Accent, November 9, 2009 edition

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November 9, 2009

Austin has drastic need for health, tech grads

www.theAccent.org

Matt Iserman

ȩȩ see ACC page 4

Campus Activities $43,400.00

Student Assistance Program $74,000.00

Staff writer

The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce released its second annual progress report over the state of ACC last month. Despite enrollment rates already at a record high, the report recommends a drastic increase in the amount of graduates in health and technology related fields by 2015 in order to meet the Metropolitan Austin future workforce needs. Currently, ACC’s enrollment rate is growing slightly faster than the population growth of the Metro Austin area. The currently projected figures show the Austin area creating or replacing more jobs that require an associate or other postsecondary vocational certificate than ACC can provide. The May 2008 annexation of Round Rock into ACC’s taxing district will aid in enrollment rates continuing to mirror the Austin area’s projected 3 percent population growth rate. ACC, along with the Austin Chamber of Commerce and 50 other educational and community organizations have undertaken the “20,010 by 2010” initiative to greatly increase enrollment from Metro Austin into post-secondary education by 30 percent over the 2005 baseline. As of 2008, 25 percent of high school graduates from the Metro Austin area immediately enrolled in ACC post graduation. Course enrollments show that ACC’s two fastest growing enrollment areas over the past 5 years are college-level transfer classes taken by students planning to transfer credits to four-year colleges as well as health science classes taken primarily by students planning to enter the workforce after graduation. Mike Midgley, ACC Vice President of Workforce Education and Business Development, sees all of the goals recommended by the Chamber of Commerce as reachable. “With the addition of our new campus in Round Rock, our enrollment rates should continue to climb through 2015,” said Midgley. Midgley went further to explain that among the factors hindering growth is the college’s limited facilities. The addition of the Round Rock campus will help to alleviate some of this concern as the school plans on it being their largest campus when all development is complete, hosting over 11,000 students. ACC produced 50 percent of the labor market needs in 2008 for allied health and nursing completers and graduates in

Accent Student Newspaper $43,000.000

Leadership & Development $26,200.00

Campus Activity Board & Annual Events $80,674.00

Intramurals & Recreation $46,400.00

Campus Governance $37,900.00 Clubs & Organizations $13,800.00

Diversity Outreach $23,200.00

Communications & Student Life Marketing $45,400.00

Changes at a glance

Student Assistance 41

Student Life is working on reorganizing the current clusters to accommodate for new, longer, mandatory student orientations. Planning is still very preliminary, but some changes are certain.

Staff Writer

Each semester success workshops are provided to students in areas such as time management, eliminating stress and starting good financial habits. These are designed to improve a students performance in, and outside of their educational career. But, based on the average attendance, most students are not using these workshops. “I think community college students are very busy. They balance work, school, family. They run to class and run somewhere else,” said counselor Linda Moeller. It is debatable whether students’ busy lives might be the reason they are unable to

Student Participation Student Communications 111 New Student Orientation 2,790 Leadership Development 719

What we know for sure: •

Diversity, Leadership, and Intramural Sports and Recreation will no longer be stand alone programs

Welcomepalooza and Springtini events are cancelled for at least fall 2010. Welcome Week is still on.

Many events that have been scheduled, but that work has not started on, will be cancelled

The Student Life budget will not be cut

Students will be able to complete mandatory orientation online, or on campus.

Some of most successful aspects from eliminated clusters and events will be blended into programs and events that have not been cut.

Intramural Sports and Recreation 715 Diversity Outreach 533

Clubs and Organizations 1,300 Campus Governance 80

Campus Activities 8,539

New mandatory orientation leads to restructuring of Student Life programs Sarah Neve

Student Life (SL) is being reorganized in order to expand The Orientation Program (TOP) as a result of the college deciding to make orientation mandatory. Diversity, Intramural Sports and Recreation and the Leadership programs will no longer be stand-alone clusters. Some of the most successful aspects of these clusters will be blended into remaining programs. Starting fall, 2010, all students new to ACC will have to attend orientation either on campus or online. Currently about 1,600 students attend orientation per year, but under the new mandatory orientation, more like 10,000 will be required to attend. Orientation will also be three hours long instead of two. “The administration didn’t tell me I had to reorganize Student Life, but they told me about orientation, and we couldn’t make it work without moving things around,” Director of Student Life Cheryl Richard said. Richard is working on a proposal outlining the changes to SL that she will share with the SL Coordinators on Nov. 9. After the feedback is in

