A great year...........

A great year for LRSC

As the end of 2013 approaches, most of us pause to reflect on the year’s events. We enjoy the holiday cards from friends and family. We attend gatherings with friends and family for enjoyable conversation and reminiscing.

Lake Region State College experienced many positive moments in 2013 – occurrences that position the college for future growth and continued positive impact on individual lives, the community, and region.  I’d like to take the opportunity to again celebrate such achievements and say thank you to all who helped the college reach these milestones.

·         In June we officially cut the ribbon and dedicated our wind turbine located 4 miles north of the campus. The turbine allows wind energy technician students to learn in a live lab setting while also providing electricity for the college. Students revel in the expanded learning opportunities the turbine provides as they prepare for careers in wind energy.

·         In October groundbreaking ceremonies celebrated construction at the Erlandson Technical Center where we are renovating current facilities and creating additional learning space for many of our technical programs. The legislative commitment of funds is a wonderful investment in infrastructure for LRSC and its students. 

·         In November the Community College Foundation, which supports Lake Region State College, held the best Key Event ever, raising around $130,000 in one night.

·         In December the Dakota Precision Ag Center held its ribbon cutting at its new location 1.25 miles north of campus in the former Twete Inc., building. The facility houses the Dakota Precision Ag Center, the precision ag program, and farm business management in one area.  

Throughout 2013 we also saw new endowments appear. These gifts to the Community College Foundation support students through scholarships, program support, capital projects and more. Receiving gifts from the community through such endowments support students’ educational goals.

Thanks to the North Dakota Challenge Grant initiative gifts like endowments that support the college may be matched with $1 of state resources to every $2 gifted. Matching funds are available to gifts that support infrastructure projects (like additional enhancement to the Erlandson Technical Center), technology, and enhanced academics through scholarship endowments. Such gifts provide critical margins of excellence and create student learning resources for today and tomorrow. Combine this with the ND Endowment Tax Credit and you can create an endowment that keeps on making an impact on students in perpetuity.

Finally, I’m honored to be completing my first year as president of Lake Region State College. This college is a wonderful resource for the community and state. I’m proud to have the opportunity to serve as its president and ever thankful to the community, staff, and students for supporting this great college.

Wishing you all a wonderful 2014,

Doug Darling, Ph.D., President

Lake Region State College

Back to School

Wow! July and August are a blur in the rear view mirror.  We were extremely busy with hiring staff. At the back-to-school breakfast, we introduced 29 faculty and staff in new positions. Many staff just changed seats on the LRSC bus, but we did have quite a few new faces. We also recognized staff with service awards. Special thanks to Dan Johnson with 45 years of service to LRSC  and Jay Olson for 35 years of outstanding service.  What an exciting start to the school year. The hallways are busy with eager new students, ready to begin the next phase of their lives.  We have lots of new student athletes for volleyball, baseball, golf, and fast pitch softball on campus.

The volleyball team is off to a great 8-2 start. The team is exciting to watch and has been drawing great crowds to the DL Sports Center.

Our baseball and fast pitch softball teams have their first games this week in Bottineau and Williston. We are excited to have theses sports back on campus. The golf team has been in several golf tourneys and has another tourney in Bismarck next week.  

The Community College Foundation board held it's kick off meeting last week at the "north campus" Dakota Precision Ag Center. Everyone was impressed with the center and the technology they are using to train our Ag students, Ag industry employees and Ag producers. The CCF board meets on Thursday at noon this week.

We received approval from NDUS Chancellor Skogen to proceed with the Erlandson expansion and renovation. Our Construction Manager will be advertising for bids this week and we hope to break ground in October with plans to be competed next August.  With careful planning and hard work we should be able to meet this aggressive schedule.

Wind Turbine Dedicated

Wow - what a busy couple of weeks since my last update. The big news is we held the ribbon cutting/ dedication cermony for our wind turbine.

(L-R Chris Schilken - Forward DL, Brian Killkelley-Native Energy, DL Mayor Dick Johnson, Scott Schroeder- Honeywell-ESG, Jay Johnson-LRSC Wind Energy Faculty, Jay Haley - EAPC, Doug Darling -LRSC President, Betty Pikop - Site Landowner, Tim Greene - Ottertail, Dennis Johnson, District 15 Representative.)

