News Writing: First, Rachel Madearis and Antoinette Bradley, “Struggle to diversify workforce continues at MCC.” Second, Rachel Madearis, MCC budget workshop considers tuition increase, cost cuts.” Third, Daniel Spaulding, ”Chancellor to retire.”

Sportswriting: Second, Josh O’Hora,  “XC runs with the sun.”  Regular Column: First, Callie V. Hanson, “Good times.” Sports Column: First, Josh O’Hora, ”Chiefs keep on rolling.” HM, Dani Post, ”MW women’s soccer is a bonding experience.”  Entertainment Review: Second, Louis Kemner, “‘Paranormal 2′ out-frightens its predecessors.”

News Photography: First,Louis Kemner, “‘Students protest puppy mills.”  Feature Photography: HM, Marcus Sunde, “Polar Bear Plunge raises funds for Special Olympics.”  Sports photography: Third, Marcus Sunde, “LV Lakers vs MW Monarchs.” Page One Design: Third, The Current, May 2010. Editorial Page: Third, The Current. Photo Page: HM,  The Current, “Cold.”

For low-income college students, federal food assistance is one option for managing living expenses while in school, but some students may not know that getting assistance is available.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), only 66 percent of eligible people participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the national food assistance program.

One possible reason that college students don’t participate is because they don’t know that they are eligible. For certain, eligibility is limited.

Generally, “a student is ineligible to receive benefits if they are a student in higher education,” reports Gretchen Maschger, Correspondence and Informational Specialist at the Division of Family Services in Kansas City. “In order to be an eligible student, you must meet requirements.”

Even so, eligibility is extended to a broad range of students. For example, students working 20 hours or more and students in a work-study program are eligible for food assistance. Students receiving the Pell Grant are also eligible. Funds are concentrated to students who already demonstrate financial need. This year, about 12,247 Metropolitan students received need-based aid, 3,568 of them students at Longview.

Once students receive aid, though, they may be surprised at the food stuffs they can buy.

“All of our foods here are EBT eligible,” says Josh Anderson, shift supervisor at CVS.

Aid also supplements a good chunk of food expenses. The average food assistance award was nearly $125 dollars per month in 2009.

One thing eligible students won’t see any time soon, unfortunately, is SNAP-eligible items on campus. Longview’s cafeteria service, Treat America, is not licensed to process SNAP benefits.

“It would have to be a company-wide offering,” said Longview’s Food Service Manager, Tami Trosper, about the campus’ Treat America team.

The number of SNAP-eligible retailers is growing, though, and just in time for needy college students.

During the 2010 budget workshop, MCC administrators introduced the implementation of a student fee to raise revenue for the district.

“We are looking at some type of general fee,” said Reinhard Weglarz, Director of Management and Auxiliary Services.

The fee, which was to be officially proposed in Fall 2010, would encompass a few current student charges.

“This fee will replace fees that students currently pay for transcripts and graduation,” said Tuesday Stanley, Vice Chancellor of Student Development and Enrollment Services.

The plan is to reduce the costs of processing separate miscellaneous transactions.

“It will save us an enormous amount of time processing small payments on things like that,” said Weglarz.

Administrators are considering charging students $10 per term. The fee will eliminate the per transcript fee for students.

Weglarz introduced the general fee during his discussion of possible revenue-generating ventures including: gleaning revenue from the Institute for Workforce Innovation, boosting auxiliary revenue (bookstore, fitness center for example), and managing enrollment.

The diversity data released by MCC this fall parallels the accusations made last spring by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The report, compiled as part of regulatory compliance and internal consideration, discloses the racial and gender makeup of the college’s employees.

According to the report, only 152 of 999 employees at Metropolitan Community College (MCC) are African-American. Eleven are American-Indian, 17 are Asian, and 32 employees are Hispanic. Racial minorities, as a whole, total 212, only 20 percent of MCC’s employee base.

The national composition for racial minorities is 34 percent. MCC’s composite is 27 percent. At Longview, 23 of 212 employees are minorities, about 10 percent.

A few key positions in the district are staffed by African Americans—a seat on the board of trustees, a president’s position at Penn Valley, and a president’s position at Blue River—but the major administrative positions at MCC are largely held by Caucasian employees. Out of 63 officers and administrators, only seven are minorities. Longview has no minority officers or administrators.
Faculty representation at MCC is also sparse. Out of 294 instructors, only 46 belong to racial minorities. At Longview, only eight out of 86 instructors are members of minorities, about 10 percent.

During spring 2010, the diversity data from a similar report provoked criticism from and spawned an equal employment opportunity complaint by the NAACP.

“For you it is okay for blacks to work in the system, but not lead the system,” said Clinton Adams, Jr. of the Kansas City Urban Summit, a group of city leaders whose mission is “to enhance the business community, economic growth and quality of life in the Urban Core.”

