News Links | September 5, 2017
System News | Opinion
Cascadia College Board of Trustees welcomes Roy Captain
Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Roy Captain to Cascadia College’s Board of Trustees. Captain’s term is effective July 31 through September 20, 2021. Captain,
who lives in Redmond, has 25 years of experience in real estate, running global companies
and extensive school and community volunteering in Washington.
Bothell Reporter, Sept. 5, 2017
Yama archaeological dig yields its secrets
Archaeologist Floyd Aranyosi stood a stone’s throw from Takayoshi’s general store,
where in the early 20th Century he might have stopped in for homemade ice cream, a
Snappy Drinks soda or a tin of Stag chewing tobacco, along with sundry imported Japanese
goods. ... Historical photographs document the existence of the store in the Japanese-American
town of Yama on the south end of Bainbridge Island near the Port Blakely Sawmill.
Now, as the third and final year of an archaeological dig at Yama wraps up, Aranyosi
and his team from Olympic College know exactly where the store stood.
Kitsap Sun, Sept. 4, 2017
Kennewick mom promises her son the stars — and delivers
When Stevie Holly-Knox decided to study astronomy, she made a promise to her son. She
was going to NASA. After months of studying and hard work, Holly-Knox is getting a
chance to fulfill her promise to 5-year-old Levi. She is one of 304 students taking
park in the Community College Aerospace Scholars program this year. ... When he wanted
to learn more, she started searching for more material to share with him. But her
course toward NASA wasn’t set. The 26-year-old Columbia Basin College student wanted to study environmental science this past winter, when she started
school.
Tri-City Herald, Sept. 4, 2017
Little pantries get boost from inmate carpenters, now organizer is looking for places to post them
Darla Bradish’s idea of placing little pantries filled with non-perishable food in
East Bremerton neighborhoods got a boost from prison inmates in Mason County, who
are turning out well-crafted pantries. Now she is looking for new places to post them.
... After word spread of the efforts of Bradish and her husband, John, the Washington
Corrections Center in Shelton got involved. The inmates repurposed materials recycled
from an Olympic College construction education program to make the little pantries.
Kitsap Sun, Sept. 3, 2017
New Horizons students get fresh start on CBC campus
Having space to conduct experiments is a change for the New Horizons High School’s
science lab. “Before, science labs were done almost virtually,” said Michelle Smith,
a lead teacher at Pasco’s alternative high school. “Now we have a great space to be
able to do that.” About 230 students started classes last week at the school’s new
home in the W building on the Columbia Basin College campus.
Tri-City Herald, Sept. 3, 2017
EvCC instructor wins award
Everett Community College English instructor Josh Searle is a recipient of the 2017 Anna Sue McNeill Assessment,
Teaching and Learning Award. He was recognized for his “extensive contribution to
both teaching excellence and leadership” for creating interdisciplinary learning,
English assessment and research. Searle is a founding faculty member of EvCC’s Ocean
College Research Academy (ORCA) program and has taught at EvCC since 2002. In addition
to English, he teaches humanities and political science. He also leads the college’s
assessment committee.
Everett Herald, Sept. 3, 2017
Nailing It Down: Training for a trade encouraged in face of labor shortage
Calling future building tradespeople! We have some great building tradesmen in Grays
Harbor — carpenters, electricians, welders, roofers, glaziers, masons, plumbers, etc.
However, we could use some more. While the numbers are not desperate yet, the average
age of workers in the building trades in our state and nation is greater than that
of other workers. Add that to the fact that the need for those trades is on the rise
and expected to continue to rise, and we are likely looking at a shortage of skilled
tradesmen in the next few years. ... When it comes to the carpentry program at Grays Harbor College, instructor Adam Pratt says the industry is hungering to hire his students. “Our
students are being hired — in fact, many of them are being offered jobs even before
they graduate,” he said.
The Daily World, Sept. 2, 2017
Students showcase work at interior design exhibition
A group of 15 Clover Park Technical College Interior Design students showed off their work to potential employers, fellow students
and other visitors at Tuesday’s Student Portfolio Exhibition. ... The work on display
covered their six quarters in the program and served as the culminating project as
they closed out their final quarter this week.
The Suburban Times, Sept. 2, 2017
Former inmate continues education after release, graduates from Spokane Community College
Aaron Miller is working hard to stay on the right side of the statistic from the Department
of Justice which shows that education programs in prison can reduce recidivism rates
by 43 percent. He previously served a 40 month prison sentence and recently graduated
from Spokane Community College. Graduating from SCC is just another step. Miller is headed to Eastern Washington
University in the fall of 2017 to follow his newfound passion for mechanical engineering.
KREM, Sept. 1, 2017
Edmonds CC campus to become tobacco and smoke free Sept. 11
Edmonds Community College will be a tobacco- and smoke-free campus as of Sept. 11. Joining a growing number
of colleges in Washington state that are prohibiting smoking and the use of tobacco
products, Edmonds CC’s new policy and procedure are intended to promote a healthy
educational and work environment for students, faculty, staff, and visitors.
