Category Archives: Washtenaw Community College

WCC interviewing for a new president

Posted on March 9, 2011 by | 3 Comments

This in from the web-based Ann Arbor Chronicle: The Washtenaw Community College President Search is underway with three candidates coming to visit campus.  Here is also a link to the WCC “news and events” web site about all this.  Besides the fact that EMU has lots of connections with WCC in the form of transfer students and part-timers who teach at both places, I thought it was interesting/surprising that I do not recall reading about this in annarbor.com at all.  I wonder if they even have someone on the WCC beat?

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Posted in Blogosphere, Washtenaw Community College

“Making Adjuncts Temps — Literally”

Posted on August 9, 2010 by | 3 Comments

Here’s a story with some particular local interests:  from Inside Higher Ed, “Making Adjuncts Temps — Literally.” The opening paragraphs:

Last year, a small community college in Michigan considered a plan to stop employing adjuncts and to have a temporary services agency instead do the formal hiring. The idea was to save the college money and also to save the adjuncts from contributing to a retirement system in which few of them would ever vest. Although only a few dozen adjuncts might have been affected, the idea drew widespread criticism from faculty groups nationally and the college’s board split on the matter, and put the idea on hold.

Now another community college in Michigan — Washtenaw Community College — is planning to move ahead with a similar plan, and this will involve hundreds of adjuncts. The college says that the part-time faculty members will be better off financially, as will the institution, which could save about $800,000 annually — at a time when deep budget cuts in Michigan have challenged public higher education in the state.

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Posted in In the media..., Washtenaw Community College

Community college enrollment increases

Posted on January 13, 2010 by | Leave a comment

I heard this story this afternoon on Michigan Public Radio:  “Community College Enrollment Increases.” And basically, that’s what the story is about.  Among other things, the story talks about how this is having a big impact on available classroom and parking spaces at Henry Ford CC and Washtenaw CC.

Is this a good trend for EMU?  Well, I have to think that it generally is because we get a lot of their students as transfers into our undergraduate and graduate programs.  But one of my colleagues was complaining the other day that we were losing tons of students to Washtenaw CC because they are so much cheaper and their facilities (classroom spaces, computer labs, etc.) are so much better than what we have at EMU, especially in Pray-Harrold.

I don’t know about that.  I’ve never been on campus at WCC or Henry Ford CC, but at the end of the day, it seems to me those schools give different kinds of degrees.  Sure, you can do a lot of gen-ed programs at community colleges, but you still can’t get a bachelors degree, and that is still the minimum entry-level degree for many different “white collar” professions.  So I tend to think that growing enrollments at area community colleges will eventually translate into growing enrollments at EMU.

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Posted in Henry Ford Community College, In the media..., Student Life, Washtenaw Community College

WCC rents some EMU parking spaces

Posted on December 13, 2009 by | 9 Comments

From the Washtenaw Voice comes this news, “WCC offers shuttle from Eastern to ease parking.” Here are the opening paragraphs:

In order to free up parking spots on campus for the Winter 2010 semester, Washtenaw Community College will rent the parking lot located across the street from Rynearson Stadium at Eastern Michigan University, at a cost of $100,050.

Just south of Huron River Drive on Hewitt, and a little over a mile from WCC, the lot will allow more than 1,000 drivers the opportunity to park quickly, and immediately be shuttled to the front of the WCC Student Center building.

Two free shuttle buses will transport students, faculty and staff from the Rynearson lot — and back — beginning at 6:45 a.m. until 6:15 p.m., Monday through Thursday, beginning Jan. 11. The college is working with a number of vendors to possibly have “beverages, coffee and hot drinks” available to participants, according to Vice President of Administration and Finance Steven Hardy.

I don’t have a lot to do with WCC, so I guess this is kind of a naive question: is parking there really that bad?

And I also don’t know how much it typically costs to rent a large parking lot, but $100K? Really? For space that EMU really wouldn’t be using otherwise?

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Posted in In the media..., Parking, Washtenaw Community College

WCC not going to buy WCC

Posted on March 25, 2009 by | 2 Comments

That is, Washtenaw Community College is not going to buy the Washtenaw Country Club, as reported on the YpsiNews.com. The opening paragraphs of that story:

In a unanimous vote by the Board of Trustees of the Washtenaw Community College, the board has decided to reject the offer to purchase the Washtenaw Country Club.

While several of the board members wanted to purchase the property saying that it was a good deal, they said the perception was it was a bailout of the country club.

