The Digest
What’s Happening at KVCC
What’s below in this edition
ü They’re here (Page 1) ü Sky shows (Pages 6/7)
ü Workforce prep (Pages 2/3) ü Walk Edison (Pages 7/8)
ü Project update (Pages 3/4) ü Wind academy (Pages 8/9)
ü Student art (Page 4) ü Whopper postcards (Pages 9/10)
ü Emmy nominee (Pages 4/5) ü From Honors to K (Pages 10/11)
ü Wind-energy camp (Page 5) ü East Side streets (Pages 11/12)
ü Safety camp (Pages 5/6) ü And Finally (Page 12)
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Summer hours begin, Digest goes biweekly
From Monday (June 14) through Aug. 27, KVCC will be operating under “summer hours.”
On Monday through Thursday, the work week will be from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with a 30-minute break for lunch.
And on Fridays during that period, the college will shut down at noon.
Work hours will be from 8 to noon with no lunch break.
With the arrival of summer hours, thousands of information-thirsty readers should note that The Digest will also shift into an every-other-week format until just before the start of the fall semester.
This June 14 Digest will be the last weekly edition. The next will be dated June 28.
Those operations of the colleges with special, evening and weekend hours - - facilities services, public safety, information technologies, the M-TEC, some offices, and the Kalamazoo Valley Museum — will adjust individual schedules to ensure coverage.
The KVCC Office of Human Resources reports that employees will be paid for 40 hours on the job even though the work week will be reduced to 36 hours during that 11-week period.
The KVCC Cabinet reviews the summer-work schedule annually to determine whether core hours will be adjusted.
In the spring of 2009, “summer hours” started on May 11.
New job-prepping venture ready to go
Taking the first step toward technical jobs in occupations and trades that are looking for skilled workers is the thrust of a one-year pilot program that is up and ready to go.
The Workforce Development Center is a joint project of the Northside Association for Community Development (NACD) and Kalamazoo Valley Community College.
Two tutors are based at the NACD, located at 612 N. Park St., to provide one-on-one, computer-based instructions that will raise the basic mathematics and reading skills of neighborhood residents
The training, assisted by a $7,000 grant from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, is free to all participants.
“It will get people on the path to a job,” said Mattie Jordan-Woods, the NACD’s executive director. “The program will give them the basic skills to either succeed in getting a job, or get them ready to enter -- and be successful -- in a job-training program such as in automotive technology or electrical technology.”
KVCC President Marilyn Schlack envisions the Workforce Development Center as a stepping stone to what is being envisioned in the evolving Arcadia Commons West concept and in its goal of having positive impacts on adjacent Kalamazoo-core neighborhoods.
“As we move forward in our planning for Arcadia Commons West,” she said, “the job-training program can lead to providing workers for the urban gardens and food-growing cooperative that is taking shape. It all ties in to the re-opening of the grocery store across the street from the NACD and in the college’s intentions to establish a culinary-arts program in Kalamazoo County’s core.”
Jordan-Woods says she knows of people who are skilled technicians when it comes to automotive mechanics and other trades, but they lack the basic math and reading skills to gain certification in those professions. The Workforce Development Center can assist them and thus enhance their employability.
According to William Willging, who will oversee the project from the M-TEC of KVCC, the Workforce Development Center will:
· Provide information about a variety of jobs and what it takes to apply for them.
· Determine what each participant knows – meaning old ground won’t have to be covered again.
· Identify what they should learn to better prepare them for the jobs they want.
· Create a customized learning path specific to each participant’s needs.
· Allow each to work at his/her own pace.
· Provide one-on-one tutoring when needed.
Those who sign on with the center must commit to attend the training sessions at least twice a week. Each session will last one hour.
“For people to work themselves out of a low-income or poverty situation,” Jordan said, “they need basic skills that are the foundation of any occupation. The community can’t continue to provide services without an effort by people to get the training they need for employment, especially in those fields that have job openings.”
Jordan-Woods is moving ahead on the NACD’s plans to establish a series of urban gardens and greenhouses. They will be the basis for an entrepreneurial, food-production cooperative that will be run by neighborhood residents and provide a variety of jobs, from growing the food to marketing the products to managing the business.
“The Workforce Development Center will serve as the ground floor for the training of employees for those jobs,” said Schlack who indicated there is “some assurance of additional outside funding” to assist the NACD and the college in operating this pilot project.
Among the missions of the NACD are job creation, neighborhood revitalization, and financial independence for residents.
Training sessions, which will run through May 31 of 2011, will be held both in the morning and late afternoon Mondays through Thursdays to accommodate people’s schedules. One of the tutors will be on duty in the morning hours and the other in the afternoon.
Project dates to remember
Completion dates have been assigned for the various phases of the $12-million expansion and renovation at the Texas Township Campus.
The new wing, which will be home to the Student Success Center, several student-service functions, and a 150-seat auditorium, is slated to be ready for occupancy on Oct. 22. The latest projects are roofing and drywalling.
The former financial-services offices have been converted into a multi-purpose science lab. Cabinetry and student-work stations are being installed. All that should be done by June. 30.
In the lower-level 8000 hallway, crews are transitioning four existing teaching areas into a trio of labs for physics, chemistry and geology. That phase is set to be completed by Aug. 5.
Once counseling services and several Student Success Center functions were moved to a temporary location in the Student Commons Theater, their previous locations were being converted into two 48-seat classrooms and two that will hold 60 students. This conversion should be done by July 27.
In the 7500 corridor, crews are changing four classrooms into faculty offices. They should be ready for occupancy on Aug. 9.
