July 19, 2010

Copper Mountain College’s TEP Program and Workforce Development Center to Close

The California state budget crisis has imposed a significant impact on Copper Mountain College’s (CMC) budget; as a result, their Workforce Development Center is scheduled to close Friday, August 20^th and the Transfer Empowerment Program will end in September. Over the past 10 years, under an agreement with San Bernardino County, CMC has operated the Workforce Development Center as a satellite one-stop, which has continuously provided career counseling, transfer information, California Department of Rehabilitation training, job preparation and placement, and service to job seekers and employers.

Among the three full-service one-stop centers located in Hesperia, Rancho Cucamonga, and San Bernardino and two other satellite one-stop centers at Hesperia Unified School District and San Bernardino College, the CMC Workforce Center has been the only center to operate without county funding at a cost to the College of $35,000 a year.  Along the same line, an internal audit of other programs revealed that the GED testing service is costing the college over $11,000 a year.  As a result, this service will have to be discontinued.  The discontinuance of the testing service will not impact the College’s GED preparation program.

According to Greg Brown, Vice President of Student Services, “Student Services is currently examining just how we might continue to serve our students and community members with existing resources.” He added, “We are looking at just where and how we can make computers available for job seekers.”

“We have been the only unfunded center in the county,” noted Superintendent/President, Roger Wagner.  “As a result, we are no longer able to run this in a business-as-usual format.  “We hate to see any service we provide to our students and members of the community stop. Unfortunately, we are no longer in a position to provide these services without funding.”

Additionally, CMC lost some of their federal grants at the beginning of 2010.The College’s Transfer Empowerment Program (TEP) has for many years been a flagship program offering personalized assistance to students who were looking to transfer to the university system.  The federal funds to support TEP program will be gone at the end of September along with the program itself.  To continue the TEP program, without federal help, would deepen CMC’s deficit budget and make the college non-compliant with laws that require the college to spend 50 percent of the budget on classroom instruction.

Along with many public institutions, CMC’s operating budget has suffered greatly as a result of the California State budget crisis; even so, CMC administrators are desperately trying to provide students the same courses and services that have been continually offered to them over the years. “But this has become increasingly more difficult,” said Wagner.

In 2009, the state rolled back CMC’s Full Time Equivalent Student (FTES) enrollment cap by 150 students.  The FTES is how CMC receives its funding from the state.  The rollback, along with a 2.2% increase in CMC’s enrollments last year, means CMC will have provided $750,000 of classes and services to students without compensation during the past year.

As the budget crisis continues to bear down on community college funding, CMC’s current budget will take the college’s reserves below 10 percent.  This is less than 30 days of operational funds. “In spite of this, we are among the few colleges in the desert region to offer a summer session, something we may not be able to do in future years” noted Wagner.  “In the meantime, we are continuing to work on our personnel and staffing changes that have transpired as a result of the loss of grants.

In addition to the current budget challenges, summer enrollments are up from last year and six percent of the summer enrollees are from the lower desert.  This was not a surprise to Wagner and other CMC administrators because College of the Desert did not run a summer session this year. “This would be great news if we were getting growth money and if these students stayed with us after summer,” noted Wagner. “As it stands, this situation only costs us money – another budget issue that we will have to address.”

On the bright side, CMC is working on other projects that will save the college money in the long run. One of those projects includes the parking area solar panels that were recently activated.  This proactive addition will generate nearly 50 percent of CMC’s energy needs, not including the Bell Center. In the meantime, Joe Olson, Vice President for Economic, Military, and Community Relations, along with Facilities Director Dan Cain, continue to look for partnerships, funding, and other venues to finance additional solar projects on campus.

Wagner concluded with, “No one more than I hates to see services cut, but I hold a responsibility for the long-term viability of the college’s finances, and we must begin to be proactive rather than reactive in response to the state’s budget crisis and our own budget issues.”

