Higher Education

Western Nevada College has received a grant to purchase Department of Labor approved equipment, course development, grant management staff assistance to students and program support for the College’s newly expanded Applied Industrial Technology program.

The governor, legislature, Board of Regents, and Nevada System of Higher Education deserve to be commended for working to improve education in Nevada during the 2015 legislative session.

However, for months we have looked on with concern about our state's economic future and that of our students. Simply, the recently revised funding formula, with a goal of rectifying inequities between the two universities, has created budgetary chaos for the state's four community colleges.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed a memorandum of understanding and proclamation Tuesday to establish an online university designed to give Nevadans more access to higher education.

WGU Nevada is a partnership between the state and the nonprofit, nationally recognized Western Governors University. WGU Nevada offers accredited bachelor’s and master’s degrees in four high-demand sectors critical to building Nevada’s economy: business, K-12 teacher education, information technology, and health professions, including nursing.

Two former campus presidents say the new higher education funding formula will cause irreparable damage to Nevada’s community colleges in multiple ways.Carol Lucey, who led Western Nevada College for 14 years, and Joh...

Two former campus presidents say the new higher education funding formula will cause irreparable damage to Nevada’s community colleges in multiple ways.Carol Lucey, who led Western Nevada College for 14 years, and Joh...

The University of Nevada, Reno’s 2015 Spring Commencement will confer 2,454 degrees and certificates. The commencement exercises will take place in three ceremonies Friday, May 15 and Saturday, May 16 and will be held on the University’s historic Quadrangle, located on the southern part of campus. Each ceremony focuses on particular colleges and, for the first time, grant both undergraduate and graduates degrees for each of those colleges.

Ronald McDonald House Charities® Northern Nevada (the Reno Ronald McDonald House® or RMHC® Northern Nevada), a home-away-from-home for families living 30 miles outside of Reno that have a child receiving critical treatment at an area hospital, has selected the winning applicants for its RMHC® U.S. Scholarship Program and will recognize them at a ceremony at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa Friday, May 8, 2015. Of the 38 students, 64 percent are the first in their family to attend college and several have overcome challenges such as severe illness, family depression and financial hardships.

Chancellor Dan Klaich, Board of Regents Chair Kevin Page, and ​Vice Co-Chair Rick Trachok of the Nevada System of Higher Education are soliciting feedback from the community in preparation for the contract review of Chester “Chet” Burton, President of Western Nevada College.

Members of the public are invited to meet with NSHE officials and offer comment about Burton’s leadership of the college from 12:30-1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, in the President’s Board Room, located in the Bristlecone Building at the WNC Carson City campus.​

Supporters of a bill allowing Nevada college campuses to ban tobacco received blow-back Wednesday from Republicans on an Assembly panel who suggested the move is hypocritical when tobacco taxes help fund higher education....

Christine Braunworth is a senior at the University of Nevada, Reno and she is determined to make an impact in the Native American community. Braunworth, who will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in social work this spring, recently helped secure a $10,000 grant from Native STAND, a comprehensive, sustainable curriculum for training peer educators who promote healthy decision making for Native youth.

Considered one of the best of its kind in the world, and lauded by the San Francisco Chronicle as “showcasing music’s future,” the Reno Jazz Festival at the University of Nevada, Reno has been bringing jazz superstars and the finest emerging young artists to town for more than five decades.

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Capital City Farm Days Thursday and Friday in Carson City will feature 30 presenters teaching elementary-age youth about Nevada agriculture, where food and fiber come from, and environmental issues related to agriculture.

Attendees will include public, private and home-schooled students and their families from Carson City, Storey County, Douglas County and Dayton Valley.

With Nevada withering in a fourth year of drought, Gov. Brian Sandoval on Wednesday announced formation of a panel of experts to explore a situation creating widespread problems across the nation's most arid state.

The Nevada Drought Forum — composed of state resource agency officials, local water providers, scientists and other experts — is expected to release a list of suggested ways to respond to extended drought by the end of the year.

With agency budgets currently being wrapped up in committee, one budget, for the Nevada System of Higher Education, is of special concern to residents of the rural counties. Chancellor Klaich requested bridge funding for Great Basin and Western Nevada Colleges to facilitate their smooth transition to the more austere funding model approved by the Legislature in 2013. The current leadership at these colleges have taken a can-do, entrepreneurial approach to the task, pulling out all the stops to grow their institutions into sustainable long term viability within the new budget constraints.

The original idea for The Intergalactic Nemesis (a wacky live-action graphic novel performed on stage with simple scripts, a couple actors, some crazy noises), all started in a coffee shop in Austin, Texas.

It’s a whole lot bigger than that now: Enter a sound-effects genius, an emotion-wielding keyboardist, three actors voicing tons of wacky characters, with 1,200 vintage-cool illustrations projected over the stage, all telling the story like a 1930s radio play with decidedly 21st-century spins.

