By China Cassidy The Navajo County Community College Governing Board met last week and during a quarterly report from Director Yip Reyes from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, she highlighted some areas that may be interfering with some students ability to complete their academic goals due to COVID-19 and how the college is going about accommodating some of those needs. During the spring semester the school had to close its doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic and adjust the way students were receiving their instruction. Towards the end of the spring semester, the college conducted a college-wide COVID-19 student survey. There were 458 students who participated in the survey asking how successful they think the college was in adjusting the instruction after spring break as well as what challenges were affecting their ability to complete their courses, between April 17 and May 18. While the survey revealed that most students expressed a high level of gratitude for the effort put in to making the transition, there were still concerns. Because students have to receive their instruction in their own home, and some even have to share computers with other household members, a way was needed for the college to distribute hot spots and even computer laptops to students to help them get access to their instruction material for their courses. The survey also revealed that for the most part students are still wanting to continue their education with NPC in the fall but that the concern is still very prevalent. “There remains to be a lot of effort and improvement from the college to support our students in successfully completing their courses,” stated Reyes. Following Director Reyes’ report, NPC Friends and Family Director Betsyann Wilson gave insight to the effort being made to help students continue their education through the college. Wilson explained that some of that assistance will come from funding through the CARES Act. “We have a newly approved budget for the fiscal year 2020-21, my board had a retreat since we last met and approved the budget and we now have $20,000 more in the emergency fund,” relayed Wilson. Wilson went on to explain that there are resources students can seek out through the NPC Friends and Family program. “Dr. Yip Reyes mentioned the need for students to have access to internet and that’s a huge issue for our students. The college has received funding through the Cares Act to assist students with obstacles related to the COVID-19 pandemic and having to work online. We already spent almost $1,000 of it since it was approved. We just have so many students out there that have a lot of needs that are related to loss of income, loss of employment, as well as the need for technology,” explained Wilson. To add to the many efforts going towards the success of the students at NPC, Wilson also announced that the students in the nursing program at Winslow’s Little Colorado Campus would be getting a stipend for travel if their proposal is accepted by the company that helped fund the Institution of Engineering and Technology program at the Whiteriver campus. “We were approached about three weeks ago by the Dell E. Web Foundation, they funded the program that assisted our construction IET students at the Whiteriver campus for three semesters, and we have some carryover funds that they’re allowing us to use for students in the fall semester. The president of the Dell Web Foundation asked if the college would be interested in doing a similar project and they were very interested in knowing what they did in health care. “So, I immediately thought of our nursing assistant program. It’s a program for students who want to matriculate into the associate’s degree and nursing program,” said Wilson. Wilson worked out a proposal with the Dean of Nursing for a letter of interest requesting approximately $82,000 for nursing assistant students. “These are students that will be in Spring and Fall 2021 semesters at the Winslow campus and the Whiteriver center and we’re emphasizing many of the things we did with the instruction technology grant and assuring that students have the appropriate attire and supplies, not only to get through the program but to be employable. But for the students particularly at the Winslow center, we put in to the proposal, a travel stipend that will help them with mileage because we know that we have students that would like to attend that live out in the area of the Hopi center and the Navajo nation, and looking at that amount of travel can actually be disincentivizing for them,” stated Wilson. They also wrote in laptops as part of the proposal. For more information visit the website at www.npc.edu. Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG) Head Start Director Jennifer Brown spoke to the board back in the spring about a grant-funded partnership to bring childcare to one or more college campuses. Brown informed the board that they have recently gone through an extensive hiring process after receiving a grant on June 3 for the years 2020-2025 for $22 million annually. Vest clarified for the board what exactly Brown is asking of them saying, “They (NACOG) would like to take the next step in establishing a relationship with the college. That next step is for us to begin talking more specifically about land that the college has at its campuses that could be leased to NACOG for NACOG to construct childcare facility space at our campuses.” The board agreed to allow administration to continue forward with their conversations with NACOG pending a proposed master plan at which time they will reevaluate whether to move forward with a partnership. The board also approved a request by Chief Information Officer Scott Estes to apply for a Rural Utilities Distance Learning grant for the amount of $946,110 to assist with updating the audio/video rooms at the campuses. In other business, NPC administration offered their regular report for High School Programs. to the board. After a comprehensive review done by Early Childhood Advisor Karen Zimmerman and TALON Director Renell Heister, Heister highlighted support service as one area of focus for improvement in the dual enrollment programs. To help solve some of the issues due to lack of support, they have already changed the name from High School Programs to Early College, and began a plan to provide academic advising, assistance with high school to college transition, assistance with accessing support structures such as tutoring and career services and support in accessing financial aid. They will also begin discussing how to expand their course variety. In order to do so successfully with the very small staff, it was recommended that student registration be moved strictly online. Also, that the support and advising structure be redone and collaborate with other college departments to formalize the process that pertain to dual enrollment. The board also approved a recommendation to release Career and Technical Education Dean/Interim Chief of Human Resources Officer Peggy Belknap of her appointment to the Northeast Arizona Training Center (NATC) Board and to appoint EMT faculty member Brian Gardner to the NATC. The board also approved a recommendation for acceptance of the updated Master Facilities Plan. NPC President Mark Vest announced positions filled at NPC including Cassie Dows, administrative assistant to Dean of Instructional Innovation; Kathryn Matott, Community & Corporate Learning Specialist; Michael Broyles, Ph.D, Curriculum Coordinator; Wei Ma, Ph.D., Dean of Instruction Innovation; Ruth Zimmerman, director of Nursing and Allied Health Services; Richard Chanick, director of the Small Business Development Center; April Horne, Early College Coordinator; Jana Dixon, EMS program clerk; Michelle Prentice, EMS Program Coordinator; Nichole Hendricks, English Language Acquisition for Adults (ELAA) faculty, instructional leader, success coach; Hung Wang, Ph.D., faculty in biology and chemistry; Shan Qin, faculty in chemistry and biology; Shandiin Deputee, faculty in College & Career Preparation; Alexander Henderson, Ph.D., faculty in mathematics; Xu “Shirley” Xie, faculty in mathematics; Melinda Klug, faculty in nursing; Stephanie Stancil, Ph.D., instructional designer; Jonathan Schrader interim faculty in Computer Information Systems, remote; Rebecca Hunt, recruitment specialist; LaTonya Motley, faculty in educational technology, department chair. The board also announced that the Strategic Planning and Accreditation Committee will be disbanding following careful assessment of its benefit. It was determined that the committee is no longer the viable committee that it once was and determined that disbanding would be in the best interest of the college.