When then-Vice Chancellor Mark James was promoted to chancellor, the NAACP suspected that some African-American candidates for the position had been overlooked. An out-of-town African-American woman applied for the chancellor position and had superb qualifications and a doctorate degree, according to Adams, while a white male with only a master’s degree was hired for the position.

Adams also said that two experienced African-American males applied for positions in MCC’s Public Safety Department, but were not interviewed, and later received letters that the position was filled.

The NAACP requested the district’s diversity data, according to Julia Hill, local NAACP board member.

“After we saw the material, we had to file a complaint,” Hill said. “We found that the minorities were in the lower level jobs.”

The “MCC Diversity Summary” is compiled and presented every semester, and while the numbers do present concern, even after the heat of the initial complaint, district representatives are hopeful. Then-Chancellor Jackie Snyder said that she and the administration and board are committed to a diverse institution, a sentiment echoed by African-American board member Richard Tolbert.

Longview President Fred Grogan agreed. “MCC is committed to reflecting diversity in the student body, staff, faculty, and administrators,”Grogan said last spring. “The process has been slow to everyone else, but it has been progress.”

MCC has a Committee for Inclusion and Diversity, which trains new employees, looks at recruitment plans, and supports diversity organizations in the community. The district’s equal employment opportunity office participates in the hiring process.

Update, 12 Jan. 2010
Between the time this story was published in print and online, Penn Valley President Bernard Franklin resigned. He was replaced by Blue River President Joseph Seabrooks. The resignation reduces the number of African-American officers in the district by one.

Carol Gatlin contributed to this story.

Students can report crimes at any Public Safety Office on campus. The report includes the location of MCC’s offices. For national college crime statistics, visit http://ope.ed.gov/security.

~Rachel Madearis

MCC administrators met in November to review the college’s 2011-2012 budget proposal, highlighting several changes for the upcoming academic year.

The November financial workshop, which was attended by several board members and other key administrators, focused on MCC’s financial outlook, which is expected to include a dramatic reduction in state funding, and possible tuition increases.

Several other factors were expected to influence the budget in the  next year.

While class size was projected to increase to reflect an increase in enrollment, state funding would decline. State aid to the district was estimated to take a 17 percent decline.

However, revenue from local taxes would increase, and revenue from tuition would also increase. In fact, tuition would account for the bulk of the district’s revenue for the 2011-2012 academic year.

In light of these changes—a steep decline in state aid with small changes in local funding—the college expects to see a budget gap where present revenue projections do not meet expenses, but administrators said they are hopeful.

“We have several things in place now to solve this budget gap,” said Tuesday Stanley, Vice Chancellor of Student Development and Enrollment Services.

One major solution proposed was to increase tuition fees by $8 per credit hour from, $82 this year to $90 next year.

“Each $2 increase generates about a million dollars,” said Reinhard Weglarz, Director of Management and Auxiliary Services.

Administrators and staff also proposed that revenue-generating ventures be maintained and encouraged: leasing, fundraising and grants.

Annexation was also discussed as a means of gleaning tax revenue from outside communities such as St. Joseph, Liberty or Raymore, which might consider joining the Metropolitan Community College
district.

“If we have a school district join our district, we are also able to tax the property in that district, which increases our tax revenue,” Weglarz said later. “In exchange for that, the citizens of that [community] can then attend MCC at the in-district tuition rate of $82 dollars per credit hour instead of the $146 out-of-district rate,” he said.

One final solution included a change in the district’s present Budget Allocation Model, the way the district distributes money to the various campuses.

“It is outdated. We can’t afford it,” Weglarz said.

Regarding one board member’s concern over the tuition increase, Stanley reported that many schools would be adjusting their tuition.

“We’re going to be somewhere in the middle of the pack for community colleges,” she said.

I write this column after a grievance with MetroFlex, a bus service provided by the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (ATA) since 1993. The service operates differently from the regular bus system because it allows riders to schedule trips to and from their homes. The MetroFlex bus is advertised to travel to anywhere in KCATA’s service area and does not make unscheduled stops along its path from departure to arrival.

 My request began simply enough. After reading MetroFlex’s information pamphlet with its promise of “personalized service,” I phoned the ATA call center to schedule my own personalized trip to campus. I was not in luck.

According to the call agent, the MetroFlex bus would not arrive at the time I requested. Instead, I was told the bus traveled to and from the MCC-Longview campus only about five times a day. I would have to ride on one of those trips to get to campus.

After my third call—because a bus just had to pick me up from campus at 1:45 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, not 2:55 p.m.—I began thinking about this column. What could be more enraging? Not the BP spill. The bus system. What happened to the “personalized service?”

