Engineering Club sweeps awards at 8th annual Human Powered Paper Vehicle Contest and sets new records for speed

The SCC Engineering Club swept all awards at the 8th Annual Human Powered Paper Vehicle Contest held April 30-May 1 at Eastern Washington University. SCC took two teams to the competition with about 12 students participating, and brought home 1st place in "Vehicle Performance" (with a course record one minute, 22 second time), 1st place in "Most Innovative Design," and 1st place in "Project Presentation." The College's second team earned 2nd place for "Vehicle Performance."

Students are challenged to design and build a fully functional vehicle out of 90 percent (by weight) paper materials. Each team competes in a timed relay race by taking its vehicle through an obstacle course on an indoor running track. Three riders from each team take turns weaving through cones spaced 15 feet apart and climb up and over a 10.6 degree inclined and declined ramp. The team modeled the design using the computer application SolidWorks to develop the individual components before beginning construction. Most of the frame is composed of dense cardboard from industrial print cores and shipping tubes. The wheels are constructed of corrugated cardboard. One of the team members is an experienced machinist and his work came in very handy in designing the crank assembly. Most of the materials were donated by local businesses, including Fiberlay, Laz Tool, Electroimpact, Seattle Times, Everett Herald, Service Steel Aerospace, Weyerhaeuser, Outdoor Empire Publishing and Kinkos.

Kudos to all the participants — Club President Jeromy Kostner and to Club advisors Ellie Christensen and Daniel Hiett.

SCC hosts seminar for community college resource development professionals

Shoreline Community College hosted a two-week training seminar in April for community college resource development professionals from across the country. This was the 26th year that the national Council for Resource Development (CRD) sponsored this seminar. CRD is affiliated with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).

Twenty-five professionals from 13 states who are new to community colleges or to resource development participated in the intensive seminar, spending one week at the SCC “model campus” and the following week in Washington, D.C. The training program was organized by John Lederer and Lynette Peters in the Grants Office, and Kae Peterson and Lynn Yaw of the SCC Foundation. The seminar covered best practices in grant development and management and private fundraising, and featured presenters from colleges around the country. While in D.C., participants met with grant program officers in federal departments, discussed federal relations issues and strategies with AACC, and met with Congressional representatives and their aides.

For more information, contact Lederer at x6708 or Peterson at x4755. Lederer and Peterson are members of the national CRD Board.

Campus improvement projects galore

Spring Quarter brings a lot of activity to campus each year; and this year, in particular. Executive Director, Safety and Security Randy Stegmeier is knee deep in schematic drawings for a number of facility and water projects.

The largest and most time consuming project is the replacement of the majority of the water main and the construction of a new pump house. The roof of the 1000 Building is also being replaced this spring. This will be a "torchdown" roofing installation, so there will be no tarring odors with which to contend as the new roof is installed.

METRO is increasing the size of the bus "cutout" in front of the 1000 Building during the week of June 13th. The bigger "cutout" will allow the articulated buses to better utilize this stop location. This project will also include the installation of a larger bus shelter.

Construction will start soon on a Red Cross emergency supply storage facility adjacent to the new pump house at the corner of Carlyle Hall Road and Greenwood Avenue North. This building will be built, paid for and maintained by the Red Cross on College property. The College has committed to this partnership as part of an overall plan by the City, College and other community organizations to improve emergency preparedness in the Shoreline area.

Safety and Security, the Grounds Maintenance Department, the FMLA (Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance), and the Women's Center organized a "night walk" through campus April 19th to determine anything that might be hazardous to the safety of students and employees. The group determined that the lighting on campus is adequate in most areas, with only minor improvements needed. They also tested emergency phones to ensure they worked and recommended the addition of these phones at other locations on campus. Lighting improvements and the addition of emergency phones will be prioritized in the budget process.

New high-tech piano lab to serve College’s growing Music Program
The Music Building is most likely the busiest place on campus, with students attending classes six days a week and using the practice rooms seven days a week. In fact, the number of music students has grown so large over the years that it has become increasingly difficult to accommodate their needs.

According to piano instructor Nancy Matesky, the Music Department has continually added more and more piano classes to its schedule. This has been increasingly challenging with only one piano lab on campus; and it is also used as a classroom for music technology students as computer technology, sound modules and sequencing software are provided in the classroom.

