MHEC March 2010 Governor's Report

April 2010 Press Release

For immediate release: April 1, 2010 Media Contact: Christopher Falkenhagen
Communications: (410) 260-4511

cfalkenh@mhec.state.md.us

MHEC March 2010 Report for Governor O'Malley

March 2, 2010: Secretary Lyons participated in the launch of Governor O’Malley’s Skills2Compete initiative. The goal of Skills2Compete is for every working Marylander to have access to the equivalent of at least two years of education or training beyond high school – leading to a career or technical credential, industry certification, or one’s first two years of college – to be pursued at whatever point and pace makes sense for individual workers and industries.

March 3, 2010: Secretary Lyons spoke at the Advancing Learning for Our Diverse Adult Population Symposium at the National Press Club. He mentioned Governor O’Malley’s strong commitment to higher education and promoted his Skills2Compete effort as one of Maryland’s initiatives to ensure that adults are qualified for many of our middle-skill employment opportunities.

March 3, 2010: Secretary Lyons represented Governor O’Malley at the British Council Reception at the United Kingdom Embassy.

March 4, 2010: Secretary Lyons testified before a House Hearing on MHEC Scholarship and Community Colleges.

March 6, 2010: Secretary Lyons was speaker at 13th Annual Regional Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Summit on Retention in Ocean City. The theme was improving retention at HBCUs especially during this recession. The experts at the summit discussed strategies for addressing the financial crisis and beyond. Secretary Lyons brought greetings on behalf of Governor O’Malley and told them how committed he was to HBIs in Maryland and higher education in general.

March 8, 2010: Secretary Lyons participated in a College Success Task Force Meeting at MSDE. He co-chairs the task force with Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick.

March 8, 2010: Secretary Lyons met with delegates Adrienne Jones, Melony Griffith, Henry Heller and John L. Bohanan, Jr., all members of the Appropriations Committee, to discuss legislative issues before the 2010 General Assembly. The Appropriations Committee hears and votes on most of the higher education related bills in the House of Delegates.

March 10, 2010: MHEC’s Education Policy Committee met. Items discussed included a proposed Associate of Art in Teaching degree, Maryland Higher Education Commission’s Interface Internationally; Implementation of the 2009 Maryland State Plan for Postsecondary Education; Update on Legislation for the Development of a P-20/Workforce Longitudinal Data System; Capitol College’s Request for a New Degree Level (Doctor of Science).
March 10, 2010: Secretary Lyons and Dr. Grasmick provided an update on the College and Career Readiness Task Force to GWIB Executive Director Eric Seleznow.

March 10, 2010: Director of Communications and BRAC Coordinator participated in BRAC Coordinators and Marketers meeting with Asuntha Chiang-Smith to discuss upcoming events, updates on what various State agencies are doing to enhance the BRAC move, BRACSTAT updates and a review of federal BRAC priorities at DHCD headquarters in Crownsville.

March 10, 2010: Assistant Secretary for Planning and Academic Affairs, Director of Communications, Director of Finance Policy and BRAC Coordinator met with Asuntha Chiang-Smith at MHEC to discuss MHEC’s role regarding higher education issues in Harford and Cecil County.

March 11, 2010: Secretary Lyons read to pre-K students at High Bridge Elementary School in Bowie as part of Governor O’Malley’s Read Across Maryland initiative.

March 11, 2010: Secretary Lyons joined other cabinet members at the Governor's Meeting with the Maryland Congressional Delegation on Capitol Hill.

March 12, 2010: Secretary Lyons testified at the Community Colleges Capital Budget Hearing before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.

March 12, 2010: Director of Finance Policy testified at Community College Construction Grant hearing in Senate Capital Budget subcommittee.

March 15, 2010: MHEC’s Segmental Advisory Council made up of representatives of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges (MACC), the Maryland Independent College and University Association (MICUA), the University System of Maryland (USM), Morgan State University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland and the Maryland Association of Private Colleges and Career Schools (MAPCCS) heard a presentation from Secretary of Disabilities Cathy Raggio about making colleges and universities more welcoming of students with disabilities; Governor O’Malley’s Skills2Compete initiative which is meant to increase by 20 percent the number of Marylanders who complete at least two years of postsecondary education or training; and a discussion of higher education legislation currently before the 2010 General Assembly.

March 15, 2010: Secretary Lyons met with Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee chair Joan Carter Conway to discuss legislative issues before her committee.

March 15 and 18, 2010: Director of Finance Policy attended Senate Budget and Taxation Operating Budget Decision Meetings.

March 16, 2010: Secretary Lyons read to 1st Graders at Kenilworth Elementary School in Bowie as part of Governor O’Malley’s Read Across Maryland initiative.

March 16, 2010: Secretary Lyons met with Budget and Taxation Vice Chairman Ed Kasemeyer to discuss higher education issues before his committee.