A regular bus used to run through campus here. Remnant signs dot the parking lot and circular drive where the bus used to travel. The 258 Longview Connector, it was called. It ran from morning to night, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., carrying 60 passengers on 32 trips throughout the day. Bu, because of financial troubles last year, ATA cancelled the route and transformed the area MetroFlex, the 296 Bannister/Hillcrest MetroFlex, into a kind of regular route for travelers trying to get to campus. Riders would not be picked up from home, but would instead have to travel to a central location in the area to get a ride, and they would have only about five opportunities to make it to campus.

In spite of my upset, I conceded and made my morning connection, my angst dissipating as a young driver whisked me away from Bannister between an expansive golf course and an open field of haystacks. At least a bus came at all.

I think my anger had its roots in the principal of equal access, that every student should have the same access to education and that a city should provide its citizenry with the means to obtaining that access. Regular bus routes travel to every other MCC campus—Blue River, Maple Woods, Penn Valley, and Business and Technology. Why would Longview’s campus be different? Why would a city discontinue a service to a major landmark?

Instead of setting preset arrivals and departures from Bannister to campus here, the MetroFlex should open its availability as needed by each student rider, and the MetroFlex should travel to student’s homes. That’s the policy that is implied by the MetroFlex’s informational pamphlet, and that’s the policy that should be followed.

Police escort officials from the Penn Valley campus (David Eulitt/Kansas City Star/MCT).

 by Rachel Madearis           

Twenty minutes before a press conference featuring Gov. Jay Nixon was to begin this morning , an MCC-Penn Valley administrator was attacked in the outside a computer lab of the campus Humanities building.           

Al Dimmitt, Dean of Instructional Services,was cut in the throat by an assailant. The attack occurred after some vocal altercation between the two, in outside the room where the press conference was to be held, according to witnesses.  The administrator is said to be in stable condition.           

While campus police are reviewing possible safety measures, the college remains open.           

“The safety of our students is our top priority, and there is no known danger at any MCC facility at this time,” said Kathy Walter-Mack, Chief of Staff for the Chancellor, in an e-mail. According to the e-mail, student and administrator witnesses were at police headquarters at midday.           

Dimmitt, who also served on the Board of Directors for the Don Bosco Community Center, is said to be in stable condition.      

MCC-Penn Valley was to host a press conference featuring the Missouri governor at 10 a.m., but because of the attacks, the conference was cancelled.         

All buildings are currently open.         

The assailant, a man in his 20s, reportedly wearing a bullet-proof vest, was apprehended at the scene. Nixon was just arriving at the Kansas City airport at the time of the attack, the Kansas City Star reported.           

Photos

This semester begins the district-wide crunch on paper at MCC’s computer labs and libraries. No longer are students able to whisk out loads of printouts and, what’s more, there are fewer trash cans in which to throw this paper. Literally. Classrooms just don’t have them. Less paper, less trash? Not exactly.

According to Tuesday Stanley, Vice Chancellor of Student Development and Enrollment Management, MCC had been able to avoid the effects of the economic downturn by holding to its end of a deal with the governor and legislature to keep MCC’s tuition at its current rate. But this year, despite the college’s best efforts, some of its state funding has been cut by five percent.

MCC receives its funding from the state, local taxes, and tuition. Enrollment is up, so tuition is coming in.

“We’re the largest we’ve ever been,” Stanley said.

Stanley, who heads the Budget Response Team, a group of MCC administrators who make some of the earliest decisions on what accounts MCC should cut, said that state money is on the decline, and this is the cause of the budget cuts.

And the first place students will feel it is at the printer. Students will now pay for any printouts over 200 per semester.

Beginning in April, the MCC-Penn Valley Career Center will be offering career services to students of Penn Valley’s new Health Science Institute (HSI).

“I’ll go over to the HSI building once a week,” said Melanie Bowman, Student Employment Services Coordinator. “I’ll be making classroom presentations on interviewing tips, resume writing, filling out applications more effectively, and directing [students] to job listings.”

While the Career Center at the main Penn Valley campus will continue to provide career services to students at the Institute, this new program is an addition to these services, “to offer more convenient services—location-wise—to the students in the new Health Sciences Institute building,” Bowman said.

The staff doesn’t foresee any changes in the career services available to students at the central Penn Valley location, which is about two blocks away, according to Sandy McIllnay, Director at the Institute.

Bowman will have a desk in the Health Resource Center where students can meet with her.

Ultimately, Bowman hopes that the project will “continue to offer our services in the same way we always have for our students—just at the HSI once a week or so to make them more convenient to the students in that building.”

FAST FACTS

• The Health Science Institute opened for students this spring.
• The 190,000 sq. ft. facility includes Radiology, EMT, Dentistry, Occupational Therapy, and Nursing.
• Each unit contains real life scenarios (surgical room, patient apartment, convenience store, ob).
• The virtual hospital includes dummies that students use for real world practice.