Fall 2003
A
Message from the President
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As I begin this article for
the first Kollator of my term as President of AKCCOP, I look out at
the campus as it awakens to a new year. The students, who are for the first
time attending college classes, are fulfilling their dreams to be an artist,
a nurse, a math instructor, etc. There are so many opportunities that lie
ahead for them.
As the President of AKCCOP, I
am excited about the many opportunities for all of you as members of the
Association for Kansas Community College Office Professionals.
You have the opportunity to:
●apply for a grant in the
amount of $200, to assist you in furthering your education
●learn what is happening at
other community and technical colleges throughout the state of Kansas by
reading the Kollator
●attend the annual conference where you can
network with office professionals at colleges throughout Kansas, increasing
your contacts and personal knowledge. Many of these office professionals
handle jobs similar to yours; therefore, you can share problems, solutions,
insights and ideas.
In addition to the above
opportunities, if you attend the conference, you will receive a membership
list with phone numbers and e-mails, so you are able to network with office
professionals you meet at the conference. It is my hope during my term to
add a list serve or discussion board to allow AKCCOP members to stay
connected throughout the year.
The office professionals at
Johnson County
Community College are preparing for your arrival on March 31st,.for
the 37th annual AKCCOP conference.
My challenge to each of you
is that you plan to attend this year’s conference, and that you invite one
other office professional to join you in Overland Park, Kansas on March 31,
April 1 & 2, 2004. So “GET ON TRACK WITH AKCCOP” and make
arrangements to attend this year’s conference in Overland Park. You can
find information regarding the conference at: web.jccc.net/academic/akcco
or call me at 913-469-7654,
I am interested in keeping in
touch with each and every one of you. Please call or e-mail me (I’ll even
respond to snail mail) if you have suggestions, ideas, concerns, or if you
would like to have an active role in planning future events for AKCCOP.
This is your organization, so please stay connected and
“Make A Difference”!
Happy Office Professonalling
and remember,” I’ts not the hours you put in your work that counts, it’s the
work you put in the hours.” (Sam Ewing)
Sally Gordon
President
Barton
County Community College
Caicey Schartz, Reporter
schartzc@bartonccc.edu
Greetings from Barton
County
Community College! To start our new year on campus the BCCCOP members with
the help of many others around campus helped the students move into student
housing in August. The days just seem to be flying by quite rapidly around
here.
A Bosses Day luncheon with a
Halloween theme is being planned for the October meeting.
Our college newspaper the
Interrobang has had much success the past year. The newspaper staff won
Best of Show, received first place in general excellence, at the 2003
National College Publications Workshops in Washington, D.C.
The Foundation office is
gearing up to “Celebrate the Silver” 25 years of success at their Big
Benefit Auction on Saturday, October 4, 2003. This event enables the
community to reflect on the success of the auctions before, and to applaud
the recipients that have become assets to their communities and to the world
because of the generous support.
Colby Community College
Doris Anderson, Reporter
www.colbycc.edu
We once again celebrated Secretaries Week in April with a gift exchange from
our secret pals. Our administration hosted a fantastic luncheon for us that
week. We then met to reveal our secret pals. In May we hosted a work-study
pizza luncheon to show our appreciation to our work-study students.
Officers for this year are Jody Engel, President; (the Vice President
position is currently vacant); Bridget Murray, Secretary; and Melanie
Fortin, Treasurer. Doris Anderson heads our sunshine committee and also is
the Kollator reporter.
Jeanne Thyfault was a guest at our first Office Professionals meeting in
September. She is the Director of the Resource & Referral Agency on campus.
They provide referrals for childcare to area families. She explained how
they operate and provided us information on the local and state agencies.
We
then discussed ideas for service projects for this year, and members were
encouraged to develop ideas for possible future projects to bring to the
October meeting. We talked about ways to promote our organization to
non-members on campus.
We awarded two sophomore
scholarships for the 2003-04 school year. The recipients were Seth Albin and
Kayla Wilson. This is a rewarding annual project. Applications are received
in the spring for fall awarding.
Campus events began
September 11 with our first Dr. Max Pickerill Lecture Series presentation
featured Dr. Robert Rook focusing on the crisis in the Middle East and the
culture of that area. In February and March we will host Dr. Ed Ramey and
Robert Kennedy, Jr.
Our rodeo team hosted their
seventh annual NIRA Rodeo on September 26-28 at the E. L. Garrett Arena of
the Thomas County Fairgrounds. There were more than 450 contestants from 22
colleges in Kansas and
Oklahoma competing. Men’s events included bareback bronc riding, calf
roping, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, team roping, and bull riding.
Women’s events were breakaway calf roping, goat tying, and barrel racing.
Our faculty and staff
continue to write reports and prepare for the fall 2004 site visit by The
Higher Learning Commission.
Midnight Madness is planned for September 30 as a kickoff to our
basketball season. The faculty and staff have been invited to participate in
a “Shouters, Shooters, and B.B. Dribblers” contest (cheer, free throw, and
dribbling contests). We anticipate another good year for our basketball and
wrestling teams.
Our annual Phonathon is set
for October 19-22. Presidential Scholars, Student Senate members, and
interested students make calls to alumni soliciting donations. Last year’s
campaign raised in excess of $32,000? for scholarships.
This fall we welcomed new
faculty members to our staff including Diane Williams, business instructor;
Kelly Riccitelli, equine program instructor; Corey Sorenson, radio
instructor; and Matt Ellicott, livestock judging coach/instructor; and Kerri
Schippers, director of nursing.
Our drama department will
perform two one-act plays, “Hotline” and “Pizza: A Love Story”, November
13-15 at 7:30 p.m. at our Cultural Arts Center.
A big thank-you to Labette
for hosting the 2003 AKCCOP seminar! Melanie Fortin and Bridget Murray
attended from our group and found the experience to be very rewarding and
enjoyable.
Check out
www.colbycc.edu to see our new website. Faculty member Rod Thomasson
gave us his summer vacation to coordinate the pages.
Dodge City Community College
Marge Blattner, Reporter
blattner.marge@usd443.org
Greetings from Dodge City Community College!! I
have taken a full-time position as Human Resources Secretary with USD 443 in
Dodge City, however, I continue with my part-time work as Administrative
Assistant to the Dodge City Community College Endowment Association.
Unfortunately, I am not able to participate as much with the Office Plant
Professionals on campus, so the news is pretty sketchy this time.
The big news from our group is Jewell Perkins'
retirement. A retirement recognition was held in her honor on August
29 - a day to remember. It started to rain, big time, at about 1:00
p.m.--just about the time the recognition began, and it dumped around 8
inches of water on Dodge City in the next three hours. There was water
everywhere--I said, "God is crying buckets because Jewell is leaving us."
Anyway, the recognition went on and it was a real hoot. One of
Jewell's favorite people showed up to wish her well, Elvis. We all
sang an Elvis song and had a real blast. Jewell started at Dodge City
Community College in 1980. We all enjoyed her and she will be missed
terribly.
Charlotte Funkhouser has transferred from
Secretary of the Upward Bound Program to Residence Life Office Manager.
