NOC Regents Met September 8th in Enid

From Oct. 2, 2008 Maverick

The Northern Oklahoma College Board of Regents met Sept. 8 on the Enid campus for their regularly scheduled meeting with Chair Keith James presiding. Other members present were Vice Chair Lynn Smith, Secretary Richard Detten and members Dr. Jesse Mendez and Linda Brown.

The meeting was called to order and the minutes for the previous meeting approved.

Representing Enid City Manager Eric Benson, City Attorney Carol Layman updated the history of higher education in Enid concerning NOC. Following Phillips University’s declaration of bankruptcy in 1998, the City of Enid aided NOC in purchasing the campus, securing a local loan for the city’s portion. The City of Enid does not own NOC property but has a residual interest and is a continuing partner with NOC and Northwestern Oklahoma State University in providing higher education for Enid residents.

The Board approved a recommendation to dispose of surplus property at a public auction held at the Agricultural Facility on the Tonkawa campus and approved a “Section 13 600-650 allocation request for various projects totaling $185,000: furniture and equipment, $95,000; campus site development, $20,000; library acquisitions, physical plant and equipment, computers and networking, and campus dining facilities, $15,000 each; and repair of educational facilities, $10,000.

Among the monthly purchases of $10,000 or more approved were a lighting system for the Kinzer Performing Arts Center, training mannequins for the Division of Nursing, presentation equipment for the Enid campus, portable metal buildings for the Sheep Center and surveillance systems for Tonkawa and Enid campuses.

Routine and other business included travel claims presented for signatures, items for the next agenda, new business and announcement of the next meeting scheduled for Oct. 16, 3 p.m. in the President’s Conference Room on the Tonkawa campus.

Miscellaneous reports were given by the Northern Oklahoma College Board of Regents, President Dr. Roger Stacy and executive staff members during the meeting.

Regent Brown reported a successful art auction held by the University Center Foundation which raised $16,000 for scholarships.

President Stacy announced the retirements of Marion Tucker, vice president for information technology, and Randy Taylor, director of information technology technical services, and the resignations of Kim Sneed, marketing assistant for NOC and for the University Center; Charlene Bouchard, administrative assistant for information technology; and Philip LeBaron, information technology technician.

Stacy announced that the recent presentation of the Carl and Carolyn Renfro Endowed Lectureship series was “a quality evening and a great success”. The lectureship series plans to bring Dr. J.R. Fears of The University of Oklahoma to the Tonkawa campus in January. Fears is currently giving a series of lectures on the Enid campus regarding America’s Legacy of Freedom.

Vice President for Academic Affairs July Colwell said each college division is developing a plan to assess student needs and document progress. Initiatives are in place to improve student retention and faculty advising. The college is working with the Tonkawa Tribe to provide accounting compliance and internal auditing training. The new sheep program has marketed a number of sheep in Perry and will market more in October.

Mick Weiberg, vice president for student affairs, reported that the college is
trying to cover every possibility” in its update of the campus emergency procedures guide regarding the emergency response plan for all three campuses.

Vice President for Enid Campus Dr. Ed Vineyard said college officials had met with representatives from Vance Air Force Base concerning educational needs of base personnel and had given base personnel a list of spring semester interactive television courses. The college is working with Northwestern Oklahoma State University to install a donated bridge connecting the two campuses. Vineyard reported that in October Dr. Joe Bryant, director of community band and instrumental music, would address the Princeton University Music Department.

Anita Simpson, vice president for financial affairs, reported that NOC had received “a very good audit” from the Office of State Finance, which had audited miscellaneous claims. She said the legislature is looking at an interim study of the impact on student aid of increased tuition and fees. NOC s now looking at budget needs for 2010.

Sheri Snyder, vice president for development and community relations, presented samples of college promotional items and noted that NOC would host students from 10 area high schools on the Tonkawa campus for an area-wide College Day.

Debbie Quirey, associate vice president for Stillwater campus, said construction of the new educational building was on target and that she expected to take occupancy in mid-December with classes beginning there in the spring semester. “We will be able to provide more classes in prime time hours,” she commented. She noted that social science instructor Wade Watkins, will attend the Institute of Global Peace in Washington, D.C. and that NOC is the only community college invited to join a consortium of five institutions in developing training for disaster relief.

Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Rick Edgington presented the Fall 2008 preliminary enrollment report. Total numbers for 2008 were 4,605 students enrolled in 44,011 credit hours compared to 4,781 students enrolled in 47,006 credit hours in 2007. “About 400 more students will be added when the enrollment of technology students in completed,” he said.

Associate Vice President for Physical Operations Larry Dye reported on the status and maintenance projects on all three campuses. Work continues on the President’s Home in Tonkawa and on the observatory in Enid as well as carpet installation in Stillwater.

The next meeting is scheduled for October 16 at 3 p.m. in the President’s Conference Room on the Northern Oklahoma College campus in Tonkawa.

You may visit the Northern Oklahoma College website at www.north-ok.edu.

BritCom Monday’s!

Coming This October

To Northern Oklahoma College

Its …

“BritCom Monday’s!”

Mr. Bean

Every Monday night in October, Northern’s Communication Organization will host a FREE showing of British Comedy’s!

If you like Monty Python and Mr. Bean, you’re in for a treat!

Each night will feature three, thirty-minute episodes of the original BBC television broadcast.

October 6^th - Mr. Bean

October 13^th – Monty Python’s Flying Circus

October 20^th - Mr. Bean

October 27^th – Monty Python’s Flying Circus

It’s “BritCom Monday’s” every Monday night in October

8pm in Central 202!

Free Gottigo’s Pizza while it last!

Good Luck Mr. Kelly Wray…

NOTE: I want to take this opportunity to tell our previous instructor, Mr. Kelly S. Wray, that we wish him all the best in his new position as UCO’s Manager of Student Publications, and Adviser to The Vista, UCO’s student newspaper.

We will miss you Mr. Wray!

Bill Protects Access to Student Loans

04/22/2008

By COLIN O’CONNOR

Daily Bruin (UCLA)

(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES – A bill aimed at safeguarding federal student loan access was passed by the House of Representatives April 17, with backers hailing it as a necessary step toward protecting the education economy amid the current credit crisis.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, sponsored the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act, HR 5715, which passed the House of Representatives in a resounding 383-27 vote.

“The purpose of the legislation is to ensure that students and parents can continue to have access to the federal student aid they rely on, regardless of what’s happening in the nation’s financial markets,” said Rachel Racusen, deputy communications director for the committee.

First, the bill would increase student loan limits by increasing the annual cap by $2,000, which would result in a new aggregate limit of $31,000 for dependent undergraduates and $57,500 for independent undergraduates.

Brittny McCarthy, director of federal relations for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said her organization believes the loan limit changes are unnecessary but the bill’s other provisions have merit.

“We do not support increases to the aggregate federal loan limit. There are other good precautionary measures in the bill that we do support, though,” she said.

Director of the UCLA Financial Aid Office Ronald Johnson said increasing the loan limits “would mean students would not be compelled to borrow from private loan sources.”

Johnson added that the increased limits would help nonresident students at the University of California, who have to pay a higher cost and may therefore need more flexibility in getting loans to fund their education.

The bill would also grant the U.S. Department of Education the ability to back up the federal loan market in the event that lenders cannot meet demand.

The federal loan market consists of two programs of distribution. The Direct Loan Program registers a school with the federal government to allow students to receive loans directly from the Department of Education. The Federal Family Education Loan Program sets up a system in which banks pay students taking loans but get backed up by the federal government in the case of a loan default.

Many University of California at Los Angeles students get loans from Federal Family Education Loan Program-approved banks and companies, said Nicholas Novello, a supervisor at UCLA Student Loan Services.

“The Direct Loan Program is currently only 20 percent of total student loan volume. The DOE is saying they can handle one-third of the (Federal Family Education Loan) volume,” which would accommodate an additional 3 million borrowers, McCarthy said.

McCarthy added that her organization would like to see such a provision activated “only if the economy is slow to return to a state of normalcy.”

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., proposed companion legislation in the Senate. His bill, the Strengthening Student Aid for All Act, contains many comparable provisions for keeping federal loans stable in an unstable market.

Maverick Students Win Awards

STILLWATER – Members of Northern Oklahoma College’s student newspaper, The Maverick, won five individual award for writing and photography at the Oklahoma Collegiate Press Association annual spring conference.

 

The conference is hosted each April by the Paul Miller School of Journalism on the campus of Oklahoma State University.

 

Sports editor Tony Hines and reporter Jessica Bittner won multiple awards.

