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Pierce
College celebrates Disability History Month
Throughout the month of October, Pierce
College campuses will hold a number of events designed to
raise awareness and understanding of people living with disabilities.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities
Act, which prohibits discrimination based on a person’s
disability. The Access and Disabilities Services departments on both
campuses are designed to ensure all students with disabilities enjoy
equal access to all college activities and programs.
The Suburban Times, Oct. 20, 2015
Marine
technology program getting rebuilt with high school students’ futures in
mind
Leaders are planning to revamp the high school marine technology program
in hopes of attracting more interest, and students, so the program can
restart next fall. ... Now, the program has more of a boatbuilding
focus, with jobs focused on companies like Dakota Creek Industries,
Walker said. They’re finding students are interested in other areas as
well, including maintenance, boat chartering and working on a boat crew.
Broadening the program will draw from a deeper pool, he said. That
would make the high school program more of a precursor to the Skagit Valley College
marine tech classes, which are going strong. High schoolers could start
the new high school program in the fall or opt to take the college-level
marine tech classes through Running Start.
Anacortes American, Oct. 21, 2015
Polio losing
to good people taking action
If you sometimes despair about the myriad problems the world faces, you
should talk with Ezra Teshome. I guarantee he’ll help you see
possibilities in place of problems. “In a sea of problems you could
walk away saying it is too much, or you could make a difference for one
person,” Teshome told me. ... This week he’s celebrating a victory
over polio, a disease that once preyed on millions of people around the
world. Teshome will be among the speakers at a celebration of World Polio
Day at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Saturday. And there is
good news this year. ... When he was in high school, young people
were part of a movement demanding changes in the government of Haile
Selassie who had been emperor since 1930. Schools were often closed for
days, weeks, even months because of the protests. A friend
suggested Teshome go elsewhere to finish his education and pointed him
here. So in 1971, at 18, he entered
Highline Community College, then earned a pre-law degree
from Seattle University intending to go to law school, then return to
Ethiopia.
The Seattle Times, Oct. 21, 2015
Editorial:
Marine tech program can flourish with new energy, ideas
... We remember well the excitement when the marine skills center
opened — and the community’s support and the expectations that young
people would get excellent vocational training and be in line for
entry-level positions here and elsewhere in an industry that struggles at
times to fill jobs. Here was an opportunity to grow our local work
force and grow the marine trades here. Those goals can still be
realized. There is also good news at the skills center. The marine
technology classes offered through Skagit
Valley College are going strong with college students
getting the training they need and going to work. Also, the aerospace
program for high school students has been a success. A second class has
been added and 34 students are enrolled in all.
Anacortes
American, Oct. 21, 2015
A Halloween
competition worth $50,000: Local sugar artist competes on
Halloween Wars
Halloween Wars just started its fifth season earlier this month, and we
have one of the competitors in the studio with us. Rebecca Wortman, a
sugar artist on Team Morbid Morticians has been creating buttercream
sculptures since 2012. She has many notable titles - one of the Top
Ten Cake Artists in North America in 2014, Best Sugar Sculpture in 2012,
and she is a member of the American Culinary Federation. Rebecca
graduated from the Spokane
Community College Professional Baking Program and she is
now a Chef Educator for the Spokane Community College Inland
Northwest Culinary Academy After Dark program. ... Halloween Wars
airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on Food Network.
KING 5 TV, Oct. 21, 2015
I don't need
to look like a beast to win': Female lumberjack champion refuses to stop
feeling 'glamorous' and 'sexy' because of her muscular physique
A stunning female lumberjack is shattering the manly image associated
with the sport by crushing competition twice her size to claim the title
of world champion, three times. Despite not having a big belly or a
bushy beard, Erin LaVoie, 33, from Spokane, Washington, holds two world
records and is a three-time Iron Jill in lumberjack sports. Erin
first joined a lumberjack team - the SCC Gyppos - aged 19 while studying
forestry at Spokane
Community College. At that point, in 2002, very few
women were practicing the sport, so she was forced to face off against male
competitors. But while they put up a good fight, it wasn't long before
Erin started winning against even the toughest opponents.
UK Daily Mail, Oct. 21, 2015
A walk
through climate catastrophe with artist Mary Iverson
What’s the best vantage point for taking in the apocalypse? The rim
of Crater Lake is a possibility. A woodland pond near Mount Rainier
offers another fine option. Or maybe the coast of Maui is the best
alternative. In “You and Me in the Aftermath,” a new show by Seattle
artist Mary Iverson at G. Gibson Gallery, environmental and volcanic
devastation fills every horizon — and the reaction of the tiny human
figures who observe it is pure nonchalance. Hikers keep hiking. Tourists
keep gawking. And kids crane excitedly over a glacier-deep river of ships
and bright cargo containers clogging the Columbia Gorge. Iverson,
who teaches at Skagit
Valley College in Mount Vernon, is a landscape surrealist
with an eco-warrior agenda. She deliberately “ruins” her pictures with
inks, acrylics and X-ACTO knives to get her point across.
The Seattle Times,
Oct. 21, 2015
Aiden Hunter
is 14, and he's been attending college for two years
In his student ID photo, Aiden Hunter offers a bright, youthful smile.
His wavy dark hair flips off his head just above his shoulders and curls
across his forehead in sweeping bangs. He’s 12 in the photo — 20
years younger than the average Lower
Columbia College student. Now, at 14, Aiden says he
loves college life. He has prospered, carrying a full course load of
physics, calculus and computer science, getting on the President’s List
this year and carrying above a 3.7 GPA.
