Press Releases, September, 2006
"Team Creativity - Disney Style" comes to Holyoke Community College
"Shockers!" exhibit on display in Taber Gallery
School's in session - the legislature should be, too.
Regional workforce development meeting at HCC.
Desarrollo regional para profecionales y generadores de empleo
"Team Creativity - Disney Style" comes to Holyoke Community College
HOLYOKE - September 8 is the priority registration deadline for "Team Creativity-Disney Style," a one-day seminar for businesses seeking more efficient ways to engage their employees.
The seminar will be held on Tuesday, September 26 at Holyoke Community College 's Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The $349 registration fee covers all materials and lunch. To register or to find out more, please call (413) 552-2122 or visit www.thecenter-hcc.org/disney.htm . Any company that registers three or more participants will receive one free registration.
September 6, 2006
The public is invited to view "Shockers!" a collection of 40 hand-painted movie posters from Ghana on display at Holyoke Community College's Taber Gallery from now until September 28. The opening reception will be held September 13, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Taber Gallery is located next to the HCC library on the second floor of the Donahue building, 303 Homestead Avenue , Holyoke Mass. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The exhibit showcases posters that were hand-painted on flour sacks to publicize mostly Nigerian-made films that were shown in makeshift movie houses in Ghanian villages during the 1980s. The films were violent, the posters, graphic. Local artists, using their own styles, often painted the posters before seeing the film themselves. Frequently, the images were drawn purely from the artists' imaginations and did not appear in the film. The more shocking the poster, the more likely the show would sell seats.
The canvases on display are slightly tattered - a testimony to the fact that they traveled from village to village in their heyday. Their bold colors and striking imagery remain intact. Now in the private collection of Sarah Lawrence College anthropology and art history professor Michelle Gilbert, they may be purchased for $350.
The following editorial appeared in the Springfield Republican on September 17, 2006
September 8, 2006
School's in session - the legislature should be, too
By William F. Messner, president, Holyoke Community College and
Like any parent reviewing a mixed progress report, we are disturbed by the "F" that Massachusetts colleges received in the category of affordability from National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education (NCPPHE).
We hope that our concerns are shared by state legislators, who are currently at an impasse over Senate Bill 2380, a measure that contains many possible solutions. We urge legislators to replace the unproductive silence with the joyful noise of public debate and compromise. Too much is at stake.
Senate Bill 2380 addresses college affordability in several ways. We believe legislators should consider these ideas before relegating them to the scrap heap of the election year session.
For instance, this bill ties future tuition and fee increases at public colleges and universities to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). It also calls for the establishment of a student charges stabilization fund, to be used to reduce the need for future increases in tuition and mandatory student fees. Both provisions give a measure of stability to low- and middle-income families who depend on our state college system to breed hope for future generations.
From all indications, that hope has been slipping away for some time now.
According to The College Crunch , a study issued in June by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the cost of attending a Massachusetts ' public, four-year college increased 49 percent between 2000 and 2005. During that same period, the median household income in Massachusetts rose by just 12 percent.
Massachusetts is not alone in this struggle. The Kennedy report also shows that, nationwide, the cost of attending a public, four-year institution rose by 32 percent while median income inched up by just 6 percent.
Rather than heralding this depressing trend, Massachusetts should be forging a new direction for its college students and future workforce. The state's 15 community colleges have historically helped contain the growing costs of higher education, but we, too are at a crossroads.
If passed, Senate Bill 2380 would help community colleges stabilize student costs by allowing them to retain their tuition and fees in a revolving trust fund, to be expended for operating expenses. This provision, which would also apply to four-year public colleges and universities, provides another tool to keep higher education affordable.
To ignore the affordability gap is to put our state's economic health in peril. According to a recently issued study by the World Institute for Strategic Economic Research (WISER), if barriers to higher education are not decisively addressed now, the New England region will suffer significant declines in the percentage of young workers holding bachelor's degrees by the year 2020. This brain drain will negatively affect the state's ability to attract better-paying jobs, a mainstay of the Massachusetts economy.
A major barrier for many would-be college students is affordability. Previous generations of college students could rely on federal grants to bridge the gap. Increasingly, that aid has been replaced by loans. In 2004 a staggering 70 percent of all federal student aid came from loans; only 20 percent came from grants. This is a near reversal of the situation that many of us encountered in the 1970's, when 77 percent of all federal student aid came from grants; 20 percent from loans. It has put an unacceptable burden on the next generation of students, workers, and citizens. The average student graduating from a four-year institution in Massachusetts in 2004 carried a loan burden of $17,353. This is particularly difficult for first-generation college students - a growing demographic in Massachusetts - who are wary about amassing such large debts before entering the workforce.
Holding down the basic cost of our state's colleges and universities is one way to fight this trend. Senate Bill 2380 contains some helpful suggestions for doing just that. We hope to hear more.
We know that the projected cost of Senate Bill 2380 has given many legislators pause. We should not let that pause resign itself to silence.
We know, too, that many of the bill's provisions will spark heated debates.
We urge legislators to use those debates to forge compromises.
We would expect no less from our students.
September 15, 2006
HOLYOKE - Regional business and workforce development professionals are invited to attend an open meeting of the Joint Workforce Development Advisory Board (JWAB) on September 28, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Holyoke Community College , 303 Homestead Avenue , Holyoke .
Convened by Holyoke , Greenfield and Springfield Technical community colleges, this board is dedicated to identifying synergies among all workforce development resources that will benefit the regional economy. Participants will receive lunch. To reserve a spot, call Carol Patterson at (413) 552-2088 by September 25.
Northeastern University Professor Neeta Fogg, a renowned labor economist, will be the keynote speaker. Fogg's address is titled "Adapting to the New Economic Reality: the Role of Education in the Economy." The meeting will be convened in HCC's Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development.
Septiembre 15 del 2006
Desarrollo regional para profecionales y generadores de empleo
HOLYOKE - Los profesionales del comercio regional y generadores de empleo están envitados a asistir a una runión abierta del Joint Workforce Development Advisory Board (JWAB) el día 28 de Septiembre, desde las 11:30 a.m. hasta la 1:30 p.m. en Holyoke Community College , 303 Homestead Avenue , Holyoke . Esta reunion es convocada por Holyoke,Greenfield y Springfield Technical community colleges, ésta junta, está dedicada a la identificación de necesidades especiales y al desarrollo de recursos que beneficiarán la economía regional. A los participantes se les ofrecerá almuerzo. Para hacer una reservación, sírvase llamar a Carol Patterson al (413) 552- 2088 a no mas tardar del 25 de Septiembre.
La profesora de Northeastern University Neeta Fogg, reconocida economista, será la principal oradora .La charla de la señora Foog se titula "La adaptación a la Nueva Realidad Económica: el Rol de la Educación en la Economía." El encuentro se llevará a cabo en el Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development de HCC.