We had a great turnout for the event and mother nature provided one of the nicest days of the year for the event.  All of the major partners in the decade long process of obtaining funding, getting approvals and construction were in attendance and spoke about their involvement with the project.

Devils Lake Public Schools provided bus transportation to the site and back to campus for refreshments. Larry Liere, retired CCF board members was one of the drivers.

The Foundation office and Kristina Sogge put together a short (4 page) document that describes some of the challenges overcome in the 10 year process of completing this project.  The document is available in the Foundation Office if you would like one. It is a very interesting read.

 

The highlight for me was on the 18th (I had to wait until my wife, Teresa was out of state.) I had the opportunity to climb the turbine and see the magnificent view from the top of the turbine. We really live in a beautiful part of the country! I have said from day one, when we get it built, I'm going to climb it and have my picture taken on top. Mission accomplished!

 

 

Now we are on to the next important project. We received funding to expand and renovate the Erlandson Technical Building. We have reviewed proposals and selected JLG Architects from Grand Forks to complete the design and we will be selecting a Construction Managment firm later this week. We hope to get started yet this fall. This the first major campus building project in about 35 years.

 

We are also kicking off a campaign where $2=$3. The Legislature provide 1 million dollars of state funds for LRSC and the other campuses. For each $2 gift the State will match with $1.

The funds must be used for "enhanced academics". Five areas were identified in the legislation Research, Scholarships, Technology, Endowed Chairs, Educational Infrastructure. The gifts and pledges must be received between July 1, 2013 and December 31, 2014. Guidelines are still being developed by State Staff.  This is a great opportunity to enhance your gift to LRSC. There are also some interesting tax credit opportunities right now. Please contact the LRSC Community College Foundation for more detailed information.

 

 

Changes, changes and more changes..............

Lake Region State College is a wonderful resource for its students, community, and state. Since becoming President of LRSC, I have been working with the administrative council to develop plans to best move the college forward, continuing the excellence we currently have and preparing for even better times.  

The administrative council set the top three priorities for the coming year:

1.       Implementing Pathways

2.       Completion of Erlandson expansion and renovation

3.       Matching Fund campaign

That means a few organizational structure changes will be taking place this summer in preparation for the upcoming academic year. We will be working with the departments involved to develop a schedule for the moves.

Office Name changes:

First, naming of offices has changed. The offices of Administrative Services, Student Services, and Instructional Services are now Administrative Affairs, Student Affairs, and Academic Affairs. These names mirror our sister institutions within the state and nationwide.

Office locations:

In many community colleges the communications and outreach positions are affiliated with Advancement as these job missions work on advancing the college, its image, and its message.

Erin Wood, director of marketing and communications, will be moving to the Advancement/Foundation Office area and now reporting to the Vice President of Advancement. She will continue her current duties and also assist the Foundation in donor relations and campaigns. Katie Mertens will be taking on some additional communications and PR duties to assist Erin. Joycelyn Hagen also will be joining the Advancement Office. She will continue to be located in the President’s Office area; however she will be located nearer to the Welcome Center Window to assist customers entering the college. The Welcome Center window will permanently reopen during normal office hours to bring the inviting, welcoming atmosphere back to the front entrance.  

The president’s office reception area will be expanded by moving the wall that currently separates the President Office reception area and rest of the office areas past the area where Joycelyn currently has her work space. This will allow room to create a reception area in the President’s Office that Joycelyn and Bobbi Lunday can share comfortably. The doorway that leads from the President’s reception area to the mailbox area will be walled off to create room for additional office space. 

The current marketing and communications office will become the Academic Affairs office. Vice President of Academic Affairs, Lloyd Halvorson, Brandi Nelson, Jennifer Jenssen, and Anne Rasmusson will now be housed in that area.

Financial Aid will move to the area currently occupied by Lloyd Halvorson and Jennifer Jenssen. A wall will be installed to create a private one-on-one environment for students seeking information and counseling from Financial Aid.

The remainder of space that currently is Instructional Services will become the Center for Distance Education and Outreach Services. Director Dan Driessen, online advisor Andy Wakeford, Anne Dumont, Lois Bachmeier, and the new instructional design position will be housed in this area.

With Financial Aid moving to a more private area, Student Affairs will be restructuring office configurations in its areas, which will be announced at a later date.

Precision Agriculture and Adult Farm Management is scheduled to move to the former Twete Inc., building north of campus later this summer (late July to early August).