The faculty-office area is being “opened up with natural lighting to help it be more student-friendly.” It will also include student-waiting space and additional conference rooms. Those phases are pegged to be finished by Aug. 16
The new wing will house the Student Success Center on the second floor and the Office of Admissions, Registration and Records, the Office of Financial Aid, the Office of Institutional Research, and Central Receiving on the first level. Once those functions are moved to the new wing, work will begin on converting that space into six classrooms. The timetable for that is Oct. 25 through Dec. 31.
Work crews will also attempt to do as many of the “noisy” jobs in converting classrooms into faculty offices in the 7100 corridor prior to the start of the fall semester on Sept. 7. Once the demo phase is done, the rest of the job, and hopefully the quieter, will take place through Thanksgiving.
One of the final phases will be the relocation of the college’s “receiving” area to the outer section of the new wing.
KVCC’ers can take a look for themselves at the progress by going to the college’s home page and keyboard in up at the top – home.kvcc.edu.
In all, KVCC will lose eight classrooms and gain 10, plus the 150-seat mini-auditorium/lecture hall in the new expansion. The Student Success Center will revert to serving as The Gallery.
Dollars for such projects are banked in capital funds by the state and by the college, and are not part of each’s general fund. Michigan’s formula for higher-education projects has not changed from past years. Each community college and the state provide 50 percent of the costs.
The Kalamazoo architectural firm of Eckert Wordell designed the expansion and remodeling, while the Miller-Davis Co. is serving as construction manager.
The Digest is working in conjunction with Maley to present project updates. Contact him at extension 4298 with any questions or concerns.
This is the college’s first major construction initiative since the Student Commons in 2001.
CNM art showcase open through June 25
Some 23 graduates of the KVCC Center for New Media are displaying their artistic creativity.
The center’s annual Graduates Show is in place through June 25.
On display in the Central, South and Arcus galleries are works in graphic design, illustration, 2- and 3-D animation, web design, video production, digital photography, and fine art.
The graduates are Anna Barnhart, Kari Braley, Kaitlin Cough, Athen Decker, Jordan Decker, Adam Georgoff, William Hays, Cassey McPhearson, Taylor Neely, Amy O'Donnell, Andy Peninger, Ryan Rosenthal, Chad Sutton, Brittney Thoele, Andy VanKoevering, Brandon VanDusen, John Babbitt, Aidan Boyle, Cynthia Cooper, John Furrow, Jonas Jagielski, Eva Oldman and Wesley Uhl.
Each spring, faculty at the Center for New Media select a student to receive its Merit Award for dedication to the arts, exceptional talents in a field of creativity, and scholastic achievement. Sutton, a major in graphic design, is the 2010 recipient and his artwork will be on display in the Central Gallery.
For more information, contact Margaret Noteboom, the center’s events manager, at extension 7883 or .
Emmy-nominated ‘doc’ has KVCC footage
A documentary that includes footage of KVCC’s 145-foot, 50-kilowatt wind turbine on the Texas Township Campus has been nominated for an Emmy.
Brian Gonda's documentary, "Michigreen: Michigan's Renewable Energy Future," has been shown on PBS stations across the state.
It was entered into the national completion an Emmy in “Topical Documentary” by the Michigan chapter of The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Winners are scheduled to be announced Thursday, July 8.
With more than 20 years of experience in broadcast television as a photographer, editor and producer, Gonda brought his expertise to Kalamazoo when he founded VideoHead Productions in 2004.
He’s provided footage from the Oklahoma City Bombing to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
For four years from 2000, he was the chief photographer for the NBC affiliate, KOB-TV, in Albuquerque, N.M.
Relocating to Atlanta, Ga., in the summer of 2004, he freelanced for ESPN and WSB-TV before coming to Kalamazoo where he has taken on assignments for numerous nonprofits and returned to his roots as a documentarian.
First wind-energy summer camp ready to go
Building a scale-model wind turbine will be the capstone project at two summer camps for youths ranging in age from 12 to 17.
Slated to be held at KVCC’s Texas Township Campus, the first session will run Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week for 12 to 14 year olds and the second is scheduled for July 12-14 for 15 to 17 year olds. The fee is $135. Registrants are still needed for the July camp.
Guiding both camps, which will be in action from 9 a.m. to noon on each of the three days in Room 5820, will be John Stahl, a physics instructor at KVCC who is working on a master’s in that discipline at Western Michigan University.
Among the camp activities in addition to building a turbine will be collecting and analyzing wind data, experimenting with blade design, learning the ins and outs of the 145-foot wind turbine that is operating on the Texas Township Campus, and learning about careers in wind energy.
Camp participants, who will number 15 for each session, will tour and inspect the 50-kilowatt wind turbine at the west end of the Texas Township Campus.
To register or to receive more information, call the college’s Wind Energy Center based in the M-TEC of KVCC at 353-1270 or visit this web site: www.windenergycenter.kvcc.edu.
Museum to host first 911 child-safety camp
The edition of the 911 Camp booked for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum is full with a waiting list, but there are other opportunities for area youngsters to enhance their safety and wellbeing in a fun setting.
These free camps designed for youths ages 9 to 11 are being offered by Life EMS ambulance service at eight locations this summer. The museum session – the first of the eight – is set for Tuesday, July 13.
Kimberly Middleton, community relations coordinator for Life EMS in Kalamazoo, said the all-day camps will focus on everything from the basics of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and first-aid to self-defense moves to thwart potential abductions. There will be information on fire and bike safety, and participants can be fingerprinted for identification in case they go missing.
“We try to go above and beyond what the students learn about in school,” Middleton told The Kalamazoo Gazette. “They won’t be certified in CPR or first-aid, but they’ll know the basics.”