Where I Stand: Opportunities, assistance abound at community college

Tuesday, Aug. 26, 1997 | 9:32 a.m.

THREE LANDMARK DECISIONS by the 1997 state Legislature will directly affect your college education. In today's guest column, Richard Moore, president of Community College of Southern Nevada, addresses these and other issues of interest to students of all ages.

THERE'S GOOD NEWS for recent high school graduates and the working adults of Las Vegas.

Gov. Bob Miller and the 1997 state Legislature provided your community college with the needed resources for you to start or continue your college education.

With the conclusion of the session, the state has made three landmark decisions that will directly assist you in going to college. These decisions earmarked $800,000 in financial aid to help you go to college, added 120 additional new full-time professors, and will add four needed, new college buildings.

These decisions are the result of the phenomenal response of 10,000 new high school graduates and working adults who wanted to go to college -- and did so this past year. Your community college has grown to 26,000 students, or more than 52 percent in the past two years.

In recognition of this phenomenal response, the governor and legislators established clear priorities of how best to support this dynamic and largest institution of higher education in Nevada.

The single element that students going to college will know more about than anything else is the college professor. Our state leaders have acknowledged that the first priority should be given to adding more full-time faculty to this college. In a historic act, the state will be funding an additional 120 new full-time faculty members over the next 18 months.

Although the legislators have been out of session for only a month, the college's department chairs and Senior Vice President Bob Silverman have already completed the process to add the first 60 additional full-time faculty members for classes starting Sept. 2. Our community college had between 100 and 200 applicants for each teaching position.

As we add 120 new faculty members over the next 18 months, we should acknowledge that they are in addition to 70 faculty members who only joined us in the past two years, doubling CCSN's original 170 full-time faculty members as of 1994 to more than 360 full-time new faculty members. This is the perfect time to integrate the new and old, to learn and share from the best of Nevada and this nation, as we continue serving a growing student body and the most dynamic city in America.

More good news: Your community college will have more than $800,000 this year to assist you with financial aid. Assistance is earmarked for tuition and book scholarships and work opportunities on all three campuses. Call 651-4060 to start getting financial help.

CCSN is also blessed to receive two major new buildings -- the one in Henderson will be jointly used by the new high school being constructed next to us and the one on West Charleston will be the largest building in our college's history. In addition, we will build two new high-tech buildings, one in Summerlin and one at Western High School. These projects will have dual use of computer facilities by college and high school students and "mirror" the very successful computer labs on our three main campuses.

Gov. Bob Miller and all of our state legislators have acted to help you go to college. Join us this fall by enrolling now -- your chance to change your life and create new opportunities for yourself and your family.