Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
JESSICCA LEINON-NOVASCONE, in red, informs the board how well the TriO Program, funded through a school grant, is working and engaging the new students through the mentorship of second and third year students Tuesday afternoon.
By IAN MINIELLY
Ironwood - On Tuesday afternoon the GCC board convened to conduct school related business and heard an update on a grant increase they approved last year for the TRiO Mentoring Program operated by Jessica Leinon-Novascone, TRiO Director. The grant increase totaled $7,427 for the 2016-17 academic year.
According to Leinon-Novascone, the TRiO program pairs first year students as mentees with a second or third year student as a mentor. The mentor and mentee agree to contact each other at least three times per week and the mentor receives $10 an hour for the time they devote to the first year students as an added incentive.
Furthermore she said, "the goal of the program is to increase retention of TRiO students for future educational opportunities, providing support for first year students that sign up for the program, and to provide new students with a mentor that can involve the student with local adventure."
Mentors in the program engage in regular contact with the new student, provide tutoring and one on one assistance, as well as ensure the student is aware of and invited to campus and local happenings.
"Mentees have expressed a positive sense of rapport with their mentors and the school while taking advantage of more opportunities on campus and in the community than other students not in the TRiO program, " Reported Leinon-Novascone. One major success saw a non-traditional mentee not from this area invited to the mentors home for Christmas where they had a great time. One student looking out for the well-being of another.
Ryon List, dean of students, briefed the council on changes to the multi-cultural section of the course load. List and the instructors are identifying areas where the classes have endemic multi-cultural teachings, satisfying a requirement of the state audit while enabling GCC classes to transfer to other Michigan universities.
Jim Lorenson, school president, brought up a future direction for the school book store. Lorenson said the board is looking at moving towards a more open source curriculum and away from hard copy.
Dean Guenard brought up an interesting point regarding the expense of books, "As you reduce cost of student fees and books, students sign up for more classes." Time has shown at other universities that have gone to fewer hard bound books that the costs associated with purchasing books is one of the impediments to students taking additional classes.
Lorenson said, "the school would likely recoup the loss of revenue from selling books by having students take additional classes. Instead of signing up for 12 or 13 credits, a student is likely to sign up for 15 or 16." The Book Store will not close, but their business model and offerings is likely to change in the future. They will still sell books, some courses are always going to require books, but they will begin shifting towards a different market on campus.
In a bout of good news, Lorenson informed the board the school is taking possession of some buildings on campus that were built with state money. The school successfully paid off the bonds and the state sold the buildings to the school for one dollar.
The state is providing a new grant to the the school for the sum of $75,000 for a new groomer to support the Porcupine Mountains Ski Hill according to Guenard. The school will own and retain the generation three groomer. The new groomer comes at a good time as Bob Burchell told the board the state has changed the rules regarding emission controls for groomers. So this purchase will keep the school from additional costs to comply with legislation.
The board voted to authorize the beginning steps for the hiring of a new full-time history professor for the 2017-18 school year and also accepted the retirement request of Jim Martell.
Next week Lorenson is visiting Washington, D.C. where he will testify regarding the Farm Bill provisions that fund community colleges. Lorenson and other rural community college presidents were asked to come to the capital to educate legislators regarding the unique needs of rural schools supported by the farm bill.
