Facing significant budget challenges, the State Board for Community Colleges passed a resolution at their meeting in Richmond last Thursday, asking the General Assembly and Governor Kaine’s administration to “consider the unique mission of Virginia’s Community Colleges in meeting state needs.”
Highlighting the community colleges’ unique ability to serve Virginians across the Commonwealth, the resolution pointed out that Virginia’s community colleges remain the least funded institutions under the Base Adequacy Formula.
The resolution addressed the value and importance of workforce development services in a time when the economy is slowing. The “customizable, cutting-edge workforce training opportunities” offered by the VCCS are critical to employers and employees through the state. The availability of these programs play a vital role in enticing large, international employers to invest in facilities and jobs for Virginians.
A report by Magnum Economic Consulting, LLC indicated that workforce training programs offer “benefits to Virginia’s economy that are nearly nine times as great as the costs required to generate those benefits.”
The State Board urged General Assembly to consider the growing demand for these workforce services and the economic return they produce as they begin to resolve the budget challenges.
Students at Virginia’s Community Colleges have a new benefit this week: their student email is now provided by Gmail as part of a suite of Google applications imlemented by Information Technology Services.
The move, which replaces the former student email package, offers gigabytes of email storage in a reliable and familiar email interaface — but that’s just part of the deal. Students now have to Google Calendar, Google Talk for instant messaging, Google Docs for real-time collaboration on documents and projects, and Google Sites, where students can create their own websites.
Better and improved services — and a huge cost savings — make it a no-brainer for an enterprise-wide implementation, says Matt Lawson, director of enterprise services for the VCCS.
Many higher education institutions are leaving behind old email programs in favor of working with Google Apps-Education Edition, including the University of Virginia. The trend is spreading to community colleges as well.
With more than 300,000 student accounts, Virginia’s Community Colleges will become one of the largest implementations of the service.
The migration from the previous email was done over the weekend, and was completely seamless. Monday when they signed in, they had all their mail in Gmail.
One small (not) benefit: all the benefits of Gmail, none of the advertising.
You have to laugh when you read about the BRCC Educational Foundation’s latest fundraiser. It features a murder mystery dinner — only the “victim” is Blue Ridge President Jim Perkins.
Harrisonburg’s Rocktown Weekly writes about the murder mystery dinner, to be held Oct. 3 at BRCC’s Robert E. Plecker Workforce Center, in today’s issue.
The suspects are top community leaders, including the mayor of Harrisonburg; a Staunton councilman; and local company presidents, all of whom have relationships with Blue Ridge Community College.
It’s clear they are already having fun with it. Rocktown Weekly quotes Harrisonburg Mayor Rodney Eagle as saying:
I’m innocent. I didn’t do it……but I’ve always wanted to be hit man.
Dr. Perkins is enjoying the fun as much as anyone “This year we wanted to do something different,” he says, giggling a bit when he thinks of his own upcoming demise. He has a role of his own: he plays his long-lost twin brother, Tim, who returns from an African safari to assist in the investigation.
Participants in the dinner interrogate the suspects, investigate the crime scene and work in small groups to solve the crime.
The “whodunit” idea for a fundraiser reminds me of simpler times — when it was Mrs. Scarlet who committed the crime in the library with a candlestick.
The inaugural Great Expectations education fourm, held this past weekend in RIchmond was a great success in raising awareness about the challenges foster care youth face and what can be done to help more of them pursue and complete a postsecondary education program.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote a good story on the event.
More than half are teenagers. Of those in foster care, 25 percent will be jailed in the first two years after leaving the system, Holton said. Only 58 percent will earn a high school degree by 19, and less than 3 percent will earn a college degree, she said.
The panelists talked of problems ranging from abusive parents to being ashamed to tell classmates they were in foster care. But all found a caseworker, a teacher, a foster parent or someone who befriended them and helped guide them through their troubles.
And you can see some video coverage of the education forum at this YouTube link.
The best-selling author will be sharing details about his life growing out of foster care at the Great Expectations Education Forum Saturday at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. The event, which features Bridge along with First Lady Anne Holton, begins at 10:30 a.m.
In an advance to the event published in today’s Richmond Times Dispatch, Bridge said he received a sense of worth from doing well in school. Bridge said in the newspaper report:
The Great Expectations initiative of the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education is all about helping foster youth make a successful transition into life after foster care by providing services including academic and workforce services at Virginia’s Community Colleges.
First Lady Anne Holton will be moderating a discussion among foster care youth at the event. She has had a keen interest in foster care and families through her For Keeps initiative.
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