KCTCS President seeks support to maintain SCC funding

One goal funding for new Russell Center in Russell Springs, KY

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By Dave Cazalet, Jr., SCC Director of Public Affairs

Dr. Michael McCall, the President of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), kicked-off the KCTCS Advocacy Campaign in Somerset on Friday, October 30, 2009, by speaking to students, faculty, staff and community leaders on the Somerset Community College Somerset Campus North.

McCall told a group of approximately 100 community leaders at a luncheon that SCC and KCTCS were "providing students with the education they need to get the job they need."

Jobs of future will require at least AA degree

McCall said that 83 percent of the future jobs in Kentucky will require at least an associate degree and that SCC and KCTCS were providing students with the skills they needed to get those jobs today.

Since KCTCS was created in 1998, the number of students enrolled in Kentucky's community and technical colleges has increased from 52,000 to over 106,000 in spite of five cuts in state funding over the past five years.

McCall said that the purpose of the KCTCS Advocacy Campaign was to enlist the help of the community and to get the word to the Kentucky Legislature that they need to maintain the current level of state funding for SCC and the other 15 Kentucky community and technical colleges during the next legislative session and the 2010-2012 state budget.

McCall said a second emphasis of the campaign would be to ask the legislature to provide maintenance and operational funds which would allow SCC to open the new buildings scheduled to be completed in 2010. SCC has a new Health and Technical Education Building in London at its Laurel Campus and a new building located in Whitley City at its McCreary Center scheduled to open in 2010. However, SCC has received no money to pay for utilities and maintenance of these new buildings.

New building for Russell Center in Russell Springs needs funding

McCall also explained that SCC has requested funding for two additional buildings. The first would replace the current building housing the SCC Russell Center in Russell Springs and the second would be a Fine Arts Building on the SCC Somerset Campus.

"We need your help," McCall told community leaders. "We need to get the word to the Kentucky General Assembly and we want to enlist you to help us keep our funding where it is today."

The theme of the KCTCS Advocacy Campaign is "Transforming Lives. Transforming Kentucky."

"We are providing real jobs for real people in real time," McCall said.

McCall urged his listeners to go to the KCTCS website at www.kctcs.edu and sign a petition supporting maintaining KCTCS funding at its current level. He said that when a person signed the petition, the system would automatically send an e-mail to their state representatives and state senators that the petition signers were supporting KCTCS.

Community leaders would be asked to go to Frankfort to support campaign

As part of the campaign, KCTCS students, employees and community supporters would each be asked to go to Frankfort to support the campaign. Students, employees and community members supporting Somerset Community College have been asked to plan to visit Frankfort during the week of Jan. 19-21.

McCall also announced that KCTCS would be holding a rally of all KCTCS supporters in Frankfort on Thursday, February 25, 2009.

Somerset Community College is a comprehensive two-year institution of higher education. SCC has campuses in Somerset and London, centers in Clinton, McCreary, Casey, and Russell Counties. The website is www.somerset.kctcs.edu. Call for admission and registration information toll free at 1-877-629-9722.

KCTCS serves the Commonwealth through 16 community and technical college districts that form a seamless system of 62 campuses open or under construction. KCTCS colleges change lives by providing accessible and affordable education and training through academic and technical associate degrees; diploma and certificate programs in occupational fields; pre-baccalaureate education; adult, continuing and developmental education; customized training for business and industry; and distance learning. For more information, visit www.kctcs.edu.

This story was posted on 2009-10-31 14:02:05
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