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL
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What’s
the First Lady’s New Public-Awareness Campaign All About? And Could
It Work?
Michelle Obama on Monday unveiled a new element of her work to
encourage young people to pursue education beyond high school: a
public-awareness campaign called "Better Make
Room." The campaign, which rolled out with a diverse list
of partners including the Lumina Foundation, Mashable, and Funny or Die,
has a website, a hashtag, and a video in the style of a
public-service announcement. Users can also sign up for
college-related text-message reminders.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 19, 2015
What
Duncan Wishes He’d Done Differently — and What’s Next for the
Education Dept.
If the departing secretary of education, Arne Duncan, has any regrets
about his supervision of higher education, it’s not cracking down on
"bad actors" in the for-profit-college sector
sooner. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Mr. Duncan, who has
served as secretary since the start of the Obama administration and
who announced this month that he planned to step down in December,
twice said he wished he’d issued the "gainful employment"
rule earlier than in 2009.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 19, 2015
Colleges
Embrace Pell Grant Expansion for Prisoners
More than 200 colleges and universities have said they’re interested
in joining the Obama administration’s pilot program that will provide
Pell Grants to incarcerated students, an official said
Monday. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell told reporters
that the Education Department had received “over 200” letters of
interest from colleges and universities that want to participate in
the program, which the administration has dubbed Second Chance Pell.
Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 20, 2015
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