Vice-president Pamela Horiszny, who in the past was a vocal supporter for the purchase said, “In these tough economic times, this purchase does not fit with the mission of the college.”

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Posted in Blogosphere, In the media..., Washtenaw Community College, Ypsilanti

“Unfit for students” (or, parking woes at WCC)

Posted on March 3, 2009 by | 1 Comment

This is a little off-topic, but it came up in my Eastern Michigan University Google feed today: “Unfit for students: College prohibiting students from parking in Fitness Center lot,” from the Washtenaw Voice (which I presume is the student paper at Washtenaw Community College). A snippet to explain what this is all about:

If you’re a Washtenaw Community College student and you don’t have a pricey membership to the Fitness Center, then don’t even think about trying to park there.

The WCC administration and the management company that runs the Health and Fitness Center want parking at the facility to be member excusive, barring most students from
the lot.

“If you want to go over there just to park, well, that’s inappropriate,” said Larry Whitworth, president of WCC.

How did EMU come up with this? Here:

While [former WCC Board of Trustees member Richard] Bailey said he can understand that members of the Fitness Center need to be able to park there, he also believes that the college should utilize all the parking it has so that it doesn’t have to build a parking structure or go to a system like that at the University of Michigan or Eastern Michigan University, where students must purchase a parking sticker.

So while it’s tough to find a place to part at WCC, at least it’s free.

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Posted in In the media..., Parking, Washtenaw Community College

In other news…

Posted on February 22, 2009 by | 5 Comments

While linking to the article about the rape at the Kappa Omega Alpha house, I came across a couple of other articles that connect to some previous posts/news-bits here at EMUTalk.org. First, there is the front page story in today’s AANews, “Officials say proposed acquisition of country club by Washtenaw Community College tempting, but doubts remain.” Here’s an example:

Michigan already has more public golf courses than any other state in the nation.

“It’s the operating costs we’re concerned about at this point,” said WCC President Larry Whitworth. “And we certainly have a responsibility if we do take it over that we maintain this as an important community asset. Can we do that? That’s what we’re trying to determine. And, can this break even?”

Judging by other golf courses, that will be hard to do. Last year, Eastern Michigan University, which owns the Eagle Crest Conference Center and Golf Course in the Ypsilanti area, hired new managers. After years of losing money, the facility earned a net income of $94,875 last fiscal year.

And then there is this less than brilliant comment: “[Richard] Landau, the trustee leaning in favor of the deal, said the college runs lots of programs and services that don’t break even, citing the campus library as an example.” Yes, because a golf course is as essential to the mission of WCC as a library…. Knucklehead.

The other story that caught my eye is “Ave Maria law school gets Bar Association approval to move to Florida.” Apparently, courses are going to start in Florida this August, though not on campus yet since this is what the law school currently looks like:

Future home of....

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Posted in Ann Arbor, In the media..., Washtenaw Community College

WCC might buy WCC

Posted on January 23, 2009 by | 6 Comments

Or, just to be a bit more clear: Washtenaw Community College might take over the Washtenaw Country Club, according to this article in the AANews. Here’s a quote:

“We’re not looking for a golf course, we’re not shopping for one and we’re not going to buy one,” [Washtenaw Community College President Larry] Whitworth said. “But given the fact that it’s right here and the debt is relatively small, we think it’s a smart thing to do.”

Should a turnover occur, the changes could be drastic.

Most notably, Whitworth said, the club would cease to be private and would start accepting public memberships and selling rounds of golf to non-members. Likewise, the club’s dining facilities would be open to all customers, enhancing opportunities for culinary arts students and presumably cutting down on paid staff since students work for class credit.

For the college, access to the golf course could mean the birth of a new transfer program in turf management to universities such as Michigan State and Ferris State.

The idea of moving its Culinary Arts program into the club’s kitchen has been tossed around as WCC’s on-campus fine-dining restaurant, Garrett’s, has struggled to attract outside patrons.

Now, as a golfer, I’m all for this. I’ve never played there and, given that I drive by the course nearly every day and it is almost within walking distance from my house, I am curious to see what it’s like.

But I do have to wonder. Why isn’t EMU involved in this at all? Where exactly is WCC getting the money to do this, even if it is just a matter of assuming the debt? And isn’t this perhaps a really great opportunity for a little collaboration/cooperation between WCC, EMU, Ypsilanti, and Ypsi Township?

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Posted in In the media..., Sports, Washtenaw Community College, Ypsilanti