However, the future looks bright for music students. A new piano lab was installed during spring break and music theory classes and piano classes are sharing the new lab this quarter. Beginning Fall Quarter 2005, all piano classes will be held in the two piano labs, freeing up the practice rooms for day students. One of the piano labs will also be available on most afternoons for student practice. Both piano labs share similar technologies — wireless headphones provide hands-free instruction and allow instructors to walk around the room freely, without tripping on cords. Teachers can “plug in” to each student’s piano to work with them individually or in small groups without disrupting the other students. A visualizer screen allows students to view the instructor’s keyboard, making it easier to follow instruction.

The new lab is set up more efficiently to accommodate several courses. Each new piano has a built-in disk drive which enables students to listen to and play with a pre-recorded background or record themselves. Faculty can also customize disks for student use. Each piano also has a built-in metronome for keeping time and rhythm.

Matesky is very excited about the piano program at SCC, saying it has grown tremendously in the last five years. After teaching piano at SCC for 25 years, she is pleased to see the direction the program is going and that the College is supporting it with new classrooms and technology.

The practice rooms, piano labs, recording studio and MIDI lab will continue to be available for students till 10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and till midnight Thursday through Sunday.

Campus Climate Task Force Update
The Campus Climate Task Force held its first meeting on April 1st and meets weekly on Friday afternoons. Students, faculty, classified staff and administrators are members of the task force, with Trustee Edith Loyer Nelson and PIO Judy Yu being observers. The first few meetings involved determining the charge of the task force, creating a mission statement, discussion of a timeline, the development of a member listserv with public folders and an email box for campus feedback. Meeting agendas, minutes and schedules, the task force charge, membership, messages from the president and Board of Trustees, and questionnaire information are available at the web site (see Campus Climate web site.) A timeline was developed with August 1st as the date to have a draft plan completed and presented to President Moore and the BOT. The BOT hopes to receive feedback from the college community via an email box that was created for direct communication with Board members. There was discussion on whether or not to do a nationally developed survey about campus climate and the task force decided to solicit feedback via a simple questionnaire developed by task force members. A questionnaire was published in Day at a Glance asking the campus community for feedback on things that positively affect campus climate and things that negatively impact campus climate — all 600 responses were anonymous and are currently being categorized. The predominant categories will provide guidance to the Climate Task Force in forming the recommendations for the action plan that addresses concerns in the areas of teaching, learning, work environment and management style on campus. Task force member Jim James is working with this subcommittee. The final data will include survey responses, questions from meetings with the BOT and all campus meetings and the faculty letter to the president and her responses. The task force agreed to make those findings available to the BOT. Faculty Paul Duernberger offered to create the initial set of categories and the task force members graciously approved. The sub-committee will report findings at the May 13th meeting. Dorothy Cirelli is facilitator and John Backes is co-facilitator.

New Dental Office Assistant Certificate Program
A new professional-technical program is being offered Fall Quarter 2005 at Shoreline Community College. The Dental Business Office Specialist Certificate of Proficiency Program, developed at the suggestion of the College's Dental Hygiene Advisory Board, will prepare students to work in front office coordination and administration positions, such as treatment coordinators, financial coordinators, office managers and receptionists.

Although the title of this new program focuses on office assistant skills, this program offers much more. It was developed jointly by the volunteer advisory board dentists with faculty from the Health Care Information, Dental Hygiene and Business Technologies programs to train the new workforce with dental anatomy and terminology knowledge as well as attaining proficiency with current business software programs. Students will learn how to set up dental record systems, read and code dental records, prepare billing forms, and schedule patients. They will also experience a good blend of courses in all three disciplines. Several classes from the current HCI and Business Technology curricula were combined with the addition of four new classes ― Dental Anatomy and Terminology, Dental Office Records Billing and Coding, Scheduling and Recall Management, and Professional Seminar. Pre-requisites are required in keyboarding, computer applications, analytical reading and writing or ESL, algebra or business math.

The program is designed for new students and for those who already work in the industry to return to update skills. Those who take the entire program will earn a certificate, and those who complete only select classes will earn college credit. Students may enter the program any quarter and many of the classes are offered online so that the employed student can work on their certificate during their lunch hour or free time. Some classes were developed as hybrid classes so that students can experience classroom as well as online instruction. A legal course, “Legal Aspects of Health Care,” is available in the evening during Fall Quarter and during the day in the spring to accommodate student schedules.

Students will have a knowledge base in dental sciences, greeting and scheduling patients, handling billing and insurance claims, HIPAA regulations, dental software, accounting, billing collection, coding and arranging treatment plans and managing business documents.