Charlotte tells me, "I love my new job with Residence Life. I love
being with the students. We have a great RA Staff, it was a great move
for me." We all wish Charlotte the best.
On a sort of a personal note, Fran Durant, Fine
Arts Secretary, and I went back to Fowler (Kansas) for our 50th High School
reunion this past weekend. What a great time we had reminiscing with
15 of the 24 who were in our graduating class! A couple of our "old"
teachers came back for the reunion, too. It's just amazing how well we
have all "held up" for the past 40 years.
Hutchinson Community College
Tammy Neal, Reporter
nealt@hutchcc.edu
Greetings from Office Professionals at
Hutchinson
Community College!
I hope some of you were able to stop by and take a look at a few of the
exhibits that were at the Kansas State Fair. They had some great ones this
year.
We would like to thank
Labette Community College for a
great conference in April 2003. You all did a great job! We met a lot of
news friends and hope to see many of you and hopefully new faces at the
conference coming up at Johnson County
Community College in spring 2004. It sounds like a lot more fun ahead.
Our new board for the 2003-04
school is: President – Ana Taggart; Vice-President – Jill Crank;
Secretary/Treasurer – Rosalie Harper; and Reporter – Tammy Neal.
The guest speaker, for the
first meeting is Carolyn Parson. Carolyn has a master’s degree from Friends
University, Wichita,
specializing in Human Resource Development and Organizational Development.
She teaches Human Relations, Success Seminar/College Orientation, Managing &
Resolving Conflict, and Stress Management. Some of these classes are taught
online. She speaks to HCC classes about diversity and is a diverse trainer
for the city of Hutchinson. She will speak to our office professionals
about personalities in the work environment.
This year we have the
opportunity to help out with the football homecoming festivities. We will
be helping with “running the gauntlet” (a bungee run).
The Office Professionals here
at Hutchinson
Community College,
would like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday season that will be
arriving upon us soon. Keep safe and healthy and we will see you in the
spring.
Johnson County Community College
Kathy LaBelle,
Reporter
klabelle@jccc.net
“Get Ready! Get Set! Let’s
Roll!” wrote Mary Toepfer, our JCCC incoming president of OPL in the fall
issue of our Grapevine newsletter (posted on our JCCC OPL website).
With the challenge before us, “No OPL member left behind,” we are off to a
great start. Several new committees have been formed and are already busy
with assignments. This year we are redesigning our OPL website, working on
a taskforce to match new office and technical staff with those who have
worked on campus for a number of years as mentors, and we are formulating
plans to host AKCCOP this spring. “We have many challenges and
opportunities in the year ahead and we will face each one of them with
unbridled enthusiasm,” Mary stated.
Sherri Conner, our OPL
vice-president, along with her program committee has already established
monthly programs for each general meeting from now until December and they
sound really great! In September we had Gina Helget, JCCC Registrar, speak
to us on how to deal with angry customers. In October Community Services
Committee plans to discuss three areas of service in which our membership
can be involved: Working with the campus CLEAR program, gathering school
supplies for distribution among the needy children in the area, and helping
with crafts, bingo and entertainment in a local nursing home. In November
Phyllis Bergstrom will speak to the membership about Court Appointed Special
Advocates (CASA), and the Program Committee will host a Winter Wonderland
Luncheon in December.
Rounding out our executive
board are Janie Thacker, Recording Secretary; JoAnn Verheaghe, Treasurer;
Lalitha Rajagopal, Member-at-Large; Sally Brown, Corresponding Secretary;
and Rhonda Hutton, past-President. We look forward to their leadership and
enthusiasm!
Our 14th annual
OPL Silent Auction will be held on Thursday, November 20. All proceeds will
benefit the JCCC Scholarship Fund. The Ways and Means Committee has
challenged our members to help supply handcrafted items, baked goods,
contact business establishments for gift certificates or merchandise, and to
volunteer with providing baskets as well as to use their talents in
assembling them attractively. Last year we were able to provide over $4800
for scholarships.
The Solutions/Resolutions
committee presented their recommendations for the Office Professional of the
Year Award program, updating and creating the groundwork for the award
program improvements. This award, which is presented annually to one
well-deserving member of OPL, had become quite cumbersome in its application
process, so the membership decided that some “fine-tuning” was needed. The
choice of what to include, exclude, add, etc. was an awesome task, but after
many meetings and lots of rewriting, the process is now complete and the
membership has voted in favor of these changes.
On a professional note: Kay
Lampe, one of our Grapevine reporters and a much-involved member of OPL, has
been given the distinction of “State Star for the Kansas Small Business
Development Centers.” Wally Kearns, the State Director of the Association
of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC), announced this award in time
for the ASBDC 2003 Fall Conference. This is the first time that this
particular honor has been given to an administrative assistant, but Mr.
Kearns stated that Kay earned this recognition because of her
responsibilities to four constituencies. She has planned and organized the
FastTrac training program for the KSBDC network with the Ewing Marion
Kauffman Foundation and FastTrac personnel. The membership recognized her
for her dedication, thoroughness, dependability, initiative, creativity and
her ability to excel at making appropriate judgments related to both
personnel and operation matters. “Kay promotes relationships of trust and
respect, and develops them based upon dependability and honesty,” states Mr.
Kearns. Congratulations Kay!
Sally Gordon, president of
AKCCOP, is a loyal and hard-working member of JCCC OPL. Sally has been
active in AKCCOP since 1994, serving on the board, writing and distributing
the Kollator, managing the AKCCOP website, creating the AKCCOP membership
pin, and maintaining the scrapbook history. As she puts it, “The greatest
benefit to membership is the opportunity to network with people from other
Community Colleges. The people I have met by serving on the AKCCOP Board
are friends and the best source of information I have. These AKCCOP
experiences have truly enriched my life.” We are really proud to have her
leadership and thankful to have her friendship here at JCCC. Her enthusiasm
and never-ending energy is renown and she has a way of enlisting those
around her because of her dedication both to JCCC OPL and AKCCOP.
And speaking of Sally Gordon, president of AKCCOP, she would want to remind
you that JCCC is hosting the conference this fall. The committees here at
JCCC are hard at work planning details. The event will include topics
related to workplace, health, technology, and community college issues. The
tentative agenda includes registration, a light supper, icebreaker
activities and entertainment on Wednesday evening, March 31, 2004. On
Thursday and Friday various presentations will be featured along with a
business meeting. Plans are being made for a banquet on Thursday evening.
Watch for further announcements regarding speakers and events as the
committee finalizes plans.
Campus-wide, JCCC celebrated
fall with its annual all-staff picnic Friday evening, September 19. This
much-looked-forward-to event focused on a Teddy Bear theme this year. Games
and activities were planned with both adults and children in mind and
everyone had such a good time!
This summer JCCC broke
ground for a new parking garage. To compensate for the loss of parking
while one large lot was cordoned off, land adjacent to current parking lots
was set up as temporary parking. The new parking garage should be ready
some time next spring or early summer of 2004.
Our new technology building
is still on the drawing board, with funds and matching funds coming in as
private donations to help offset the cost. A new art museum will be part of
this new technology building, thanks again to a private donation.