The Daily News, Oct. 22, 2015
CPTC Sends
Expression of Support to Umpqua Community College
Umpqua Community College has been on the minds of Clover Park Technical College
faculty, staff and students since the tragic shooting Oct. 1. To show
their support, officers from CPTC’s Beta Omicron Gamma chapter of the Phi
Theta Kappa (PTK) International Honor Society designed a banner and
invited the college community to sign it before they mailed it
to the Oregon community college.
The Suburban Times, Oct. 22, 2015
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TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION
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How community
colleges changed the whole idea of education in America
Community colleges have been at the forefront of nearly every major
development in higher education. In January of 2015, President Obama
unveiled his “American College Promise” program – a plan to make two
years of community college education available free of charge to
“everyone who’s willing to work for it.” In offering the proposal, the
president did not just venture a partial solution to the student debt
crisis. He joined a growing community of thinkers who see the community
college as central to solving a wide variety of problems in higher
education, from cost and inclusivity to career-preparedness and community
engagement. The role of problem-solver is one that community colleges are
well-equipped to play. Just over a century old, community colleges have
been at the forefront of nearly every major development in higher
education since their inception. To appreciate the role that community
colleges can be expected to play in reforming higher education today,
Americans would do well to consider their long history of innovation.
... Inexpensive, often publicly funded, and open to a wider
cross-section of Americans than many of their four-year counterparts,
these junior colleges were celebrated as “people’s colleges.” Though a
far cry from full inclusiveness, these male-dominated, majority-white
schools nevertheless catered to a broader swath of working-class
Americans than nearly any other contemporary educational institution.
TIME, Oct. 20, 2015
Grant
Programs Get Persnickety
To tame a rising tide of grant proposals, federal agencies are becoming
sticklers about enforcing their application requirements — stating
deadlines in hundredths of seconds and using software to prevent the
submission of error-riddled applications In announcing grant
programs now, a variety of agencies include explicit language warning
applicants that failure to follow the guidelines for file names, content,
and format could result in the proposal’s being returned without review.
It is more important than ever to closely follow all requirements spelled
out in a call for proposals and to submit early enough to fix any
mistakes caught by the submission system. Application guidelines are
nothing new, but the ferocity with which they are being enforced is. The
wrong font size on a proposal could lead to its rejection, forcing the
applicant to wait months until the next grant cycle to resubmit. The
delay can prove damaging with the tenure and promotion clock ticking.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 21, 2015
Who Should
Prevent Social Media Harassment?
On Wednesday 72 women's and civil rights organizations urged the U.S.
Education Department to tell colleges that they must monitor anonymous
apps like Yik Yak -- frequently the source of sexist and racist comments
about named or identifiable students -- and do something to protect those
students who are named. The groups said they view anonymous online abuse
as an emerging issue under provisions of the Title IX of the Education
Amendments of 1972. For colleges, Yik Yak and similar apps have
already led to numerous protests and anger, but some experts question the
practicality and legality of administrators doing what the groups want.
Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 22, 2015
Report on
Competencies Sought by Employers
A report last month from the Committee on Economic Development examined
which competencies employers find essential in the workers they want to
hire, as well as which competencies are in short supply. ...The report
found more than 90 percent of business leaders found problem solving and
the ability to work with others of diverse backgrounds the most important
competencies that led to being hired at their organizations. Those two
areas were followed closely by critical thinking and teamwork or
collaboration as important to have.
Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 22, 2015
The “O” word:
Confessions of a Community College Dean
... Over the last ten years -- twenty, really -- public colleges'
revenues have shifted from states (and sometimes counties) to students.
As their revenue sources start to look more like the privates, they start
to behave more like the privates. Except that the mission is different.
Private colleges can choose to shrink via increased
selectivity ...Selectivity can make life easier for a private
college, since it can outsource the riskiest populations to community
colleges. Change the risk profile of your student body, and you will
change outcomes. Improved retention and graduation rates can offset some
of the tuition loss over time. For community colleges, selectivity
isn’t an option; it would violate the mission. In an environment in which
tuition is sixty percent or more of a college's budget, enrollment drops
mean immediate budget crunches. ... If we want community colleges to
maintain academic standards while serving smaller populations, we're
going to have to come to terms with the trend of cost-shifting to students.
States offloaded costs onto students; then, the students went away. That
leaves colleges in a bad spot. ... If you want to maintain quality
with shrinking enrollments, you'll need to offset the shrinking
enrollments with... Anyone...? Increased operating aid.
Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 22, 2015
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POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL
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The quest for
a higher education deal
Murray and Alexander are working to whittle down a long list of proposals
for the next major education policy bill. ... Discussions between
Murray and Alexander’s staffs began recently, and the panel’s goal
is to write a bill by year’s end. The ongoing conversations between
the panel’s staff follows many bipartisan working group meetings—open
to any HELP Committee member’s aides—that the chairman and ranking
member announced in May. The staff met almost daily during the summer
to discuss the four major issues they were tasked with analyzing: accountability,
accreditation, college affordability and financial aid, and
campus sexual assault and safety.
National Journal, Oct. 21, 2015
Ed Dept. to
Schools: You must teach all students, regardless of legal status
A new guide offers pointers on how to educate undocumented students. The
Education Department just issued a subtle reminder to educators
across the country: Regardless of citizenship or immigration
status, all students are legally entitled to education in the United
States. Aimed at high school and college students as well as educators,
a new guide lays out information about deferred action
for childhood arrivals (DACA), which offers some young people a temporary
reprieve from deportation and opens access to some jobs and scholarships.
The guide also outlines which states allow undocumented college
students to apply for financial aid.
National Journal, Oct. 22, 2015
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