New positions

The funding formula approved by the legislature gives LRSC an opportunity address needs in many areas of the campus, including staffing in critical need areas. Administrative Council has approved the following positions recently to meet those needs:

Academic Affairs

Instead of replacing the Assistant VP (Lloyd Halvorson’s former position), Brandi Nelson will serve as Director of Academic Affairs and Institutional Effectiveness  supervising some of the non-program areas of Academic Affairs and Dan Driessen will supervise some of the CTE programs.  A Program Coordinator/Administrative Assistant, Anne Rasmusson, will replace Brandi Nelson.

The Adult Learning Center had another record year with over 75 graduates.  Director Nicole Claussen has received additional funding from DPI to hire another GED Instructor. This faculty position will be shared with Academic Affairs.

Student Affairs

A Power Skills Coordinator (formerly Academic Skills Center)/Disability Services Coordinator will be hired to provide services to non-Trio students. This position is critical for implementation of Pathways and will focus on retention and completion.

Administrative Affairs
Our growing institution has reached the point where we need a Human Resources Specialist. An HR position will be added this year.

Institutional Advancement/Foundation

A Campaign Project Manager – will be added on a temporary contract to manage the campaign to raise 2 million dollars and receive the 1 million dollars in matching funds appropriated by the legislature.

 A Resource Developer (grant writer) will also be added to write and coordinate grants to assist in securing the 2 million dollars and the 1 million in matching funds

Wow - it has been a busy 7 weeks since being named President at the March 7th SBHE meeting in Bismark.  I have been in Bismarck nearly every week testifying and attending legislative committee meetings.

Legislative Update

The Governor included our expansion of the Erlandson Technical Center in his proposed budget and specifically mentioned the project in his address. I testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senate Education Committee. and House Education and Environment Division of House Appropriations and the groups asked good questions and seemed supportive of our project. Our local legislators have been hard at work making contacts with other legislators and getting support for our project. We are going to keep working hard on this until the end of the session and we are included in the final budget!

The semester is winding down. This is the last week of classes, final tests and Graduation are next week already.  We have three long term employees retiring this year - Myrna Unger, Theresa Leiphon and LoAnn Nelson. All three have had a positive impact on many students and the campus. They will certainly be missed.

We also have some folks leaving us for other opportunities -  Donna Gutschmidt, Eileen Gray, Curt Herman, and Val Wood. Please wish them well in their new ventures.

We have also had some internal transfers.  Annie Alexander moved from TrainND to the Business Office and Chris Nolden moved from IT to Dakota Precision Ag Center.

Joe Kittell was hired as Men's Basketball and Baseball Coach along with faculty duties. Joe has already been on campus working with the team and recruiting for next year.

We have searches ongoing for many of the open positions and will keep the campus updated as they are filled.

Campus update

 

Wow did January ever fly by.  We took a delegation from campus to Oman to meet with RAFO (Royal Air Force of Oman). We have been providing training for their Simulator Maintenance Techs for a few years now and it was time to visit their Sim sites and make sure we are providing quality training. They also wanted to meet with us about additional training in vehicle maintenance. Cory Mitzel (Sim Tech Faculty), Randy Olson (Auto Tech Faculty), Nicole Claussen (International Program Coordinator) and I traveled to Oman and visited RAFO Bases in Muscat, Mussanah, Thumrait and Salalah. Cory got a chance to see nearly all of the 30+ techs he has trained for RAFO and a chance to try out the simulators that they maintain.

The trip was very successful. RAFO is pleased with our training and plans to send more students to be trained as Sim Techs.

They are also very interested in sending some of their special vehicle techs to get training from our Auto Tech program. We are still working on the content and duration of this potential training, but are excited about the prospects.



Wind Turbine Update

Construction has been complete for several weeks. We will be making the final interconnection to Ottertail and the Campus next week and GE will be onsite to commission the turbine. We hope to have the turbine operational by mid February. We are excited to complete this huge project.


Legislative Update

The Governor included our expansion of the Erlandson Technical Center in his proposed budget and specifically mentioned the project in his address. I testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Education Committee and both groups asked good questions and seemed supportive of our project.  Our local legislators have been hard at work making contacts with other legislators and getting support for our project.   We are going to keep working hard on this until the end of the session and we are included in the final budget!