Meantime our off-campus sites are doing well. Students enrolled in
“College Close to Home,” find this alternative a workable solution for
them. On-line courses continue to be popular and course offerings expand
every semester. Total enrollment has increased by 2.3 % this semester to
a record number of 18,450 students!
JCCC has applied for, and is
working toward the Kansas Award for Excellence. While the ultimate goal is
to obtain the much-coveted Baldridge award, the underlying purpose is to
make JCCC the best that it can be, quality education and an opportunity to
work and learn in an atmosphere of excellence. To find out more about
what is going on at JCCC, visit our website at
http://jccc.net.
Have a great semester! We
look forward to the AKCCOP conference this spring and hope to see you there!
Neosho County Community College
Terri Dale, Reporter
tdale@neosho.edu
Happy Thanksgiving to all! At Neosho County
Community College we are enjoying the beautiful fall weather and thankful
for the blessings that we have been given. This past summer, Dr. Brian
Inbody joined NCCC as Vice President of Student Learning. Dr. Inbody is
originally from Oklahoma and we are happy to have him as part of the
administrative team. Sandi Solander also started in the summer as Dean of
Finance and Student Services, and Lisa Last rejoined our staff as Director
of Admissions/Registrar.
We are very proud of the Panther Baseball team.
They were the Region VI Champions in 2003 and competed in the NJCAA World
Series in Grand Junction, Colorado. Coach Steve Murry was also named
Central District Coach of the Year.
For the second year in a row, the Lady Panther
Softball Team was named the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s
Academic National Champions. The Lady Panthers had the highest GPA in the
Country. Coach Jeff Dabney also earned his 100th win this past
season.
Summer was a busy time at NCCC. In an effort to
better serve students, the student services department moved back into
Sanders Hall, continuing education moved to the Student Union, music,
theatre, and the vice president’s offices were relocated in Sanders Hall and
several of the business office positions were shuffled. Sarah Smith is now
secretary to the Vice President of Student Learning, Angie Zaragosa moved to
faculty secretary, and Debra Schommer moved to the Continuing Education
secretary.
This summer, the college offered two 4-week
sessions as well as the traditional 8 week session. Many students were able
to pick up reverse transfer classes using the two shorter periods.
Enrollment for summer was up, and this fall our credit hour enrollment is up
9.5%.
At the Fall In-Service, the office professionals
held a fund raiser, serving a salad lunch. We enjoyed sampling everyone’s
favorite salads and made a profit for our scholarship fund. The Office
Professionals have designated the first Tuesday of each month to go to lunch
together. Of course, not everyone can attend every month, but we have had
good attendance and a fun time together.
In November the college hosted the SEK Higher
Education SYSTEM’s 9th Annual Legislative Dinner. Legislators
from the SYSTEM’s service areas (Independence, Coffeyville, Labette, Fort
Scott, Allen, Neosho Pittsburg State and Emporia State), members of the
Board of Regents, trustees and administrator were invited to NCCC for dinner
and a short program featuring community college graduates who transferred to
PSU or ESU. It was a good opportunity to showcase our SEK community
colleges.
We are looking forward to hosting the KACCT/COP
Quarterly meeting in Chanute in December. This will be the first time that
NCCC has hosted the event and we hope everyone enjoys Chanute.
In closing, the NCCC OP’s wish each of you a
very Merry Christmas and blessings of health and happiness in 2004.
Pratt Community College
Cathy Blasi, Reporter
cathyb@prattcc.edu
Cathy Blasi is out of the office due to back
surgery and sends her regrets that the news from PCC did not get submitted
in time for press.
Seward County Community College
Terri Barnes
tbarnes@sccc.edu
Greetings to everyone from
Seward County
Community College.
The fall 2003 semester is off
to a fast and furious start. Enrollment is up, and there are many new faces
on campus. Ms. Aaron Eaton is taking Rodeana Reynolds place as the
Student Activities Director, Mr. Matt Patton is the new assistant volleyball
coach, and Ms. Renee Metzker is joining the college as the new assistant
softball coach. Mr. Dustin Farmer is the new three-dimensional art
instructor replacing Marko Fields, and Mr. Rusty Tuman is the computer
science instructor.
The inservice theme this year
at Seward County
Community College is “Survivor SCCC.” Survivor activities started off with a
bang at inservice and will continue with monthly all-staff (tribal) meetings
and special challenges throughout the academic year. The goal is to be the
tribe at the end of the year with the most points and the most remaining
members.
With two big storms hitting
Liberal and the surrounding area this summer, the college sustained
substantial damage to the new Student
Living Center and the campus.
The first storm hit Liberal with a tornado and a month later a second storm
hit Liberal with hail. Many rooms in the SLC had to be repaired. The
college maintenance team has worked hard to have the Student
Living
Center back in shape for the new semester. A 20-by-20 foot section of the
gym floor sustained water damage and had to be replaced in time for the
volleyball tournament on Labor Day weekend. W R Duncan, Buildings and
Grounds Director, reported that the college suffered approximately $200,000
- $225,000 in damage.
On
June 12, 2003, Gale Buck, a beloved member of the Seward
County
Community College family, passed away. Gale worked for SCCC for 22 years
with the last 11 as the registrar. She retired from SCCC in June of 2002. A
special memorial service was held on June 18, in the SCCC Theater.
Another sad note was that one
of SCCC’s students was involved in a fatal car accident on August 29, near
Larned, Kansas. Charles Kinsinger was a sophomore at SCCC and a Liberal
High School graduate.
The SCCC office professionals
held a membership drive Bonco Blast party on September 23. Bonco was
played, and I hear the group had a blast. Great food added to the festive
atmosphere.
Plans are being made for the
annual Bosses Day Lunch on October 16. Office professionals will provide a
pot-luck/salad lunch with a game and/or entertainment for the special
occasion.
At the September 25, meeting,
the SCCCOP scholarship committee awarded $100 scholarships to the following
three students: Cara Clinesmith, Emily Fisher, and Devin Rodriquez. The
scholarship committee had the hard choice of picking three recipients from
the field of twelve applications. The pool of applicants seems to be
growing each semester.
The annual SCCC Development
Foundation Auction is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 4, 2003. The theme for
this year’s auction is Renaissance Faire. SCCCOP’s member, Pam Freeman, is
making a table top fountain for SCCCOPs to donate to the auction. Pam makes
her fountains with items she finds at garage sales and on sale. Several
other SCCCOP’s members are involved in gathering auction items and helping
with the auction.
The Business and Industry
department of SCCC held the 51st Gas Measurement and Pipeline
Institute, September 8–10, 2003. The Institute was a great success and
showcased many new technologies in the gas measurement and pipeline
industry.
Seward
County
Community College was one of three educational institutions in the state of
Kansas to receive a Title III Grant. The five-year grant will pay the
college approximately $1.75 million. Some of the funds will be used to
create a student success center and to update assessment tests.
In closure the Seward County
Community College Office Professionals would like to wish each and everyone
a good year and a wonderful holiday season.
