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SPC receives $2.87 million grant for developing programs by Sarah Vaughn, staff writer
South Plains College has been awarded a five-year, $2.87 million Title V grant from the United States Department of Education to develop three new high-demand associate degree programs. “Speaking as a taxpayer myself, I’m glad to see it come back to this region,” said SPC President Dr. Kelvin Sharp. “And I’m glad to have the opportunity to use it to help students here at South Plains College.” The first-year funds from the grant available to SPC will be $574,767 that will be used to develop an Alternative Energy Technology program focusing on wind and solar energy. “We want the students who go into that program to be well-rounded,” said Dr. Sharp. “Our feeling was that all of those alternative energies are going to come in some form or fashion. We wanted to start a program that balances them all, so that the students have more opportunities for employment.” The second-year funds will help SPC implement a Physical Therapy Assistant associate degree program, as well as supplement the current program for accreditation. “Currently, there’s not any local training,” said Dr. Sharp of the Physical Therapy Assistant program. “It’s either as far away as Amarillo or Midland-Odessa, so this will give us a place where students can go to school and then be employed locally.” The third-year funds will go toward developing an engineering technology program, with the fourth and fifth-year funds helping to sustain the programs during the first years of implementation. “We want to offer some lab experiences that are real-life situations,” said Dr. Sharp of the engineering technology program. “Engineering is one of the areas that they’ve identified there’s going to be a shortage in.” SPC had already made plans to implement these programs, but didn’t have the funds to get them started until now. “These were all programs that we had on the drawing board,” said Dr. Sharp. “But we just didn’t have the money to go ahead and put them into place. For us to start new programs like this, we would have to raise tuition and fees. This allows us to maintain our tuition and fees, but start these new programs that students will actually benefit from.” Title V grants are only awarded to qualifying Hispanic-serving institutions where at least 25 percent of enrollment is accredited to Hispanic students. In addition to enrollment qualifications, the proposal process for the grant was highly competitive, with any proposal scoring less than 95 out of 100 being ineligible to receive funding. According to Dr. Sharp, SPC was the only two-year college in Texas to receive the Title V grant. “We scored a 98 out of a possible 100,” said Stephen John, vice president for institutional advancement at SPC. “It’s the result of a whole bunch of people contributing an awful lot of good work to our proposal. A proposal is a really complicated preparation. You only have a certain number of pages to describe all the things you’re supposed to describe and you’re required to report on.” Dr. Gail Malone, director of the Teaching and Learning Center at SPC, will be the project director for the grant. Dr. Malone says that past grants awarded to SPC have had a “wide affect on all students.” Previous Title V funds have been focused on strengthening academic programs. In the past, SPC has used grants to target courses with lower grades, and for the retention of students, in addition to creating ‘smart classrooms’ equipped with computers and flat screen TVs. According to Dr. Malone, the most recent Title V grant was aimed at program development, so SPC had to choose which programs to include in its proposal. “SPC hired a team that did a survey of labor market needs to find the areas we wanted to develop programs in,” said Dr. Malone. The alternative energy technology program includes two courses that already have students enrolled in them this fall at SPC. In addition to the Intro to Wind Energy and the Fuel Cell and Alternative/Renewable courses, three more courses will be added to the program. “What we’ll do with the Title V is provide funding for training modules,” said Rob Blair, dean of technical education at SPC. “Then we’ll identify our strengths and weakness, and realign if needed.” Blair explained that SPC is currently working on ensuring that students in the program will receive certifications making them hirable as soon as they finish the program. “We’re providing industry-recognized national certification in industrial manufacturing,” said Blair. “In addition to that, the grant will allow us to provide certification in wind energy.”
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Reward offered for information leading to arrest in arson case by Thomas D. Mooney, entertainment editor The Agriculture Building recently on the Levelland campus had a scare when there was indeed some “Smokin’ in the Boys Room.” A small fire was set in the men’s restroom by an unknown person who started the blaze, presumably, with a lighter of some sort. Currently, there is a reward or $1,750 being offered for information that leads to the arrest of the person(s) responsible for this fire incident. The fire was called in to the Levelland Police Department around 5:19 p.m. on Sept. 28, moments after it was discovered by students. SPC Police Officer Toni Hinson was the first authority on scene. When she arrived, the fire had already been extinguished by students who had splashed water from the sink onto it. “It was pretty clear that the fire wasn’t accidental,” said Jay McKay, an assistant fire marshal for the Levelland Fire Department. Professors and instructors had already evacuated that part of the building as Hinson and Hockley County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Farris entered the building. “As Deputy Farris and I went in to check for hotspots and to ensure that the fire wasn’t still going,” said Hinson, “dispatchers contacted the Levelland Fire Department to meet us out there.” When McKay arrived, he did a thorough search of the entire building and began investigating the arson attempt. “Shortly after that, we began interviewing all the students who were still in the building,” said Hinson, “asking what they had seen, what they had done, who had left the room to go to the bathroom, those kind of things.” Both the police and fire departments were at the Agriculture Building for more than two hours that first night. The police and fire department investigators continued interviewing students and faculty during the next several days. “A couple of the SPC instructors were a great help at retaining students and helping us get in contact with others that were in the building at the time of the fire,” says McKay. “We’ve been called out to SPC a few other times, but since this is an arson case, it worries us a little more, since this was intentional after all,” says McKay. “Until we get someone in here to do a full inspection on the ventilation system, they won’t know the full amount of damages that the fire caused.” The known damages that the fire caused include a broken mirror and sink, as well as soot and smoke damage to parts of the ceiling and walls. The fire was able to be put out before it spread to any other rooms in the Agriculture Building or the Math/Engineering Building, which are connected by a hall. SPC officials have declined to comment on the fire until all law enforcement authorities have finished with their investigations. Also called to the scene were state fire marshals, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives agents, and arson investigators. All agencies are still in the process of investigating the fire and have a few leads, but no arrests have been made. “We do have a few people that are considered suspects, but we still don’t have enough,” says Hinson. All enforcement agencies are positive about finding the arsonist. “Despite all the statements and interviews conducted, we still are waiting for that one person to come forward that has information that breaks the case open and leads us to a solid case,” says an optimistic McKay. Both McKay and Hinson stress that if anyone who has any vital information on the case who hasn’t talked with the police or fire department to come forward. “We are really lucky that the fire wasn’t started midday, or in a building that had been more populated with students,” says McKay. The damaged bathroom was closed down for a little more than a week while repairs were being made by SPC’s Maintenance Department and reopened for use on Oct. 6. Any information on the incident can be reported to the Texas Arson Hotline at (877) 434-7345, the SPC Police at (806) 716-2396, or Dean Conner’s office at (806) 716-2380. Confidentiality is guaranteed.
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