Greetings Blue Devils!
September has been a busy month for KCKCC and higher education at the state and national levels. Below provides an overview of some of the happenings.
KCKCC Trustee and Wyandotte County Sheriff Don Ash honored at annual United Way event! On Thursday, September 19, KCKCC Trustee Don Ash received the United Way Spirit of Caring Award recognizing and honoring him for the many years of care and dedication he has given to United Way and the community. Along with 12 years of dedicated service Trustee Ash has given to KCKCC as a member of our Board of Trustees, he has also served many years as a protector of our community in both the police and sheriff’s department. 
A man of great faith, Mr. Ash is also a committed member of his church and a servant leader for all the organizations and individuals for which he is involved. Congratulations Trustee Ash and thank you for all you do!
KBOR Approves Unified Appropriations and New Qualifying Admissions Requests: The September Kansas Board of Regents meeting was held this last week and two particular items of interest were approved. State Appropriations Request: KBOR approved its unified appropriations request for the public higher education system for fiscal year 2021. The total request would add $95.3 million in state support for the entire system including: universities and four-year colleges, community colleges and technical colleges. Of the total request, $13 million was approved for the 19 state community colleges. Of the $13 million, $7.5 million was allocated to SB 155 (Excel in CTE) approved programs with the balance directed to help fund the gap that still exists for tiered and non-tiered funding. The request will now be sent to the Governor’s budget office. Budget details can be found on Page 26 of the KBOR Agenda.
Changes to Freshman Qualifying Admissions for Kansas state universities: In 2018, a working group of four-year institutional representatives was asked to explore additional options to admit otherwise qualified students who may not meet the ACT requirement for qualified admissions. For ESU, PSU, FHSU, KSU and WSU the request was made to change admission criteria from “ACT: 21+ or Rank in Top Third of Class” to “ACT: 21+ or Cumulative GPA of 2.25.” the K-State request was “ACT: 21+ or Rank in Top Third of Class” to “ACT: 21+ or Cumulative GPA of 3.25.” The Precollege Curriculum requirements were also requested to be changed to eliminate the identification of discipline specific credit hours and making them only recommended. Further details can be found on Page 36 of the KBOR Agenda.
Furthering Existing Partnerships and Creating New. As the importance of community colleges involvement in the community both academically and economically continues to grow across the nation, KCKCC’s importance and influence in our region also continues to thrive. As such, institutions of higher education, individual businesses and representatives of industry sectors are eager to work and partner with KCKCC! These recent activities, as highlights, are representative of this interest.
Dr. Beth Ann Krueger met with the new vice president of student affairs at the 
University of St. Mary’s to discuss expanded articulation agreements. I had the opportunity to meet with Msgr. Swetland of Donnelly College to discuss an institutional Memorandum of Understanding to formalize program specific articulations especially for our technical awards so graduates of KCKCC certificates and associate degrees, including associate of applied science degrees, can obtain a bachelor degree without having to leave downtown KCK. I also had the opportunity to meet with the new president of William Jewell, Dr. Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, to discuss their new initiatives to partner with community colleges for program articulation agreements.
In addition to educational partnership opportunities, we continue to meet with 
business and industry representatives to discuss ways we can collaborate and together meet our institutional program needs and their workforce shortage needs. This last Tuesday, Tami Bartunek and I met with leadership from IBEW Local 124 to discuss their needs and our plans to open a downtown location that includes advanced programming specifically for the construction trades.
Earlier this month, two additional very important meetings were held that will help create future programming opportunities for KCKCC and educational 
opportunities for our students. As we continue to discuss a downtown location, a Downtown Advisory Council, comprised of executive leaders from companies/organizations such as: JE Dunn, MarkOne Electric, Greater KC Building and Construction Trades Council, YMCA, USD 500, social and civic organizations, the Unified Government and County Commissioners was convened to discuss the needs of the downtown area and how KCKCC and the community can collaboratively meet those needs. Later that day a meeting was held with Dr. Tiffany Bohm, Dean 
Cheryl Runnebaum and other KCKCC personnel and University of Kansas Health System leadership and medical professionals to discuss new programming in areas such as surgical technology and sterile processing technology that will be physically offered at UKHS Hospital.
News from Cabinet: A new item being added to my Blog this month is “News from Cabinet”. As actions or events take place that Cabinet Members would share, those items are posted in this section. This week, we have the following: Academic Affairs- Fire Academy students have been studying fire behavior. 
The weekend of Sept. 7-8, the students participated in fire behavior activities and practiced skills under the guidance of the fire science instructors as the best way to learn about fire behavior is to work with it head on. Student Affairs- The Military and Veterans Center celebrated its one-year anniversary on September 18, 2019. We had 1,500 visitors the first year. – KC Scholars and the Ewing Marion Kauffman foundation approved a grant for KCKCC in the amount of $25,000 grant to participate in a pilot program with AstrumU. AstrumU is a web application that connects students with potential employers and provides them an opportunity to explore career pathways. We are excited to provide this service to our students and will start the on-boarding process with AstrumU within the next few weeks.
The Tease: Last week the KCKCC Foundation received a $100,000 donation! Way to go Foundation Crew!! Stay tuned – more information to come in a future Blog…
National News Items: All eyes on Alaska. Faced with a $70 million budget cut in one year, the University of Alaska considers major restructuring and consolidation. — The Louisiana Community and Technical College System’s 12 colleges have more than quadrupled the number of student transfers to four-year universities and the number of partnerships with businesses, exceeding these goals set in 2014. — Providing opportunity in juvenile centers. Community colleges and other higher education institutions are known to partner with prisons to educate adult inmates, but they also work with juvenile justice centers to help incarcerated youths in a similar way.
Taking care of (unfinished) business! A moral imperative, The achievement gaps represent what AACC is calling Unfinished Business.
KCKCC On Campus: To stay informed of events, awards and recognition that take place across the College be sure to sign up and receive the On Campus Newsletter. Here is one of the latest issues.