Spring
2003
From the President’s
Prospective
It’s hard to
believe that it is the middle of February and it is a beautiful day today!
However, only
a few days ago it was snowing! It serves as a reminder that if you don’t
like the
Kansas weather today, stick around!
The 36th
Annual AKCCOP Conference will be held April 9, 10, and 11th, on the
Labette
County
Community College campus in Parsons. I hope you are making plans to
attend.
The Labette
girls have been working hard to ensure the success of the conference. The
conferences
are a way to network with peers from all of the community colleges across
the state. It
is a great learning experience and a good time also!
If you are
taking college classes and are a current member of AKCCOP, you are
eligible
for an AKCCOP
grant of $200. The spring deadline for applications is March 1. If you
need an
application, let me know.
Election of
the 2003-04 officers will be held at the conference in April. A slate of
officers
will be
presented at that time with nominations open from the floor. If you would
like to
nominate
someone for an office, please make sure that person is willing to serve
for two
years on the
board and that they will be present to be installed.
This will be
my last greeting as AKCCOP President. I would like to take this time to
thank the
current board members for their continued support and hard work. They have
been a super
group to work with. I have gained so much from serving on the board. It
has been a
good experience and I will take away many fond memories of these past
years. I
would also like to thank my colleagues at HCC. They have been so
supportive
and I have
really appreciated that.
I hope to see
you in Parsons!
Pat Bryant
AKCCOP
President
Barton County
Community College
Caicey Schartz
Schartzc@bartonccc.edu
Greetings
from Barton County Community College!
Our campus
survived the NCA Accreditation. Our visiting team requested a ten-year
accreditation! How exciting to know that all of our teamwork and extra
efforts paid off.
We should
know for sure in March what our actual accreditation is. Our group
provided
the team with
goodies in the resource room, which were a big hit! We are so lucky to
have
wonderful cooks among us.
For our
November meeting we had guest speaker, Charlie Batman – Director of
Security,
inform us on the latest updates going on in the security department.
Charlie
spoke to us
on the security cameras being installed around campus to help keep a
closer eye on
buildings.
In December
we had an ornament exchange and were amused with all the Singing
Christmas
toys of member Donna McCormick.
To start off
the New Year we had guest speaker, Kevin Casey – Town and Country
Racquet Club
to update us on diet and exercise. Kevin was very informative and helpful
with
assisting us on making our New Year’s resolutions and how to keep them.
Barton County
Community College has a new web address:
www.bartonccc.edu
All of the
employees email addresses have also changed to the new ending.
We look
forward to seeing everyone in Labette at the AKCCOP conference.
BUTLER COUNTY
COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Submitted by Laura
Albert
Laura@bcccbii.com
It’s hard to
believe that we are already one month into this new semester. Enrollment
has increased
once again for
Butler this semester. Our students are using pipeline
for
on-line
enrollments to keep from standing in line as much; 46% of the spring
enrollment
was taken
care of on-line.
The Board of
Trustees approved the Crisis Management Plan for the college. Crisis
plans
addressed are: Evacuation, Tornado, Severe Weather-Snow/Blizzard, Fire,
Technological
Difficulties/Disasters, Information Services Disasters, Civil
Protest/Civil
Disturbance,
Bomb Threat, Hazardous Material Accident, Armed Intruder, Anthrax
Threat, and
Death and Dying. In the plan is a list of the Crisis Management Team and
who, how and
when to contact the team and the steps the team will take.
Butler’s
Wellness Committee started a walk program called
Tour de Butler
on February
3. It will
end on March 28. This is “an 8-week program to help participants stay
motivated to
achieve their fitness goals by walking, bike riding, swimming, and aerobic
exercise”
Other forms of aerobic activity are dance, exercise videos, or any form of
exercise
activity that increases the heart rate and keeps it elevated for 15
minutes or
more. Each
team is challenged to “walk” a minimum total of 323 miles during this time
frame. This
is a total “walking” miles around the
Butler
service area – point-to-point to
each of
Butler’s major campuses. Teams of four will compete for prizes as well as
provide each
other “vital support” within their group. According to Suzie Van Tries,
there are 80+
participants. This program is Butler’s version of the Walk KANSAS fitness
incentive
program sponsored by KSU and the Butler County Extension Office.
We are
looking forward to the AKCCOP conference at Labette in April. Travel plans
and
registrations are being made for a group from
Butler.
See you at Labette!
COLBY COMMUNITY
COLLEGE
Doris Anderson
doriswps@colbycc.org.
We started
the spring semester with some changes in our 2002-2003 officers. Our vice
president
position was vacant in the fall and has been filled by Jody Engel. Jody
had
been our
secretary, and her position was filled by Patti Albers. Thanks, ladies,
for your
willingness
to serve!
Our long-time
receptionist, Peggy Stupka, retired this past fall due to health reasons.
She is a CCC
veteran with 29 years of service and had been a member of Office
Professionals
in the past. Bridget Murray filled her position. Bridget’s husband, Scott,
is
a
technologist in our Computer Center.
Ken Mitchell,
a former Colby Community College art instructor, created a 49-foot-wide
mural in the
Bedker Memorial Complex kiva area. The mural depicts the last 100 years
of education
in Thomas County, Kansas, including scenes from one-room schoolhouses
and a sod
house from the late 1800’s utilized as a school. Local artists including
some
former C.C.C.
students assisted Mitchell in creating the 20 panels that comprise the 13-
foot-high
mural. It was dedicated on Aug. 5, 2001.
A group of 20
students and sponsors from CCC attended Eisenhower Day at Abilene on
October 12.
Keynote speaker for the event was former President George Bush.
Reserved
seating for the CCC group was provided by David and Julie Nixon
Eisenhower
who were guest speakers on our campus last spring semester. We had
another very
successful Phonathon in October, raising $26,205 for scholarships. We are
very
gratified by the continued support of our loyal friends and alumni of CCC!
The CCC
Board of
Trustees hosted Dr. Reggie Robinson, new CEO of the Kansas Board of
Regents, on
our campus November 7. The dental hygiene, vet tech and drama
departments
were visited. Dr. Robinson and accompanying Regent members also met
with students
from Uzbekistan who are wrestling at CCC. The Art department had an
unusual quilt
exhibit in our
Cultural
Arts Center
during November-December. Several
CCC employees
displayed their handiwork.
Our wrestling
team includes a fantastic lineup of athletes. They are currently ranked at
the top of
the NJCAA poll. Five of our wrestlers are ranked first in their respective
weight
divisions and two are ranked third. This is impressive considering there
are only
10 weight
classes in collegiate wrestling. CCC won the national championship in 1999
and recently
won CCC’s Tournament of Champions on Jan. 11.
At
Christmastime our CCC OP group again had a Christmas ornament exchange at
our
December
meeting. This has become our traditional way of celebrating the holiday
season with
our co-workers. We regress to a childlike time as we snatch a favorite
ornament from
a co-worker—some of these ornaments change hands many times!
Our spring
plans include scheduling an appreciation brunch for our bosses in March
and
offering
scholarships to business and/or office technology students. Applications
are
received in
the spring and awarded in the fall.