March 16, 2010: Secretary Lyons testified at the Higher Education Capital Funding Hearing before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.

March 17, 2010: Secretary Lyons spoke at the 36th Annual National Dialogue on Blacks in Higher Education symposium sponsored by the National Association for Equal Opportunities in Higher Education (NAFEO). This symposium concentrated on raising awareness about the issue of the federal debt and to encourage discussion and debate about America's fiscal future. Secretary Lyons brought greetings on behalf of Governor O’Malley and stressed his strong commitment to One Maryland, stressing that he feels there is no spare Marylander. Secretary Lyons also discussed Governor O’Malley’s Skills2Compete initiative.

March 17, 2010: Associate Director for Academic Affairs attended Smart Growth sub-cabinet meeting.

March 19, 2010: Director of Finance Policy testified at Higher Education Capital Budget Overview hearing in House Education and Economic Development subcommittee.

March 23 and 25: Director of Finance Policy attended Senate Budget and Taxation Capital Budget Decision Meetings.

March 24, 2010: MHEC’s full commission met. Items discussed included guideline revisions for a state financial aid program, presentation of the 2009 Performance Accountability Report for Maryland’s Public College and Universities; discussion of a proposed Associate of Art in Teaching, Maryland Higher Education Commission’s Interface Internationally; Implementation of the 2009 Maryland State Plan for Postsecondary Education; Update on Legislation for the Development of a P-20/Workforce Longitudinal Data System; Capitol College’s Request for a New Degree Level (Doctor of Science); Summary Report of the Advisory Council on Workforce Shortage; Follow-up Survey of the 2007-2008 Maryland Community College Graduates and a Report on Private Career Schools’ Approval Actions from Jan. 1-Feb. 28, 2010.

March 24, 2010: Director of Finance Policy provided budget action update for Commission Meeting
March 24 and 26, 2010: Director of Finance Policy attended House Appropriations Committee Operating Budget Decision Meetings.

March 25, 2010: Secretary Lyons was keynote speaker and brought greetings on behalf of Governor O’Malley and Lt. Governor Brown to the Westlake High School College Week Program. He mentioned how deeply committed this administration is committed to education from P-20. He called Governor O’Malley the “Education Governor” and praised him for his insistence that there is no spare Marylander. Three-hundred people including mostly students who are interested in entering college as well as faculty and staff members and parents attended the event.

March 25, 2010: Secretary Lyons brought greetings on behalf of the 79th North Atlantic Regional Conference (Women of Power) of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. He praised the administration for their outstanding work in regards to higher education. He also read a citation from Governor O’Malley. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was an honoree. There were 3,500 in attendance.

March 25, 2010: Director of Communications participated in Smart, Green and Growing meeting with his colleagues in other State departments involved in Governor O’Malley’s environmental marketing initiative.

March 25, 2010: Director of Finance Policy attended University System of Maryland Finance Committee Meeting.

March 26, 2010: Director of Finance Policy attended Maryland Community College Capital Planning Officers meeting.

March 29, 2010: Secretary Lyons and State Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick who are co-chairs of the College Access to Success Task Force held their final meeting. The task force unanimously agreed to recommendations that will be presented to the Governor’s P-20 Leadership Council in June.

March 30, 2010: Secretary Lyons attended a forum with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at Bowie State University. Congressman Hoyer was at BSU to inform students about the recently passed health care law.

March 31, 2010: Director of Communications represented MHEC at health care forum at which Lt. Governor Anthony Brown was keynote speaker. DHMH Secretary John Colmers also spoke among others.

March 31, 2010: Director of Finance Policy attended House Education and Economic Development Capital Budget Decisions meeting.

Career and Workforce Development:
March 2: MHEC staff accompanied the Secretary of Higher Education to the Skills2Compete-Maryland Governor’s press conference at Prince George’s Community College.

March 3: MHEC’s Director of Research and Associate Director of Workforce Development represented MHEC at the initial Skills2Compete meeting chaired by Lt. Gov. Brown.

March 10: Associate Director of Workforce Development attended the GWIB Board meeting.

March 11: Associate Director of Workforce Development participated in three (3) Perkins IV monitoring visits: Talbot County Public Schools, Chesapeake Community College, and Dorchester County Public Schools.

March 16: Associate Director of Workforce Development met with representatives of the Construction Consortium to discuss data validity, collection and overlap.

March 19: Associate Director of Workforce Development represented MHEC at the GWIB Interagency Workgroup Committee meeting to discuss Skills2Compete-Maryland.

March 22: Associate Director of Workforce Development represented MHEC at the start of the OVAE audit visit to review MSDE’s administration of Perkins IV.

March 25: Associate Director of Workforce Development participated in the Perkins IV monitoring visit to Prince George’s Community College.

March 30: Associate Director of Workforce Development met with one private career school to discuss orderly closure proceedings.

