When the McDowell Technical Community College Board of Trustees met in regular session on August 8th to conduct monthly business for the college, Vice-Presidents Valerie Dobson and Stacy Buff presented trustees with a very positive year-end outcomes and progress report for the college’s Vision 2025 project. Vision 2025 contains specific goals set by the college to increase access, achievement and other factors related to student success and workforce development (https://mcdowelltech.edu/vision25).
Among the report’s highlights, enrollment continues to increase. For the 2023-2024 academic year, total full-time equivalent (FTE) increased 14.5% over the previous year. Illustrating the colleges comprehensive mission, the enrollment growth came from all areas of the college: 8.3% in curriculum (college credit) programs, 23.58% in continuing education workforce development programs and 16.67% in basic skills programs (Adult High School and High School Equivalency). College growth has a positive impact on the McDowell County workforce and improves the economic mobility of MTCC students. For example, the numbers of short-term workforce development courses leading to an industry-recognized credential increased 300% from 2020-21 to 2023-24. As the college seeks to increase the number of business and industry apprenticeships, the college has now become a sponsoring organization for apprenticeships, allowing the college to more easily recruit and register student apprentices.
Students taking licensure exams after completing programs at McDowell Tech continue to remain strong. 100% of Nurse Aide students who sat for Nurse Aide I competency exam passed, and 92% passed the Nurse Aide I skills exam. 100% of Practical Nurse graduates who sat for the NCLEX-PN exam passed, as did 100% of the class of 2024 Associate Degree Nursing students who sat for the NCLEX-RN exam.
Understanding that each number represents a person, the college regularly connects with students conducting student satisfaction assessments: 96.51% of students indicated they were satisfied or highly satisfied with their experience at MTCC.
In other business, local attorney Wes Shelley, who chairs the MTCC Foundation Board, presented trustees an update of recent foundation fundraising activities. Shelley proudly announced that the Foundation had already maximized matching dollars for this year from a U.S. Department of Education grant by raising $80,000 between October, 2023 and April of this year. For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, Foundation fundraising increased approximately $100,000 over the previous year, with a total of more than $215,000 raised. With recent fundraising successes, Shelley announced that the Foundation awarded 44 students with scholarships and awarded mini-grants for special projects across several campus departments.
Dr. Kelley presented his first president’s report to the trustees highlighting his listening tour with community leaders. He plans to continue the listening sessions with business and industry leaders in the coming weeks. Dr. Kelley praised the work of administrators, faculty, and staff in their implementation of the Vision 2025 strategic plan and committed to the trustees that the college will not “coast” on that success and will continue to “work” the plan. As a reminder, he shared with the board that preparations for the next strategic plan should begin this coming Spring.
The Student Government Association was introduced to the trustees and the Vice President Representative, Evangeline Thomas, reported on a variety of activities coordinated to welcome students back to campus and their plans to help all students feel like they belong at MTCC.
In other matters, the board:
- elected officers for the upcoming academic year, with Gary Stroud to serve as Chairperson, Kay Medford as Vice-Chair, and the college’s president serving as Secretary. These three officers will be joined by board members Nancy Hunter, Robert Ayers and William Kehler to form the board’s 2024-2025 executive committee.
- approved the college’s monthly financial report
- heard updates the board’s building and grounds. The Old Fort renovation project is nearing completion. Vice-President for Finance Ryan Garrison reported that the college had received the first installment of funds allocated by the General Assembly for a new college Health Science and Public Safety Building, allowing the college to engage an architect to begin the design phase of the project.
- voted to officially close two programs that have not enrolled students for three years: Landscape Gardening and Early Childhood Education School Age. They also voted to terminate the Emergency Management program, but replaced it with Public Safety Administration, which gives students better 4-year transfer opportunities.
The next regularly scheduled board meeting is September 12, 2024.
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