We appreciate
Labette’s invitation to the April workshop and hope that at least two of
our members
can make the long drive to Parsons to participate in it.
DODGE CITY COMMUNITY
COLLEGE
Marge Blattner,
Program Director
blattner@dc3.edu
Greetings
from Dodge City Community College.
The DCCC OPP
folks are looking forward to the trip to Labette County Community
College for
the annual AKCCOP get together. There are several of us coming from
DCCC this
year, but unfortunately I have to be in Colorado Springs for a National
Senior
Service Corps
meeting!!! But, I have heard the gals talking and I know you are in for a
real treat
from our group.
The DCCC OPP
folks again chose a “deserving student”. At Thanksgiving we gave
her a Gift
Card from Wal-Mart, then at Christmas we gave her a Wal-Mart gift card and
a gift box of
various goodies, and we plan another Gift Card at Easter. At Christmas we
stuffed candy
into some cute little cups that Terry Garcia found at our new Hobby Lobby
and gave one
to each employee at DCCC. Where would we be without our Super Wal-
Mart and our
Hobby Lobby!!!
OPP had our
annual Christmas get together at Casey’s Cowtown again this year. It is
at this time
that we find out who our “Secret Pal” has been all year long. Everyone had
a good time,
good meal, good fellowship, -- and really neat presents were exchanged!!
Alice, Donna,
Jeanne, and Nedra, our retirees were there – it’s always nice to see these
ladies -- who
look great!! Jeanne and Donna had spent the day with me and about 45
other RSVP
volunteers at the Crown Theater in
Wichita.
These retired ladies are
wonderful –
they just keep on giving of their time.
In January we
installed our OPP Officers for the coming year – Wendy McClure,
President;
Dawn Kortz, Vice-President; Karen Carmona, Secretary; and Leila Duncan,
Treasurer.
Fran and I did the decorations – we used a valentine theme since that was
the next
holiday and we wanted it to be special for our new board’s induction. The
room
was packed!!
We have a lot of new members joining our group.
We are
already talking about our annual all night cancer Relay For Life
walk-a-thon
again this
year. Marcia Henrichs and Terry Perez-Garcia and I were the all nighters
last
year. It was
really nice – the weather was beautiful. We will try to schedule walkers
for
every hour
this year so a couple of us don’t have to do it all night.
I know
everyone will have a good time in Labette – I’ll be thinking about you!!
GARDEN CITY COMMUNITY
COLLEGE
Pam Caldwell,
Reporter
pam.Caldwell@gcccks.edu
The Spring
semester has started off with a bang and our GCCC Educational Support
group has
been extremely busy. We have had an ongoing project with a coat drive for
Emmaus House
since before Christmas. Emmaus House gives out coats, hats, and
gloves to
needy individuals during the winter and is always in need of these items
to be
donated
during this time.
We are
continuing work to provide a weather-resistant bench for handicapped
individuals
to wait comfortably for their transportation vehicles. Our goal is to have
several
placed around the GCCC campus.
Additionally,
we are planning to make and sell Easter baskets as a fund-raising project
for this
semester. Several of our members will be very helpful training us in the
creation
of the
baskets.
Our group
will donate an item to the annual GCCC Endowment Scholarship Auction
scheduled for
April 4 in Garden City. Proceeds on the sale of this item will be placed
in
our
scholarship fund.
GCCC has many
improvements occurring, including the beginning of a new addition to
the Student
Center. This will provide more facilities to enhance student life at GCCC
as
well as
additional offices, storage space, storm shelter, etc. These new
improvements
are quite
exciting and we look forward to their completion.
We are very
proud that our GCCC Girls Basketball Team has been ranked 19th in the
nation. Also,
GCCC continues to work with business and industry in the community to
determine
learning needs, and to help accomplish those through courses and
workshops.
The Garden City Jazz Festival Concert March 7 will feature jazz singer
Marilyn Maye.
We are
looking forward to some upcoming professional workshops as well as the
Annual AKCCOP
Conference at
Labette
Community College
in Parsons. See you then!
HIGHLAND COMMUNITY
COLLEGE
Betty Forney
brorney@highlandcc.edu
Time has
really flown since our Fall Kollator and with the end of all those
holidays, we
are now
looking forward to spring.
Our members
were able to “treat” the students and faculty on Halloween with large
candy bars
furnished by the HCC Foundation. To distribute the candy, each member
was assigned
certain rooms during the
9:30 A.M.
classes.
A Pampered
Chef Party was held on November 6th. Members supplied snacks,
prepared or
served with Pampered Chef items, for customers to enjoy while they
browsed over
the book and items for sale. This was the second time our organization
hosted this
event which has been a profitable fundraiser.
Our group’s
Christmas Party was held early this year at the Country Cabin, north of
Hiawatha,
Kansas. We made reservations for dinner on Friday, Nov. 15th, at the
restaurant as
well as overnight accommodations at one of their cabins. Everyone
gathered at
the cabin for pre-meal snacks and visiting. Once everyone had arrived, we
walked to the
restaurant where we all enjoyed a wonderful meal – everyone was
stuffed!
We then
headed back to our cabin for games and prizes. Everyone brought a gift
(some type of
candle) for the game/gift exchange. The Christmas committee had some
wonderful
prizes -- no one went away empty handed!! Only a few members were able
to spend the
night in the cabin, but the evening was enjoyed by all.
The 11th
Annual HCC College Fair was held on Jan. 22nd, which turned out to be a
cold,
snowy day.
Due to the weather, turnout was lower than expected but between HCC
students and
the two high schools who were able to make the trip, there were 121
students in
attendance. These students were able to visit with 33 representatives from
various
colleges & universities in
Kansas,
Missouri and Nebraska as well as
representatives from branches of the military.
Feb. 9th
marked the 145th birthday of
Highland
Community College. A decorated
birthday cake
was available in the cafeteria for all to enjoy.
By the time
everyone reads this, we will have had our King & Queen of Courts held on
Feb. 15th.
The crowning took place between the men and women’s basketball games.
The week of
Feb. 10th was filled with many activities preceding the event.
That’s all
for now – may you all have a wonderful spring!
HUTCHINSON COMMUNITY
COLLEGE
Tammy Neal, Reporter
nealt@hutchcc.edu
I guess we
have all figured out that little Groundhog saw his shadow. Some of us
however, have
lucked out more than others. If this is how our winter is going to be, I
imagine we
are in for an interesting summer.
Our Office
Professionals have not really had too much of a chance to get together. We
are planning
to have a BUNCO night and a business meeting to select our new officers
for next
years term. We are having a speaker on work- place concerns. We also have
been making
plans for the big conference in April. We have had a pretty busy semester
trying to
play catch-up after the holiday season. Later on this semester we are
planning
on having a
website set up for our group. There will be a link on the HCC homepage.
We will
notify you of the date, as it gets closer.
Around our
campus we have had a lot of interesting things going on. Our newly
remodeled
Technical Research and
Resource
Learning Center is just about finished.
Luckily the
weather was nice enough so the contractors could complete a deadline
scheduled for
the end of February. It definitely does not look like the same building.