Graduates of this program will be in the forefront of the hiring process, with the average entry-level wage being $17 per hour according to dental professionals in North King and Snohomish counties.

For more information about the program, visit the web site or call 206.546.4707 or 206.546.4757.

Bowling for Brains 2005

This was the seventh year for Bowling for Brains — an event co-sponsored by the SCC Foundation and the Shoreline Breakfast Rotary to support scholarships for Shorewood High School seniors who plan to attend SCC. A total of $3,200 was raised. The annual event is held at Spin Alley in Richmond Beach. Harley O'Neil, owner of the bowling alley and a member of the SCC Foundation, donates the facility each year for the fund-raiser. Foundation Director Kae Peterson, Foundation Assistant Lynn Yaw and Shoreline Breakfast Rotarian Jack Rogers organized this year's event. A total of 29 teams bowled -- with seven teams representing College employees, two Student Government teams, one honor society team, 11 Rotary/community teams, six Council for Resource Development teams, and three teams from Shorewood High School. O''Neil says that he looks forward to the event each year and sees it as a great community effort to support local students.

Approximately 180 people participated in BFB VII, with 25 special out-of-town guests attending this year. The community college grant writers and foundation organizers from across the country were in Shoreline to attend the Council for Resource Development Specialist Training that was hosted by SCC's WED team. (See above article.) Mary Dolon from Nanticoke, Pennsylvania helped out at the event by selling raffle tickets. "The training has been very valuable," says Dolon. "Participants did a lot of networking and learned a lot from the entire week, including Bowling for Brains." A CRD team, Queen Pins, won the Best Team Spirit category and Spin Alley Management won Best Team Name -- Moo Man and the Udders.

Specialty Foods catered the event with an all-you-can-eat buffet and raffle prizes were provided by area businesses and associates. Thanks to: Spiro's Italian Restaurant, Gordon Welch Jewelry, Scott's Bar and Grill, Video Factory, Dave Berkey, Randy Schnabel, Holly Moore, Bill Meyer, Windermere Realty, SGA Corporation, Dale and Mark Hanberg and Beverly Brandt. A special "thank you!" to O'Neil, Paul and Karen Haines for contributing to the buffet, Sean Lakeside for catering the event and to Magic Photo for taking the team photos. Double click here to view this year's photos.

Federal budget resolution puts squeeze on higher ed
Congress passed an FY06 budget resolution by narrow margins last month in a largely partisan vote. The spending plan establishes federal funding targets by broad budget categories for the next five years. The House approved the plan by a vote of 214 to 211 and the Senate agreed by 52 to 47.

The budget plan would reduce the annual budget deficit from $427 billion this year to $383 billion next year, declining to $211 billion in 2010. Deficit reduction is achieved by a combination of cuts to entitlement programs ($35 billion over five years with $10 billion of that coming from Medicaid) and a three-year domestic discretionary spending freeze (capped at $404 billion). Adding to the deficit are tax cuts totaling $106 billion over five years.

Most troubling is that Congress has agreed to cut $7 billion from the student loan program over five years or, alternatively, find $7 billion in savings as part of the Higher Education Act reauthorization (scheduled for this year, but probably unlikely to happen until next year). It is too early to tell if Congress will cut the student loan program in the more traditional reconciliation process, or if this will be done as part of reauthorization. In either case, the money saved will be used to reduce the federal budget deficit.

On the positive side, the spending plan will eliminate the $4.3 billion Pell Grant shortfall that has made it virtually impossible to increase the maximum Pell Grant in the last four years. The resolution also calls for a $100 increase in the maximum Pell Grant for next year (but considerably less than the $450 increase the Senate had approved in its version of the budget resolution). However, the actual decision to provide that $100 increase must be made by the House and Senate Labor-Education-HHS Appropriations Subcommittees.

The budget resolution does not make any mention of other key higher education programs that the president proposed to eliminate, including TRIO's Upward Bound and Talent Search, GEAR-UP, Perkins Vocational Education, Adult Education, LEAP or Perkins Loans. The fact that these programs were not singled out for cuts may indicate that key members of Congress do not want to adopt the President’s proposed cuts.

Action will now proceed on two different fronts. Congressional committees will develop plans to cut entitlement spending and taxes. These plans will be combined into a budget reconciliation bill. Meanwhile, the Appropriations committees will determine the actual funding levels for every individual program. They will make the decisions about whether student aid programs and grant programs get increases or reductions. The House will likely move first, and soon.

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