Throughout the month of March:
• 5 State Solicitor Permits were reviewed, processed, and issued.
• 398 community college continuing education course applications for FTE funding were reviewed and processed.
• 24 requests for transcripts from closed schools and 4 education verification requests were processed.
Ongoing:
• MHEC staff continues to test the online CC-10 community college continuing education course application for State funding. When fully implemented, it will be a paperless process which will allow the MHEC inventory of continuing education courses to be publicly viewable online after approval. Testing will occur throughout FY2010, with the anticipated date for going paperless July 1, 2010.
• In accordance with the 2009 State Plan for Higher Education, MHEC continues to develop standardized annual reports for each GWIB Industry Sector that will provide yearly data comparing DOL occupational demand projections with Maryland postsecondary graduation data in related programs.
MHEC staff is meeting with the community colleges to meet the reporting requirements of Skills2Compete-Maryland.

Private Career Schools:
• Continued the process of reviewing claims and making payments on claims from students who suffered tuition loss resulting from precipitous closure of ComputerTraining.edu at Towson and ComputerTraining.edu at Annapolis Junction. The funding sources for the payments are the closed schools’ financial guarantees and the state’s Guaranty Student Tuition Fund.
• The following actions were approved by the Secretary: new school location, new program, other business and two notices of deficiencies.
• Conducted four school visits for new school, a change of location, and VA program review and an expanded program.
• Meet with Maryland Board of Nursing attorney and investigators regarding unapproved training providers.
• Five Solicitors’ Permits were issued to an agent of out of state private career schools.

Academic Common Market:
• Responded to 36 callers about the application process for the Academic Common Market.

Office of Grants:

March 1: Application deadline for the Nurse Support Program (NSP) II.

March 1-15: Compiled preliminary fiscal data to determine whether pursuit of a federal indirect cost rate is worthwhile for the agency and forwarded to the Governor’s Grants Office staff for advice.

March 2 & 8: Conducted interviews for the National Security STEM Initiative (NSSI) Project Coordinator position.

March 4: Held College Preparation Intervention Program (CPIP) technical assistance meeting. CPIP grants support Maryland’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness (GEAR UP) sites.

March 4: Towson University Maryland College Access Challenge Grant Program (MCACGP) project site visit.

March 8: Stevenson University MCACGP project site visit.

March 8: EduSerc MCACGP project site visit.

March 9: Met with Governor’s Policy Fellow LaAndra Jones to discuss her proposed end date and her final employment rotation experiences in the program.

March 10: University of Maryland, College Park CPIP project site visit.

March 11: Finalized NSSI Project Coordinator Search Committee recommendations and forwarded to the Secretary.

March 11: Attended “Excellence in Teaching” Conference at the University of
Maryland, Baltimore’s School of Nursing.

March 12: Attended the “Helping Mathematics Teachers Become Culturally Relevant Educators: New Tools for a New Generation” conference hosted by the University of Maryland, College Park’s Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education College of Education.

March 17: Attended the College & Career Readiness Act of 2010 Senate Bill Hearing.

March 19: Participated in the Change for “Good – Using Social Marketing to Make a Difference” webinar hosted by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Go Alliance.

March 19: Attended the Maryland Community College Fund Raising and Grants Staff Statewide meeting and made a brief presentation on federal and state grants activities.

March 22: University of Maryland, College Park MCACGP project site visit.

March 22-29: Worked with Governor’s Policy Fellow Matt Schmid to identify possible job sites for his second employment rotation.

March 26: Assisted MSDE with the distribution of two Requests for Proposals (RFP) for teacher professional development in business and technology.

March 26: Compiled/submitted MHEC federal grants data for the Governor’s Grants Office Annual Report.

March 26: Chaired meeting for NSP II application review.

March 29-31: Prepared NSP II application reviewer recommendations for presentation
to the Health Services Cost Review Commission.

Items ongoing throughout the month of March:

• Fielded several questions from institutions, DBM and/or DLS about the Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology, the UMBI-Israeli/BARD Partnership Grant, The University of Maryland Leadership Academy, IMPART and the Welcome Fellows grant programs.

Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA):
• OSFA staff participated in three financial aid outreach activities in Prince George (2) and Anne Arundel (1) counties.
• OSFA awarded FY 2010 funds to waitlisted students in the Howard P. Rawlings Educational Assistance Grant Program.
• OSFA has downloaded a total of 145,916 processed FAFSAs for FY 2011 and will begin awarding renewals and new awards for the Howard P. Rawlings Educational Assistance and Guaranteed Access Grant program in April 2010 with all awards to be completed by May 1, 2010.

The Maryland Higher Education Commission is a 12-member coordinating board responsible for establishing statewide policies for Maryland public and independent colleges and universities and private career schools. It serves as an advocate for more than 350,000 college students in Maryland, for the State and its needs, and for business and industry in Maryland.

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