News from around the VCCS If you can’t read this email, please view it online. A text-only version can be accessed online.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

*For VCCS Events Calendar, please scroll down

Virginia’s Community Colleges hold the line on tuition for the upcoming academic year. Action by the VCCS State Board comes after Virginia lawmakers boost state support for higher education.

General Assembly funding decisions have a profound impact on tuitions at state-supported colleges and universities.

The next president of Eastern Shore Community College brings experience from Kansas, Wyoming and North Dakota in addition to Virginia university leadership roles. James Shaeffer takes the helm at ESCC in July and is the fourth of seven VCCS presidents expected to be named this year.

Grant funding helps the VCCS deliver important services to our students, such as the grant-funded logistics training at CCWA seen here. A statewide contract now makes it easier for our colleges to secure help in researching and writing grant applications.

Overcoming the “at-risk” label…Great Expectations graduates hear from an academic leader who did not want to be defined by what others believed was possible.

“I Wouldn’t Trade My Community College Experience For Anything” - The title of Insaaf Mohamed’s essay in Forbes sets the stage for a heartfelt recounting of her time at Northern Virginia Community College and the value of the lessons she leaned inside and outside the classrooms at NOVA.

“Back in the days when a welding class was going to cost an individual $4,000, someone who was struggling to make ends meet would not come to us,” says Elizabeth Creamer, vice president of the Community College Workforce Alliance in central Virginia. “Now they can.” Virginia’s more affordable workforce training programs are spotlighted in the May issue of Governing Magazine; read more here.

Yes, those are Rocket Cars – designed, 3-D-printed, built and track-tested by New River Community College students May 13. Jeff Levy, head of NRCC’s engineering design and technology program told the Roanoke Times, “We shattered the record but it won’t stand because our cars got shattered, too. We had three runs that were over 280 mph, real time.” Read and see more photos here.

Our final entry this issue comes from the “loose ends” department: Student hunger was one of the focus topics at the VCCS New Horizons: Building Bridges – Equity, Access and Opportunity conference in Roanoke April 10-12. Participants at the conference were invited to contribute to a fund through The Virginia Foundation for Community College Education to benefit emergency food programs and food pantries at VCCS colleges across Virginia. Organizers report that $4,808 was donated at the conference, including a $1,000 match from Anthem and a $500 match from the Chancellor.