My Edmonds News, Sept. 1, 2017
Big Bend, area data centers partner for new training program
Big Bend Community College and regional data centers are partnering for a new program to prepare students for
data center positions. Demand for IT professionals in eastern Washington has increased
in the past decade, with an influx of major technology companies taking advantage
of the area’s affordable electrical power and locating data centers in the area. That
demand has led to a partnership between Big Bend and Quincy-area data centers operated
by Intuit, Microsoft, Oath, NTT DATA, Sabey Data Centers and Vantage Data Centers.
iFiber One News, Aug. 31, 2017
New pathway makes it easier for Bellevue College nursing students to get their BSN
Nursing students choosing to continue their studies beyond the associate degree level
now have an improved pathway at Bellevue College (BC) that ensures their credits transfer easily to Washington state four-year nursing
schools. The Associate Degree in Nursing Direct Transfer Agreement/Major Ready Pathway
(DTA/MRP) creates a smoother path for students who want to earn a Bachelor of Science
in Nursing (BSN) degree. Bellevue College students will enroll in the Associate in
Nursing DTA program starting this fall.
Bellevue Reporter, Aug. 29, 2017
Tacoma organizations recognized for international success
U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer’s office commended two Tacoma organizations for the positive
impact exports and international activities have on their operations and on the local
community. ... Rep. Kilmer’s District Representative Nicholas Carr presented Tacoma Community College with a U.S. Commercial Service Certificate of Appreciation for expanding international
student enrollment from 270 to 450 since 2009, supporting 11 full-time and 8 part-time
employees. Tacoma reaps additional benefits from international student spending on
accommodations, food and other purchases. In the 2015/2016 school year, Washington
District 06, in which Tacoma is located, derived $15.6 million in economic benefits
from 668 international students. Those 668 students supported 98 jobs.
Tacoma Daily Index, Aug. 25, 2017
Trends | Horizons | Education
International enrollments: From flat to way down
After years in which American universities enjoyed steady growth in numbers of foreign
students, many institutions expect international enrollments to be flat or down — in
some cases significantly — this fall. In interviews with officials at about two dozen
universities, no consistent, unifying trends emerge, but some are reporting a slowdown
in the flow of students from China and declines in graduate students from India, two
countries that together account for nearly half of all international students in the
U.S. Universities also continue to feel the effects of the declines in enrollments
of Saudi Arabian students that began in 2016, after the Saudi government tightened
up some of the terms of its massive scholarship program.
Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 5, 2017
Student loan giant Navient under fire for mistreating borrowers
[Fanny] Sampson is far from alone in experiencing frustrations dealing with Navient,
which services $300 billion in student debt — about a quarter of all federal and private
loans nationally. The company is facing lawsuits in Illinois, Washington state and
elsewhere from federal and state regulators, as well as consumers, over a range of
business practices, including allegedly making unauthorized robocalls, doing a poor
job of tracking payment processing errors, steering borrowers into costlier repayment
options and misapplying payments.
The Seattle Times, Sept. 2, 2017
How high schools break up the ‘ninth-grade bottleneck’ to help students graduate on time
Across Washington state, roughly 1 in 5 ninth-graders failed at least one core course
in the 2015-16 school year. And across the Puget Sound region, freshman failure rates
ranged from as little as 4 percent on Mercer Island to a high of 38 percent in Clover
Park and Tukwila. Traditionally, high schools offer students a sink-or-swim scenario:
Those with poor grades are expected to catch up on their own through repeat classes,
summer school or online courses. But a growing body of research suggests the grades
students earn in their freshman year are a strong predictor of whether they’ll ever
graduate — stronger than their test scores or even family income.
The Seattle Times, Sept. 2, 2017
A soon-to-be grad asks, can I help ease the Washington state teacher shortage?
About a week ago, as part of our Education IQ series, we asked for your burning questions
as school goes back into session. We plan to answer as many as we can, starting with
one, from Drew Dixon of Seattle. ... Drew’s question focused on the teacher shortage
that many districts are facing, and whether he, as a community member, can pitch in
as a temporary teacher to help. ... To answer that question, we talked with the state
education department, several district officials and even a parent. And we found that
the short answer is yes — parents and others who have experience working with youth,
and hold a bachelor’s degree (not always required, but recommended) can be substitute
or temporary teachers.
The Seattle Times, Sept. 1, 2017
How many colleges do students apply to? The answer might surprise you.
You've heard the stories, no doubt: the beleagued high school senior, scrambling to
submit 12 or 15 college applications before deadline. Every fall, as college-application
season takes hold, you can count on seeing yet another crop of those stories. But
they distort reality. Sure, there are high-achieving, high-stress pockets of the country
where these stories are true. But they're exceptions to the norm. New figures out
today from the federal government remind us of this. The most common number of colleges
students apply to is one. That's right. One.