Editor-in-Chief

and any changes to the proposal that come up in the meeting are made, the proposal will go to Student Government so that students can weigh in on the changes. SL is funded through the Student Activities Fee that all students pay. There is some concern about the programs that are being cut, including a decline in the number of the students involved. “Student development is not the administration’s focus, orientation is,” SL Coordinator and head of the leadership program Quevarra Moten said. Leadership had 719 students involved last semester, according to the report from the Student Life office. “I don’t want to say that I’m heartbroken, but I am torn…My whole program is being cut. Leadership is being turned into a club, but I mean it’s better to have something than nothing at all,” Moten said. Part of the proposal that Richard is working on would be to create a Campus Activities Board (CAB) on each campus that would be overseen by the SL Assistant and Coordinator. This would allow

Success workshops poorly attended Brynne Harder

Student Life redesign

Student Life Budget The Orientation Program $44,500.00

Volume 12, Issue 4

attend, or possibly that they are not aware the workshops are offered. Average attendance varies from about one student to 12 students. The best attended workshops are usually those that are offered as part of a scheduled class or as extra credit. The counselors do say that these are valuable workshops that can help students in their current pursuits and also after college. The career services workshops can assist in finding a job and interview and resume writing skills while others help with avoiding burnout or managing a hectic schedule. “Many of these topics help a student juggle other parts of their life. Problems at work, or such, can diminish school,”

said counselor Stewart Sachers. Traditionally workshops were offered at all campuses, however this semester they are only being held through the Northridge and Cypress Creek Campuses. There are an increased number of workshops available online. Moeller said that the online courses have become better attended, probably, because they are more flexible for students. There are still a few more workshops scheduled for the fall semester. Understanding what you need to register successfully at ACC will be held in November at Northridge. ACC’s career services available online 24/7 will be held Nov. 4, 10 and Dec. 5 at Cypress Creek.

students to control what SL is like on each campus. “I’ve always wanted to turn the reins over to the students. This whole thing with TOP gives us a vehicle to do that,” Richard said. Some aspects of the programs that are being cut will be blended in to exist within the remaining clusters. John Jacobs, who runs the Diversity Program, hopes that the Unity Jam event and the Diversity Ambassador Programs stay in place after the diversity cluster is gone. Unity Jam is a college-wide event where each campus is assigned a country, and SL on that campus creates an event showcasing the culture of that country with dancing, food and clothing. “These are experiences that all students need to have. It makes them well rounded,” Jacobs said. While there is some concern that these changes will lead to fewer students being involved with SL, Richard is optimistic. “It’s not true. I don’t know how it won’t be true, but we will figure it out,” she said. “My passion and my goal is to always reach as many students as possible.”

Thousands of Texas jobs created, saved by stimulus Christopher A. Smith Campus Life Editor

Federal stimulus money saved or created almost 4,000 education jobs in Texas according to a report by the US Department of Education (DOE).The report said Texas used almost $30 million of the stimulus money awarded to it by the DOE. A draft of the report was made available on Nov. 2 by the DOE. The report includes information on money awarded to each state in the nation and jobs saved or created in each state. $100 billion from the

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was provided to the DOE to deal with state budget shortfalls when President Obama signed the ARRA into law on Feb. 17. The DOE credits the use of that money for the creation of 325,000 education jobs nationwide. That is nearly half of the 640,329 jobs created by the ARRA according to the recovery.gov Web site. Some states have taken full advantage of the money awarded to them while others have not. According to the report, California has saved or created 80,000

jobs with its $5 billion while Wyoming only took $800 thousand and, according to the report, created or saved only three education related jobs. States are required to report the use of stimulus funds quarterly and on Jan. 1 the DOE plans to release another report with more up to date information. “We’ll be able to see its impact for years to come,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan of the stimulus money used to save and create education jobs. “We can educate our way to a better economy.”


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