(check out
the before and after pictures).
www.hutchcc.edu/PhotoBank/ResourceCenter/trrlc.htm,
you can also check out our
other
pictures by clicking the link or come for a visit.
Three
upstairs lobbies in Kent Hall, which is one of our residence halls, were
renovated
over the
holiday break. We also installed a security camera system in both of HCC’s
residence
halls. The credit belongs to the staff, especially Delayna Moore who has
been the one
making sure everything was in order and the completion was made.
Open parking
will be utilized during the 2003-2004 school year on a trial basis.
Surveys
were given to
students, faculty and staff and the percentages showed that there was a
need for
change. We will see what the future holds for our parking situation.
Take Control
of Your Health was the sixth annual health seminar for women. The
seminar
focused on cancer recovery and heart education, which are two leading
causes
of death
among women. Some of the guest speakers were Robbin Stafford - Via Christi
in Wichita,
Dr. James Shaw - Wichita Plastic Surgeon, Kim Gustafson – Health- EQuip,
and Marcia
McCoy a Registered Nurse. The seminar was sponsored by our LPN
program here
at HCC and several other organizations.
Our first
Dillon Lecture Series, set for February 20, is with Veteran TV and radio
personality
Art Linkletter. Linkletter hosted two of the longest-running shows in
broadcast
history – House Party (25 years) and People Are Funny (19 years). He has
written 23
books, including “Kids Say the Darndest Things, one of the top-14 best
sellers in
America publishing history. His most recent book is “Old Age Is Not For
Sissies”.
Linkletter recently turned 90 but maintains an active schedule of 75
speaking
engagements a
year, numerous board meetings, national television appearances (most
recently, a
weekly program with Bill Cosby).
With the
tragedy of the Space Shuttle Columbia on February 1, we should have a very
interesting
second Dillon Lecture Series on May 1, when Astronaut Wally Schirra will
be
visiting to
share some of his stories and insights on what may have happened. He is
one of the
original seven astronauts and the only one to have flown on all three
spacecrafts –
Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. During his career at NASA, Schirra logged a
total of 295
hours and 15 minutes in space. I’m sure he will be flooded with questions
about the
tragedy, and with his experience, it will be interesting to hear his
comments.
In
Memory of the Space Shuttle Columbia, February 1, 2003
JOHNSON COUNTY
COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Kathy LaBelle
klabelle@jccc.net
As far as I’m
concerned we’re in the middle of winter, but if it is spring our AKCCOP
vice-president Sally Gordon is asking for, we’ll talk spring. Here it
goes:
This may be
someone’s idea of spring, but from where I sit I see students scurrying
quickly
between buildings faces buried deep within the upturned collars of their
coats
while trying
to escape the wind that seems to perpetually blow harder and colder on
campus than
anywhere else within miles. Why the students don’t use the indoor
walkways is a
mystery to me. I guess maybe going from point A to point B is faster if
you cut
across the courtyard between buildings rather than attempt to master the
twists
and turns of
the hallways within.
Enrollment is
up again this semester and classes are being offered in a variety of
ways—all with
the intention of accommodating, meeting the needs of both traditional
and
non-traditional students. We have College Now, College Close to Home,
On-line,
Self-paced,
Television as well as traditional classes. Our annual fall Silent Auction
helps to
raise scholarship money for some of these students. This fall we raised
nearly
$5,000! JCCC
president, Dr. Carlsen, spoke at our last general meeting commending
us on our
scholarship fund. He said that OPL has set a precedent here on campus.
In addition
to the auction, we held a Special Grants raffle. The winner of the drawing
received a
$300 gift certificate to a local mall. The drawing took in $1304.32. This
money is used
toward professional development of OPL members.
For 15 years
the Center for Business and Technology here at JCCC has been
celebrating
the accomplishments of Administrative Professionals at the annual
Administrative Professionals’ Day. The 2003 event will be held Thursday,
April 10th
from 8:30 to
3 at a local convention center. Mark Towers, the featured speaker will
present
Dealing with Topsy-Turvy Times: Staying Motivated, Productive and Excited
at
Work.
Towers holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology. Karen
Rowinsky,
speaker,
author and expert in living life to the fullest will be there to round off
the day.
Three of our
members were nominated for the 2003 Office Professional of the Year
award. This
year’s nominations are Jody Cross, Betty Erhard and Rhonda Hutton. All
three are
excellent candidates and are great contributors to the success of our
organization.
We have an independent judge named to look over their portfolios and it
is she who
will have the task of naming our winner.
We’ve been a
little less successful in trying to gather for off-campus social events.
Our
Social
Committee gets high marks for trying though. They attempted to get a group
together to
see the holiday production of The Nutcracker. They also tried to gather a
group to go
swing dancing. Either we are really busy, or hard to please. Meantime
though, rumor
has it that our Lovely Lunches are back. Organizers of this event bring
about an
opportunity for OPL members to get to know each other better by setting up
group
luncheons. A hostess is named for each group and it is her responsibility
to
contact the
women “at her table” and to decide on a date. Each group determines
where and
when they meet. Some gather here at the school cafeteria, others meet for
lunch at a
nearby restaurant. The whole purpose of these lunches is to spend time
with
members they
may not otherwise have a chance to know, to network and to encourage
friendships.
The vice
president of OPL traditionally is the person in charge of the program that
follows
each monthly
general meeting. Carol DeVaul has done a superb job. In January Joan
McCrillis,
Fashion Merchandising Program Facilitator here at the college, spoke to us
about the
fashion trends for 2003. We learned that polka dots are coming back, bare
midriffs will
give way to cut outs and hot pants. Paisleys are in and the military look
should be
popular.
Our February
meeting will feature NBC 41 News Weekend Meteorologist Brian
Greenwald.
March, April and May are still to be announced, but we’ve been told that
we
will continue
with our annual June potluck salad luncheon and installation of officers.
It
has been a
busy and exciting year, over all.
We have about
12 going to Labette this spring to the annual AKCCOP conference. In
fact we will
be performing a skit at the end of the conference—hoping to entice you to
come to JCCC
in 2004 when we once again are host to AKCCOP. At the moment a
theme for the
2004 conference is developing, volunteers are gathering and excitement
levels are
rising.
Campus-wide
we are suffering some growing pains and in a year where budgets are
tight it is a
challenge to meet the needs. Lack of parking has been a complaint of many
over the
years, so this spring contractors will begin building a parking garage
just south
of campus.
There are dreams unfolding to add a building devoted to technology and
business as
well as to renovate the Billington Library. To do this will require
community
support.
JCCC offers a
variety of cultural performances, debates and guest speakers for the
campus
community as well as the community at large to participate in and enjoy.
For
example, last
month we enjoyed the dancing of a children’s troupe from Korea. This
week an
authority on bio-terrorism and germ warfare will speak on campus. We’ve
had debates,
symphonies, choral groups and even mid-week, noon time small recitals
to enjoy.
What a great place to work!
Oh my! There
are a couple of students playing hacky-sac in the courtyard. Maybe it is
spring after
all! I think I’ll go check it out for myself.
