Dr. Paul Matney, right, recognizes H.Q. Wrampelmeier, center, in honor of her donating a kidney to Buster Bonjour, left, at the Jan. 22 regents meeting. Wrampelmeier and Bonjour both work in the Center for Teaching and Learning.
New names for East Campus buildings; visit expected from Aron Ralston; regent’s election scheduled May 11 •
The Amarillo College board of regents meeting Jan. 22 came to order without any hitches. There were no public comments. Regent Carroll Forrester opened with a prayer, and mention was made of resident A.J. Swope, who recently died in an automobile accident.
H.Q. Wrampelmeier received an award from President Paul Matney to honor her for donating a kidney to co-worker Buster Bonjour, who has Berger’s disease, on Dec. 12. She gave a short speech about how wonderful it is to work at AC and said she is honored to be a part of it.
Dr. Paul Matney, right, recognizes H.Q. Wrampelmeier, center, in honor of her donating a kidney to Buster Bonjour, left, at the Jan. 22 regents meeting. Wrampelmeier and Bonjour both work in the Center for Teaching and Learning.
The Student Government Association gave a report on plans for Aron Ralston, the inspiration for the film 127 Hours, to be a keynote speaker this semester, their intent to have four representatives and their sponsor, Heather Atchley, attend College Days and their plans for comedian Ty Barnett to entertain students at the end of February.
Bob Austin, vice president of student affairs, said that as a strategy to remove barriers and help students to succeed, the college will use sub-grant funding as seed money to expand Career and Employment Services.
Austin asked Renee’ Burnam, director of Career and Employment Services, and Susan Regan, a data management assistant and Career Center adviser, to talk about the way AC students, alumni and prospective students are served by using the C&E services.
The department has partnered with Workforce Solutions and branched out online. C&E offers work assessments, job resume’ writing, career documents, podcasts, training workshops, a website, http://www.collegecentral.com/amarillocollege, a job board and social media connections to job postings, https://www.facebook.com/AmarilloCollegeCareer, and employer connections at http://twitter.com/ACCareerCenter.
Since expanding in September, C&E has helped 638 students. Burnam and Regan indicated that AC jobs where the students get to network with professors improve job retention on campus. More than 1,500 employers are registered at collegecentralnetwork.com.
The resource is available to anyone who has attended any class at AC, past or present.
“If you have supported AC in the past, we want to support you now,” Regan said.
The East Campus will receive new names for its buildings and will retire the old alphabetical identification used in previous years. The names changes will be as follows:
S Transportation Career Center
V Manufacturing Education Center
L Public Service Training Center
R Logistics Training Center
T Academic Classroom Center
SAC Student Services Center
Matney said he also hopes to update the names of West Campus buildings while he is president.
Instructor Cara Crowley requested that two bank loans be approved to pay for continued renovations of Lynn Library and Durrett Hall on the Washington Street Campus. She said the borrowed money would be repaid from funds given through the HMS Stim and the Title 5 Grants.
Approval was granted. The consent agenda also was approved.
Matney recognized new Police Chief Steve Chance, saying Chance has done an excellent job of promoting safety across campuses.
In the president’s report, Matney explained the tuition increases and disparities between AC and other community colleges in Texas, the valuation of AC for maintenance and operations, the debt rate as compared to other colleges, the total tax rate and the reason for a 700-student decrease in enrollment for the spring semester.
He said AC’s third fall commencement in December was a success with 218 students who walked across the stage and 460 total graduates.
He said the Hereford Campus launch was successful and that the college is raising $315,000 in private funds to match those provided by the Don and Sybil Harrington Scholarship for labs to train students in truck driving, renewable energy, utility power work and other fields.
About $185,000 has been raised. The second phase of the project will require raising $395,000 for classrooms. The final phase will need $180,000 to fund the portal for the Hereford Campus.
AC is looking to acquire matching grants to assist in funding the project. The new Hereford facilities are scheduled to open in spring 2014.
Mark White said there will be a regents election May 11 in which Bryan Poff Jr., David Woodburn and Paul Proffer’s six-year terms and Mary Jane Nelson’s two-year term will be up for re-election.
It was announced that the Moore County Refugee Conference had more than 100 participants and that the Amarillo Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will meet March 2.
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