Students continue to flood into the Kentucky Community and Technical College System by the bus load.
Spring semester enrollment for the network of 16 colleges, which includes 68 campuses, jumped 18 percent from last spring, according to the KCTCS estimates. The system will release final numbers in April.
The system cracked the 100,000 student barrier this fall after growing 11.6 percent from the 2008-09 academic year. That increase in the fall included a 14.3 percent increase in nontraditional students older than 25.
The growth comes as the college system has lobbied, along with leaders of Kentucky's public four-year universities, for lawmakers not to cut state funding in the next two years. State legislators are in the early stages of crafting a two-year budget that has a $1.5 billion deficit.
KCTCS President Michael B. McCall was among the latest batch of higher education leaders to testify before a House budget committee last week to plead their cases.
The college system, like the public universities, are serving more students while receiving a shrinking percentage of funding from the state, he said. More cuts, he warned, would almost certainly lead to layoffs in the colleges.
Snags with transfer bill
Legislators also continue to work with university leaders on a bill aimed at easing the transfer between community and technical colleges and four-year universities.
The legislation would establish a framework so basic requirements for degrees would be consistent.
But University of Louisville Provost Shirley Willihnganz told the university's trustees Thursday some faculty are upset that one of the provisions in the bill says undergraduate degree programs should require no more than 120 credit hours.
"The problem there is that that gets us in trouble with a number of accrediting agencies that require more hours than that for a degree," she said. "There are little things like that in the bill that, I think, are well-intentioned, but really don't reflect what a university has to do to prepare students for certain fields."
Faculty also are concerned that the bill could transfer some decision-making power about programs from their hands to those of lawmakers, Willihnganz said.
House Bill 160, sponsored by Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, passed the state House unanimously on Jan. 21. It is now pending in the Senate.
Higher education leaders are hopeful the issues can be ironed out, Willihnganz said.
Floating lab delayed
Kentucky State University pushed back its plan to have a houseboat company build a science lab to float down the Kentucky River because the manufacturer it contracted with is among the latest business casualties of a struggling industry.
Sumerset Houseboats idled its plant in Somerset starting July 17 because business had slowed so dramatically, Sumerset's President and CEO Steve Lochmueller told the Herald-Leader in July.
KSU announced last week that it was looking for a new manufacturer because Sumerset recently had closed.
The university wants a 52-foot boat as a teaching tool for its new master's degree in environmental studies program as well as other biology courses that can show students the Kentucky River's plant and animal life, according to the university.
The boat is expected to cost $289,000, the Frankfort State Journal reported.
Ky. colleges help Haiti
Students, faculty and staff at colleges across Kentucky have raised money for relief efforts in Haiti after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.
Transylvania University will collect donations Wednesday at a panel discussion "Past, Present and Building Hope for Haiti's Future" featuring two Transy professors and two Haitian guest speakers. The university's Jan. 29 and 30 fund-raiser brought $1,695 toward Transy's overall goal of $10,000 for earthquake relief.
University of Kentucky's Center for Community Outreach and Student Government Association raised $2,200 and collected "a significant amount of donations of food and supplies" last month, said Gail Hairston, UK spokeswoman. Other campus organizations continue to raise money for relief.
St. Catharine College launched a similar fund-raising effort. Students on campus already had a connection with the island nation after the book selected for its "Freshman Read" program was Restavec; From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American, which chronicled abuse suffered by poor Haitian children.
And Asbury College administrators and students have chosen to adopt Quisqueya Christian School to help support its rebuilding.
Youngs honored
William T. Young Jr., chairman of the Transylvania board of trustees, and his wife, Barbara Smith Young, a UK trustee, received awards for philanthropy from the Council of Independent Colleges.
The national organization recognized the Youngs for their work in supporting fund-raising drives at Transylvania and Sweet Briar College in Virginia, which is Barbara Smith Young's alma mater.
