Blinn College District Vice Chancellor for Administration Karen Buck has been named the 2020 winner of the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC) Carl M. “Cheesie” Nelson Award.
The Nelson Award is the most prestigious annual award presented by the TACC and recognizes the winner's commitment to the mission of community colleges, support for student learning and success, leadership qualities, and involvement in community activities. The award is named after former Texarkana College President Carl M. Nelson.
“On behalf of everyone at Blinn College, we are excited to congratulate Vice Chancellor Buck on this tremendous accolade,” said Dr. Mary Hensley, Chancellor of the Blinn College District. “For the past 25 years, her leadership skills and dedication to students have played a vital role in Blinn's success.”
Sept. 3, 2020, Austin, Texas – Today the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Higher Education Foundation announced the award of $125,000 in student emergency aid grants to five Texas community colleges. Thanks to funding by The Kresge Foundation, Houston Community College, Dallas Colleges, Alamo Colleges, Tarrant County Community College District, and El Paso Community College will each receive $25,000 to assist students who are facing hardships resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Collectively, these institutions serve more than 250,000 students, with nearly 98,000 being Pell Grant recipients.
“I am grateful to The Kresge Foundation for working with us to provide much-needed assistance that enables several of our state’s largest community colleges to provide financial relief to students impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and to help them stay on track to earning their
If the oil and gas industry is the lifeblood of the Texas economy, the state's colleges are the heart that keeps the sector thumping. For years, its schools, and particularly its community colleges, have worked hand-in-hand with the sector to develop curricular priorities and train workers on their processes and equipment.
But what happens when part of the system takes a hit?
The industry is grappling with a two-pronged crisis. As the coronavirus reduced global demand for oil, Saudi Arabia flooded the market with the commodity to retaliate against Russia, which refused in March to curtail its crude production to keep prices stable.
A month later, U.S. oil prices nosedived into negative territory for the first time in history. Prices have since partially rebounded, but the events took a toll on the Texas workforce. The state's oil and gas industry cut a record 26,300 jobs in April.
Community colleges have long been tasked with developing their region's workforce. Yet employers often bemoan that they can't find workers with the knowledge and abilities they need, and several industries have yawning skills gaps.
That's why earlier this year, Education Dive planned to visit a handful of community colleges in Texas that were either making big strides in preparing their students for in-demand jobs or taking on projects to revitalize their communities. We made it to only one of the colleges before the pandemic cut our trip short, but we were able to speak with representatives of the other schools by phone and email.
In many ways, Texas offers a microcosm view of larger trends playing out across U.S. community colleges. Several of the state's institutions must adapt to the growing need for workers in fields such as healthcare and professional services, all while
The district’s plan was approved on Monday by its accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The new Dallas College will encompass the district’s Brookhaven, Cedar Valley, Eastfield, El Centro, Mountain View, North Lake and Richland colleges, which will now be campuses instead of colleges.
In addition to consolidating its colleges to better serve students, the approved plan also grants the district a “level change,” which allows what is now Dallas College to offer a bachelor of applied science in early childhood education and teaching, the first four-year degree offered by the institution.
“The pivotal moment we’ve been waiting for these last three months has arrived with an affirmative decision