Health professional shortages have been a challenge in Nevada for decades. The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act has increased health care access to hundreds of thousands of Nevadans, creating even higher demand for health care professionals.

In anticipation of this increase, the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health facilitated a pipeline mapping project to identify challenges across multiple sectors, and to make recommendations for bringing more health professionals to Nevada.

The top brass of UNLV and the Nevada System of Higher Education lobbied lawmakers today for $27 million in upfront funding for a medical school in ......

Michele of the Thousand Tax Liens and the Mouth That Gored (Herself) talked to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Read it and weep.
...

Well skipidy-dipidy-doo-dahh! The POTUS gave another SOTU speech recently. Somehow I just couldn’t get into the Kum-Ba-Yah when he went off on how the “rich” are not paying enough (when the top 1 percent is already paying almost 40 percent of all Federal income taxes and the top 10 percent pay 68 percent of all Federal income taxes)…really? Harrumph!

Peter Hennessey, Ann Bedarski, Sandra Stotsky, James Milgram and the other anti-Common Core activists in attendance at PK O'Neill's symposium Tuesday night were there to stage a demonstration against the K-12 standards, which, it should be remembered, were adopted unanimously by the state board of education four years ago and enthusiastically signed off on by the Governor Gibbons.

Here is the full text of Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval's speech delivered to the Nevada Legislature Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015.

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Distinguished Members of the Legislature, Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court, Constitutional Officers:

Free radon test kits are available from Dec. 1 through Feb. 28 at University of Nevada Cooperative Extension offices and partner offices statewide. Nevadans are encouraged to take advantage of this free offer to test their homes for this radioactive, colorless gas that comes from the ground, accumulates in homes and can cause lung cancer.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates 21,000 Americans die each year from radon-caused lung cancer, killing more people than secondhand smoke, drunk driving, falls in the home, drowning or house fires.

Clean Out That Attic or Basement: Carson City 4-H Leaders Council is collecting usable, clean rummage and fabric, craft and sewing notions for the Annual Fabulous Fabric and Rummage Sale.

Items can be dropped off at the Carson City Cooperative Extension, 2621 Northgate Lane, Suite 15 anytime during the week, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. from now until the sale date.

Drop off dates in 2015 are January 17 and 24 and February 13 at Fuji Exhibit Hall from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

The Carson City Leisure Hour Club continues the celebration of its 118th year on Wednesday, Nov. 19 with recognition of the five Leisure Hour Club scholars at Western Nevada College.

For the past several years, the Club funded merit scholarships for five graduates of Carson City and Dayton high schools. In the coming year, graduates from Douglas High School will also be eligible.

The Carson City Leisure Hour Club continues the celebration of its 118th year on Wednesday, Nov. 19 with recognition of the five Leisure Hour Club scholars at Western Nevada College. For the past several years, the Club funded merit scholarships for five graduates of Carson City and Dayton high schools. In the coming year, graduates from Douglas High School will also be eligible.

The Lake Tahoe Community College Board of Trustees accepted a $5 million donation Tuesday from longtime Tahoe resident Lisa Maloff, in memory of her husband, Robert Maloff, according to the South Lake Tahoe community college website and LTCC officials.

The donation will be used to construct a University Center that will make four-year degrees a reality on the South Shore. This is the largest single donation ever given to LTCC, rivaling those that have been given to much larger colleges in California and around the country.

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension is offering workshops Nov. 17 – 20 in Gardnerville, Yerington, Fallon and Lovelock for Nevada agricultural producers to help them plan for the possibilities of a fourth year of drought. “Agriculture in Times of Drought,” will give farmers and ranchers information on how to be resilient to variable weather in Nevada.

Many celebrations are scheduled throughout the Silver State in the month of October. These Nevada 150 events celebrate all things Nevada and help bring awareness to the 150th Anniversary of Statehood. The following events are held Oct. 16 through 30. Highlights of statewide Nevada Day weekend events are forthcoming.

On Friday Oct. 17, come watch the Nevada 150 Pony Express Delivery, on the south steps of the Nevada State Capitol Building in Carson City at 3:30 p.m.

Nevada's new Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation director, Don Soderberg, begins his duties today, Oct. 13. He was appointed by Gov. Brian Sandoval last month and will serve serve as a member of the Sandoval's cabinet overseeing the daily operations of the employment division which includes more than 1,000 staff members in multiple offices statewide.

Carson City government officials on Thursday recognized Western Nevada College’s nationally known humanities exhibition on the costs of war, “Always Lost: A Meditation on War,” Thursday with a proclamation of appreciation and honor.

Carson City Mayor Robert Crowell, a Vietnam veteran, has called the exhibit “our community’s gift to the nation.”

A proclamation honoring the creators and contributors of “Always Lost” was presented to Western Nevada College President Chester Burton and Professors Emeritus Don Carlson and Marilee Swirczek during the Board of Supervisors meeting.