LABETTE COMMUNITY
COLLEGE
Fran Clay
franc@labette.cc.ks.us
Hey from
Labette! As most of you know I was “out of commission” for a little while
but
I’m up and
running again. Thanks to all my “Well Wishers”.
Gosh, Spring
is just around the corner and we are looking forward to seeing all that
plan
to attend the
36th Annual AKCCOP Conference to be held here at Labette for the very
first time,
April 9, 10 and 11.
Meetings will
start at
2:30 on Wednesday the 9th, with the general registration at “my
home” (the
gym) at
6:00. Good speakers have been lined up and the food sounds
yummy. We are
all looking forward to hosting the conference. If you haven’t received
your
information and need some mailed to you, please contact
philj@labette.edu.
New
Classified employees since the last Kollator are: Bethany Kendrick our new
Public
Relations
Assistant and Natalie Borror our new Talent Search Secretary.
Last Fall,
the Classified Staff group voted to increase the book scholarships they
give to
students each
semester. Previously they had been giving two $50.00 scholarships and
they voted to
increase the amount to $75.00 for each scholarship. At the last meeting it
was decided
that we needed to get busy with more fund-raisers right after the AKCCOP
Conference.
Our annual
cookbook is chocked full of recipes and extra were made this year so that
we could sell
the excess with all proceeds going to the AKCCOP Conference fund. Of
course to go
with the cookbook is our annual tasting party, winning items such as
Gloria
Nevin,
Bookstore Assistant’s Spicy White Cheese Dip; Leanna Newberry, Dean of
Administrative Services Brownie Sundae Cheesecake; Dr. Bishr’s
Multi-Cultural
Corner’s
Sambosa (Meat Pies); Tammy Fuentez, Director of Student Support Services’
Ooey-Gooey
Cream Cheese Brownies and her Cauliflower Salad; Janice Clifton-
George,
President’s Secretary’s Hot Chicken Salad, and last but not least Teri
Showalter,
Secretary to the Dean of Student Services Punch Bowl Salad. All of the
above recipes
can be found in this years cookbook For those of you who have been
interested in
our cookbooks in the past there will be some of 2002 and a few of years
past at the
conference. The price of the cookbook is $5.00.
This year our
Christmas Basket program served 10 student families with 21 children.
This has
been, over the years, one of our most rewarding projects.
Our
President, Ron Fundis, was recently named businessperson of the year and
Carl
Hoskins
volunteer of the year at the annual Parsons Chamber of Commerce reception.
The
businessperson award is presented each year to someone whose success in
his
occupation
has helped develop the area’s economy, and who displays leadership in the
community and
chamber. President Fundis was honored for helping make the local
two-year
college’s enrollment the largest in Southeast Kansas. LCC now ranks 10th
of
the 19
community colleges in Kansas in credit hours and in number of students
served.
Since
becoming LCC president in 1998, Fundis has been involved not only in
chamber
functions but
is a member of the Parsons Rotary Club and works with Big Brothers/Big
Sisters, JOBS
Inc., SEK Inc., the Labette County Family Coalition board and the
Downtown
Parsons design committee. He was given the distinguished alumni award
from Emporia
State University in 2002. Way to go President Fundis!!
LCC email
reference has its first foreign patron – On January 6th, the LCC Library
email
reference
service received its first email reference questions from a patron in
Nigeria.
The gentleman
asked three questions that took some digging. However, the staff soon
had an answer
back to the person. LCC is one of three community colleges in the state
that offers
email reference and the only one that is of our size. In the past years,
many
students are
picking up on the usefulness of this service. Take a look at it
http://www.labette.edu/library/request.htm
Just
another way that the library is working
hard to be
there for you!
Talent
Search, directed by Vera Lee Byrd, D.Ed. was awarded a $960,000 five-year
Talent Search
grant by the U.S. Department of Education to help students in lowincome
families in
high unemployment areas to succeed in school, to graduate, and
then to
enroll into a post-secondary institution. The grant award for the current
academic year
is $200,000 with additional funding of $190,000 for each of the next four
academic
years.
The
Commercial Music Program is expanding by opening an all-new 32-track
digital
recording
studio! Located just west of the Gymnasium near the dormitories, the
studio
boasts an all
digital recording suite with 3 isolation rooms for accommodating large and
small
performing groups, and a relaxed, laid back lounge area for that “extra
vibe”.
This Friday,
hosted by our Advisor/Recruiter, Michael Stewart, there will be a
faculty/staff
basketball game. People have been signing up left and right to either play
or be on the
spirit squad or cheer group. After the game, a potluck dinner will be
served. I
have seen some of our staff trying on cheerleading uniforms and women’s
basketball
shirts, amongst the laughter, shooting practice and strategy meetings – it
appears that
all will have a good time.
In our
department we are having a good year. Even though this year seems to have
been “the
year of injuries”, our teams are doing well. Our women’s basketball team
is
16-10 overall
and 8-6 in the conference and are currently 1 game out of third place with
4 games left
in the season.
Our men’s
basketball team is 15-11 and 6-8 in the conference. This is the best
record
in the
conference for LCC men since the mid 60’s. Our men have been
ranked among
the top scoring teams in the Nation. Former
players Damon
Garris and Daniel Towns are currently
starting at
Kentucky Wesleyan and Georgia State
respectively.
And just this
last weekend or Wrestling team came home with seven qualifiers for
Nationals and
are currently ranked 7th in the Nation. Wrestling’s duel record is 6-5 and
they finished
3rd in the West/Central Region. All in all we are having a good sports
year
so far.
I hope
everyone is doing well and that Spring comes early so that you can all
travel to
Parsons. We
will be waiting to greet you at Labette Community College “where great
things come
in small packages”.
Terri Dale
Neosho County
Community College
tdale@neosho.cc.ks.us
Neosho County
Community College is happy to announce the appointment of a
President.
Dr. Vicky R. Smith officially started her duties on January 6, 2003. Dr. Smith
brings over
30 years in experience in community college teaching, instructional,
professional
and executive positions. Most recently she was a Senior Program Director
at Cornell
University’s Institute for Community College Development. She was Vice
President for
Academic Services at
Monroe
Community College in New York, and
served four
years as president of
Austin
Community College in Austin, Minnesota.
Dr. Smith has
been busy getting acquainted with college personnel on a one-on-one
basis and
meeting with civic and business leaders.
The office
professionals at NCCC hosted the women’s Christmas party in early
December and
enjoyed an evening of food and fellowship. In January, our group
hosted lunch
for In-Service and served over 50 people.
The “flu bug”
also descended on our college in January and many were absent from
work.
Hopefully, spring will bring renewed health and energy.
We are
looking forward to attending the conference at Labette Community College.
Other events
at NCCC include:
•
Randy Kettler, Director of the CAVE (Center for Academic and
Vocational
Excellence)
was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award by the Kansas
Adult
Education Association. The service award is presented to an individual, in
an area other
than teaching, who has demonstrated outstanding service
promoting,
developing, or implementing adult education in the state of Kansas.
•
Spring enrollment is up and our
Ottawa campus
is hitting the 900 student head
count this
month, about a 60% increase over last year.