July 7, 2010

Copper Mountain College Removed From Accreditation Warning

JOSHUA TREE, Ca –   Copper Mountain College received a long awaited decision by the Accreditation Commission for Junior and Community Colleges (ACCJC) on its accreditation status this past Friday afternoon.  ACCJC Team Operations and Communications Vice President, Jack Pond, called CMC Superintendent/President Dr. Wagner late in the day advising that the “warning” sanction placed on the College in June of 2008 had been officially removed during a meeting of the full Commission on June 10th. 

According to faculty member, and CMC Accreditation Liaison Officer, Cathy Itnyre, “The Commission’s actions were the results of a great deal of hard work on the part of many of the College’s employees.”  With the College’s Mid-term report now accepted and the warning removed, it will not be until 2013 that the CMC will see a site visit from the Commission.  Wagner reiterated that “During the past two years when CMC was on warning status, the College remained fully accredited.  If the College had failed to take corrective actions to address the Commission recommendations from its visit in 2009, the warning could have been elevated to probation status”.

The College has already begun to form its task force for the 2013 reaccreditation site visit that will include the development of a new Institutional Master Plan.  Every employee of the College will be responsible for at least one element of the over 200 elements that make up the ACCJC Accreditation Standards.  In addition to being responsible for an element, each employee will be responsible for internally auditing someone else’s element ensuring that every employee has ownership and a role in the accreditation process.

In advising Wagner of the Commission’s actions Pond stated that “The Commission’s actions are a reflection of the hard work CMC had done over the past year, you and your staff are to be commended for a job well done.”

June 30, 2010

Copper Mountain College Goes Green

 JOSHUA TREE, Ca – Copper Mountain College goes green to save dollars…with solar energy.  In keeping with its Facilities Master Plan and the Measure C Bond funded projects, Copper Mountain College has begun producing a significant amount of its own electricity needs.  On Tuesday morning officials from Chevron Energy Solutions and Baker Technology Services Group were on hand to flip the switch allowing the 1078 solar panels to begin producing energy for the College.  The 250 kW solar covered parking area is designed to provide nearly 30% of the College’s electrical needs.  The original solar field design was scrapped in 2008 in favor of the solar covered parking over existing paved parking areas preserving the desert landscape and providing covered parking for students and employees.  Chief of Campus Facilities, Dan Cain, says “the project not only saves money it benefits the environment”. 

 This all comes at a time when education is seeing unprecedented losses in funding and the College is looking for ways to save money and create new training opportunities for students.  The College was recently awarded a $50,000 partnership grant with College of the Canyons Alternative Energy Training Institute.  The Department of Energy grant will allow Copper Mountain College to formally begin the development of curriculum for a local certificate in solar energy.  Vice President of Academic Affairs, Cheryl Munsey says that “This is a great opportunity for not only our students, but for the Morongo Basin as a whole.  We have always viewed our campus as an institution that will lead the way in protecting our desert environment.  This is a step in the right direction.”

  The College hopes that in the future it can expand its solar project to meet 100% of its energy needs.  In addition to the solar covered parking the College is in the permitting stage of installing a small service wind turbine.  The wind turbine is small in scale and while it will generate electricity, its principle role will be as a learning lab for students.

June 24, 2010

JOSHUA TREE, Ca - Three Copper Mountain College Employees were recently recognized for their outstanding contributions to the College and its students.  Ms. Cheryl Munsey was named Administrator of the Quarter, Ms. Andrea Armstrong was named Faculty Member of the Quarter and Mr. Chris Laubenstein was named Classified Employee of the Quarter.

Mr. Owen Gillick, Copper Mountain College Board Chair, presented each of the employees an engraved pen set at the June 24, meeting of the Board of Trustees.  Mr. Gillick congratulated each of the employees for their dedication and service to the College.

In announcing the Employees of the Quarter, Superintendent/President Dr. Roger Wagner, offered his thanks to Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley Chambers of Commerce for their role in the selection process.  Each Chamber made the final selections from a number of nominees received.  Wagner went on to say, " It is a pleasure to recognize these outstanding individuals.  It is also noteworthy that several outstanding employees were nominated by their fellow employees for these awards and it is indicative of the quality of our workforce at the college."