Education Week, Aug. 31, 2017
Enrollment drops at Evergreen State College, hiring freeze coming
The Evergreen State College in Olympia begins this school year with a drop in enrollment
and an imminent hiring freeze. The conservative blogosphere is crowing that it's fallout
from recent campus unrest, but the university administration disagrees. A memo sent
this week to faculty and staff at Evergreen laid out a difficult budget and enrollment
situation and called for spending cuts. Registrations are down 212 students from last
fall. The student headcount was 3,670 as of mid-August compared to 3,882 at the same
time last year.
KUOW, Aug. 31, 2017
Politics | Local, State, National
Trump moves to end DACA and calls on Congress to act
President Trump on Tuesday ordered an end to the Obama-era executive action that shields
young undocumented immigrants from deportation, calling the program an “amnesty-first
approach” and urging Congress to replace it with legislation before it begins phasing
out on March 5, 2018. “I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults,
for the actions of their parents,” Mr. Trump said in a written statement. “But we
must also recognize that we are nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws.” The
statement was released shortly after Mr. Trump, who had called the issue a personal
dilemma, dispatched Attorney General Jeff Sessions to announce that the government
will no longer accept new applications from undocumented immigrants to shield them
from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as
DACA. Administration officials said the roughly 800,000 current beneficiaries of the
program — brought to the United States illegally as children — will not be immediately
affected by what they called an “orderly wind-down” of former President Barack Obama’s
policy.
The New York Times, Sept. 5, 2017
Education Dept. ends partnership with CFPB
When Education Secretary Betsy DeVos touted her commitment to oversight of higher
education this week, the fact that her department was cutting back involvement with
one of the most active federal regulators went unmentioned. In a letter rebuking the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for overreaching and expanding its jurisdiction,
the department said it would end two agreements between the agencies to share information
for oversight of private actors involved in federal aid programs — chief among them
student loan servicers, the private entities that manage and collect payments on federal
student loans. CFPB had failed, the letter said, to turn over complaints from student
borrowers to the department within 10 days as specified in their deal and had intervened
in those cases itself.
Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 5, 2017
Halting the erosion of state support for higher education
As we just celebrated the 155th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Land-Grant
Acts into law, the state-supported university model is under attack and at risk. In
today’s financially challenged environment, with numerous competing interests, higher
education is falling down the priority list when it comes to state investment. In
part, that’s because some state legislators think university administrations are fiscally
irresponsible, with bloated budgets. The perception that universities are a public
good has been supplanted by the view that they are financial drains.
Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 5, 2017
State officials threaten lawsuit if Trump ends ‘Dreamers’ program
Leaders in Washington state are threatening to sue the federal government if President
Donald Trump ends a program that protects immigrants who were brought into the country
illegally as children. According to several reports, Trump is expected to announce
Tuesday that he will cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program
after a six-month delay.
The News Tribune, Sept. 4, 2017
Opinion: Seattle needs A+ education and a mayor who makes it a priority
Seattle's flock of tower cranes and daily waves of new arrivals — a net population
growth of 21,000 last year was tops in the nation — present astonishing challenges.
But this election season, the long-term challenges to the city’s education system
have mostly been pressed to the side. That changed a bit last week, when Jenny Durkan
made a politically smart and sound policy proposal to provide two years of universal
free community college tuition for city residents. Expanded, high-quality education
will help ensure the city’s continued economic success and shared opportunity across
income levels.
The Seattle Times, Sept. 4, 2017
Whistleblower says he was fired for questioning Washington's pre-paid tuition program
As Washington state prepares to reopen its popular pre-paid college tuition program,
a recently terminated employee is alleging “gross mismanagement.” Michael Bennion
served as the associate director for fiscal planning at the state’s Guaranteed Education
Tuition program until he was let go earlier this month. In an August 29 email to several
state lawmakers, Bennion alleged that GET has charged “unnecessarily high administrative
fees” since its inception in 1998 and failed to properly account for that money.
KNKX, Sept. 1, 2017
DeVos and team put own stamp on oversight
After taking heavy criticism over the selection of a new head for the Education Department's
enforcement unit, Secretary Betsy DeVos insisted Thursday that student protections
are a top priority for her agency. In a news release announcing the hiring of several
key employees at the Office of Federal Student Aid, which is responsible for administering
financial aid programs, DeVos and the department outlined -- with few details -- a
new oversight approach focused on risk management and communication with top officials
at institutions themselves. That message was attacked by advocates for strong enforcement
who said it promised more cooperation with bad actors.
Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 1, 2017
Education Dept. appointee’s for-profit past draws flak, but it’s complicated
Several Democratic senators sent a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in early
August stressing the need for a "tough" enforcement chief at the Education Department.
The position had been vacant for several months, and the lawmakers said it was important
to appoint someone who would crack down on institutions that "fleece taxpayers and
break the law." The department announced on Thursday that it has chosen Julian Schmoke
Jr., a former dean at DeVry University, to lead its Student-Aid Enforcement Unit.
News of the appointment was reported earlier in the week by Politico. Blowback came
quickly.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Aug. 31, 2017