•
Over 50 nursing students from NCCC attended the “Day at the
Legislature” in
Topeka on
February 13.
•
The Omega Iota Chapter has earned Phi Theta Kappa’s 2002 Pinnacle
Scholarship
award. This scholarship award program annually recognizes
chapters that
increase the acceptance rate of eligible students by 10% over the
previous year
with a $100 scholarship stipend.
Hope to see
all of you in Parsons in April.
PRATT COMMUNITY
COLLEGE
Cathy Blasi, Reporter
cathyb@prattcc.edu
After a
rather frightening, frustrating, and lucky start, the spring semester is
going great
for us at PCC.
Frightening because we had a fire the day before instructors were due
back from
semester break (two days prior to registration.) Frustrating for several
due to
having to
relocate their offices at such a critical time. Lucky for all of us
because the fire
could have
easily been much worse. The security guard saw some smoke coming out
of one of the
upstairs vents (main building) shortly after 1:00am on Sunday, January 5.
He was
scheduled to go off duty at
2:00am, and the custodians weren’t due to come
in
until 6am so
we were very fortunate he found it before going home. After investigating,
he discovered
the fire was on our lower level (basement) in the advising center.
Basically one
large room, which housed four offices, was destroyed and several other
offices
suffered heavy water and smoke damage. Luckily, no student records were
destroyed.
The whole building had a very strong smoke/burnt plastic odor for several
days. The
cause of the fire was ruled as “undeterminable source”. Our advising
offices,
Counselor,
Assistant Dean of Instruction, and financial aid offices all had to
relocate.
Lucky for us,
the art and the nursing departments had just moved to the new building,
Chandler
Hall. We were able to set up tables in the old art room and have relocated
some of the
advising personnel in that area. Financial aid is sharing the business
offices.
Classes scheduled downstairs were also relocated. It sounds like they will
all
be able to
return “home” by April 1, after some extensive restoration is completed.
We
were also
fortunate not to have suffered severe computer trouble, as the fire was
right
next door to
our computer center. We have experienced some sporadic outages.
However, the
file servers were replaced this past week so hopefully the little glitches
will
be a thing of
the past.
On a brighter
note, our new art and nursing building, (Chandler Hall) is open and
students and
faculty are really enjoying this beautiful facility. Several general
education
classes are
also scheduled to meet in Chandler Hall. The dedication is planned for
April
1 to coincide
with plans for a reunion of nursing graduates. This year’s graduating
class
is the 20th
nursing class to have graduated from PCC.
The
Educational Support Professionals (ESP) sold survival kits for finals week
but
learned a
hard lesson that we wanted to share with you. We sent the flyers out bulk
mail (since
we had more than 200) and thought they were mailed plenty early.
However, the
post office can sit on bulk mailings, especially during busy times (such
as
the period
between Thanksgiving and Christmas). Although our flyers were mailed in
mid-November,
we received several calls from parents on the day the orders were due
saying they
had just received their flyer. We ended up fixing 40 survival kits, which
still
was a great
fund-raiser as well as making 40 dorm residents very happy. We (ESP)
were able to
add $1,000 towards our scholarship fund this year and will continue to
explore ideas
of how to continue doing this.
We have six
who will be attending the conference at Labette and are all looking
forward
to visiting
with the rest of the AKCCOP members. Have a great semester, and we will
see you in
Parsons!
SEWARD COUNTY
COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Terri Barnes
tbarnes@sccc.net
Winter
greetings to everyone. As I begin this report, it is a chilly 3 degrees.
Brrrr! Days
like this
make us really enjoy the warmer temperatures when they arrive.
The spring
semester is off to a fast and furious start. Besides classes there are so
many other
things to accomplish in the spring semester.
SCCC Office
Professionals decided to hold a Christmas Shopping Fair to raise money
for our
scholarship fund. This was unknown territory for the group, but the
decision was
made to go
for it. The fair was held on Saturday, November 23, before and during a
basketball
game. Seven vendors set up tables in a conference room to sell their
product.
Vendors included: Pampered Chef, SCCC Bookstore, Bead Spangled
Creations,
Engle Candles,
Texas
Wildfire, Home Interiors and Weekenders. Each
vender agreed
to give SCCCOPS a percentage of their sales. Along with the shopping
fair, SCCCOPS
held a bake sale in association with the Student Government
Association,
HALO, and Phi Theta Kappa chili, baked potato feed. After all obligations
were paid,
the shopping fair netted over $300 for the scholarship fund, which covers
one
semester’s scholarship awards. Plans for a garage sale are underway to
raise
additional
funds.
The SCCCOP
scholarship committee met and awarded three $100 scholarships. Cara
Beth
Clinesmith, Lena Stahly and Brandie Winter were the recipients of the
Spring 2003
SCCCOPs
scholarships.
The SCCCOPs
Christmas Party was held on December 19, at the home of WR and
Karen Duncan.
Great food, fellowship and fun were enjoyed by those in attendance.
SCCCOP
members assembled Christmas goody bags filled with Ho Ho Popcorn and
presented
them to the Great Western staff.
Ann Kennon,
SCCCOPs member and Business and Industry secretary, resigned and
moved to
Memphis, Texas. She will be missed at SCCC.
Members of
SCCCOPs who want to be involved in our secret pal program drew names
last May.
Secret pals give little gifts and encouragement to each other during the
next
year. Next
May during a SCCC Office Professionals get together, secret pals will be
revealed.
The Lady
Saints Volleyball team won the Region VI-District M Championship and took
sixth place
at the National Junior College Athletics Association National tournament.
B. H. “Pete”
Fairchild, a former resident of Liberal and internationally renown poet,
graced the
Albert I. Shank, Sr. Humanities Building with a poetry reading on November
14. Mr.
Fairchild read poems from several of his books. Many of the poems related
to
his life in
Liberal and the surrounding area. Mr. Fairchild stayed to sign books after
the
reading.
CrusaderNews.com was one of only 10 colleges in the nation to receive a
2002 online
Pacemaker
Award, the highest honor given by the Associated Collegiate Press;
furthermore,
SCCC was the only two-year college among the winners. The Crusader
staff
received the award at the National College Media Convention, November 3,
in
Orlando,
Florida. Great Job Crusader!
SCCC
Homecoming Week is
February 10 – 15, 2003. The week is filled with a wide
variety of
events including a banana split party, video scavenger hunt, homecoming
dance, and
singled out dating game. The crowning ceremony will take place between
games on
Saturday, February 15.
SCCC is
working on an exchange program with Tec de Monterrey in Chihuahua,
Mexico. SCCC
representatives Marko Fields, ceramic instructor; Cynthia Rapp, dean of
instruction;
Rodeana Reynolds, director of student activities; Veda King, nursing
instructor;
and Ty Hughbanks, biology instructor made the trip to Chihuahua to visit
the
Tec de
Monterrey campus on November 1-5. The group returned with high praises for
the college.
A trip is being planned for representatives from Tec de Monterrey to visit
the SCCC
campus.
We are
looking forward to a great time at Labette. See you there.