 

Hines, a freshman from Perkins, won second place in Feature Photography and earned honorable mention in Feature Writing. Bittner, a sophomore, won second pace in Feature Writing and earned honorable mention in Feature Writing.

 

Sophomore Jesse Bussey won second place in Feature Writing.

 

As an overall publication, The Maverick won an Award of Merit, the second highest rating given by conference judges.

 

Advisers from the Kansas Collegiate Press Association judged the contest. All of Northern’s entries were produced during the fall 2007 semester.

 

Elizabeth Golliver, a freshman from Agra, was editor of The Maverick during that semester. Kelly S. Wray is The Maverick faculty adviser.

Cruise With Northern Alumni and Friends

JENNY DAVIDSON

Managing Editor

The Northern Oklahoma College Alumni & Friends will take a seven-day cruise to the beautiful ports of Canada and New England this autumn.

They will view the fall foliage in ports such as Halifax, Nova Scotia; Saint John, New Brunswick (Bay of Fundy); Boston, Mass.; and Portland, Maine.

Sheri Snyder, vice president Development and Community Relations for Northern Oklahoma College, and Kirby Tickel, director Northern Oklahoma College Alumni & Friends Association, in conjunction with the Northern Oklahoma College Foundation, Inc., recently announced they are partnering with Cruises and More in Ponca City.

Cruises and More Travel is owned by Joyce and Larry Davis of Nardin, Okla., and is operated by Joyce and her staff.

Joyce is a certified travel consultant and has been active in the travel industry for over 28 years. As a travel agent, she organizes and escorts group trips, has taught travel classes at the college level, and now operates Cruises and More on a daily basis.

Northern and Cruises and More are working together to offer some exciting trips at the best value, while still offering quality, safety and expert guidance.

Northern and Cruises and More will begin their partnership with a New England Fall Foliage cruise departing from New York City. This trip will include air, the cruise, and an optional two-night pre-cruise package so the group can see a Broadway show and do some sightseeing.

For more information, contact Cruises and More at info@cruisesandmore.com or 580.765.4600.

Northern’s Nursing Program Requirements are Rigorous

KRIS OSBURN

Staff Writer

 

Northern Oklahoma College’s nursing program is hard to get into, between the waiting list and the admissions standards. Its benefits, however, outweigh the sacrifice, administrators say. There’s almost always a guarantee of employment for a registered nurse, and they’ll likely earn at least a baseline salary of $30,000 and benefits. And there has always been a high demand for nurses.

Much of the demand for nurses stems from an aging population. As medical technology advances and quality of life improves for most Americans, people begin to live longer. And with this aging populace, there are certainly a number of nurses retiring, leaving plenty of spaces to fill. 

“The need for nursing is going to rise, and if we can make the field more attractive to our youth, then we could continue to expand the program,” said NOC Enid nursing instructor Jeanine Deterding.  

Expansion seems almost inevitable for Northern’s nursing program. The waiting list for the NOC nursing program is nearly one and a half times its available slots. One reason for this is the need for qualified personnel.  

With more instructors, NOC could admit 100 nursing students per year. Nurses can often make more money as an RN at a hospital than they can teaching at a college. And at some point, the local hospitals will reach their limit for students the can have working in their facilities. 

Nursing instructors say one benefit to working in the nursing field is the variety of positions available. As an RN, nurses can choose to work in surgery, home health, long term care, ICU, post-cardiac, among others.  

This variety helps ensure that almost anyone can find a job they’re comfortable with depending one if they are more people-oriented or cerebral, instructors said. The field is already lucrative, but it has pitfalls, such as long shifts and burnout.

Northern’s success rate – the number of graduated student who actually receive their nursing registration – is one of the highest in the state. That fact, too, adds to the long waiting list.  “We’re really pleased with the success rate of the program,” said NOC Enid nursing instructor Christa Ritz.  

Admissions requirements into Northern’s nursing program are rigorous. So, though most applicants eventually make it through the program, it often takes time to meet the requirements.

The criteria for acceptance compass scores and ACT scores are also tied to applicants’ rankings on the waiting list. So, some who meet all the requirements, may be kept on the waiting list for yet another year if they didn’t rank high enough on the admissions list.

Because applications are accepted annually, many applicants are not yet qualified to be admitted to the program, but they have the year to meet the requirements.  

The 100 slots are distributed to the three NOC campuses based on the number of applications to each. Right now, the Enid campus is using 52 of the 100 slots.