Maryland Higher Education Commission

August 2008 Press Release

 

 

For immediate release: August 1, 2008                                                    Media Contact: Christopher Falkenhagen
                                                                                                                           Communications: (410) 260-4511

MHEC July Report to Governor O'Malley

July 1-31, 2008: MHEC received word from Governor O’Malley that he wants each State agency to cut their energy consumption by 15 percent. MHEC staff has worked very hard on meeting this goal. Several departments are working with limited lighting; the entire staff is turning their computers off at night and turning their lights off when they leave the office for more than 15 minutes.

July 1, 2008: MHEC’s Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) notified all post-secondary institutions of their 2008-2009 award year allocations for the Maryland Part-Time Grant, Graduate and Professional Scholarship and Campus-Based Educational Assistance Grant programs.

July 1, 2008: The Community College Supplemental Retirement Workgroup met to discuss issues relating to the oversight and administration of the Supplemental Retirement Program, as well as what entity should be considered the employing institution for the Program.

July 8, 2008: Assistant Secretary Andrea Mansfield represented Secretary Lyons on the Task Force to Review Physician Shortages in Rural Areas. This task force is discussing recruitment and retention initiatives to provide incentives to physicians to work in rural areas of the State. Maryland law calls for a representative from MHEC on this panel.

July 9, 2008: MHEC’s BRAC coordinator, Dr. John Stephenson, began work. Dr. Stephenson has already met with MHEC’s acting BRAC coordinators over the past nine months and has attended a legislative BRAC joint oversight committee meeting as well as several meetings with Secretary Lyons.

July 9, 2008: MHEC’s BRAC researcher, a three-month contractual position, began work.

July 9, 2008: Both Assistant Secretaries, Chief of Staff, Communications Director, BRAC coordinator and BRAC researcher met to coordinate a communications strategy for a brochure it will produce to attract contractual and defense personnel who currently work at Fort Monmouth, NJ, and the Defense Information Systems Agency in Virginia, but are inclined to move to Maryland with the BRAC re-location.

July 9, 2008: Communications Director and BRAC Coordinator met to discuss how the BRAC Coordinator will send bi-weekly reports to the Lt. Governor. The Communications Director had done this since January.

July 10, 2008: Assistant Secretary Mansfield met with Treasurer’s Office Assistant Attorney General to discuss Qualified Scholarship Funding Bonds to gather information for a Joint Chairmen’s Report that is due September 1.

July 11, 2008: Communications Director went to Governor’s office on 45 Calvert Street to request a Proclamation for MHEC’s Distinguished Scholars Award luncheon and pick up other outreach materials then went to the Maryland Municipal League building to meet with Executive Director Scott Hancock to discuss future Capital for a Day events.

July 14, 2008: Secretary Lyons met with General Mike Hayes, Annabelle Sher and John Stephenson to discuss BRAC-related matters.

July 15-19, 2008: Secretary Lyons represented MHEC at the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.

July 16, 2008: Finance Policy Director presented Workforce and Private Donation Incentive Donation Program Information to the Capital Investment Workgroup for the Commission to Develop the Maryland Model for Funding Higher Education for their consideration for recommendations to the full Commission.

July 17, 2008: Finance Policy Director visited the HEAT Regional Higher Education Center in Harford County for the purpose of learning about the offerings and services of the Center in the Aberdeen Community.

July 17, 2008: Assistant Secretary Dr. George Reid and Communications Director traveled to Leonardtown for Capital for a Day. Assistant Secretary represented Secretary Lyons at the Governor’s cabinet meeting and at Governor’s press conference announcing Leonardtown as Capital for a Day. From there, Assistant Secretary and Communications Director visited with deans and board of directors at the College of Southern Maryland’s Leonardtown campus, toured the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center, met with the financial aid director of Blades School for Hair Design (a Private Career School) then met with officials from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The event resulted in enormous good will from all of the postsecondary institutions that were visited.

July 21-24, 2008: Secretary Lyons represented MHEC and spoke at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) in Birmingham, AL, resulting in positive press and enthusiasm among attendees.

July 21, 2008: OSFA awarded the William Donald Schaefer Scholarship, now the Workforce Shortage Student Assistance Grant to 25 applicants. The awards ceremony will be held August 26 at 4 p.m. in the Miller Senate Office Building.

July 21 and 28, 2008: Assistant Secretary Mansfield participated in meetings of the Economic Competitiveness and Workforce Subcommittee of the Commission to Develop the Maryland Model for Funding Higher Education. The subcommittee heard from four regional higher education centers and discussed funding issues and the funding formula resulting in a positive dialogue.

July 22, 2008: Assistant Secretary Mansfield participated in the Community College Supplemental Retirement Workgroup met to discuss its recommendation for employing institution with the business officers and personnel officers of the community colleges. This recommendation will be presented to the community college presidents on August 15.

July 22, 23 and 24, 2008: MHEC staff participated in site visits at Morgan State University, University of Baltimore and Coppin State University with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.

July 23, 2008: BRAC coordinator and Director of Communications joined their counterparts from other State agencies in Crownsville to discuss how to market Maryland for contractual and civilian personnel in New Jersey and Northern Virginia reluctant to re-locate to Maryland because of BRAC re-location.

July 24, 2008: MHEC received notification of release of Historically Black Institution funding for FY2009 and processed payment to the HBIs for August 1.

July 25, 2008: OSFA began the process of awarding legislative scholarships for the 2008-2009 academic year.

July 31, 2008: Secretary Lyons was Commencement Speaker at Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, MD.

Office of Grants

• Developed draft documents for meeting of the Educational Longitudinal Data System Work Group, which is a subcommittee of the Commission to Develop the Maryland Model for Funding Higher Education (Bohanan Commission). This work group has been charged with developing recommendations for developing a P-20 longitudinal database.
• Conducted a survey of nursing school deans and faculty and hospital administrators on the Nurse Support Program II to examine the program to maximize its effectiveness.
• Participated in a long range planning session for the IMPART (the Institute for Museum, Preservation, and Archeology Research and Training) consortium members regarding the heritage disciplines (museum studies, conservation, archeology, historic preservation and cultural resource management).

July 2008 Accomplishments

Private Career Schools

• Two sessions of training were conducted to offer guidance to new and current private career schools to assist them in preparing their annual reports. About eighty persons attended. Andrea McLendon was the lead person on this project.
• On new school was approved to offer principles and practices of real estate program and one new school was approved to offer basic cosmetology.
• Two state approving agency VA annual visits were made, one VA initial approval visit was made and two state visits were made.
• One school closed in an orderly, legal way and its certificate of approval from the Commission was returned.
• Three cease and desist notices were sent to illegally operating training providers.
• Records from closed institutions of postsecondary education: responded to 27 requests for transcripts from closed schools and 10 education verification requests.

Workforce Development / WIA

• Dean Kendall, Associate Director for Workforce Development represented MHEC at three workforce committee meetings.
• On July 28th, Mr. Kendall, acting as MHEC Workforce Development staff support, attended an Economic and Workforce Workgroup meeting for the Commission to Develop the Maryland Model for Funding Higher Education.
• Mr. Kendall represented MHEC at the National Governor’s Association Policy Academy on State Sector Strategies (Innovative Workforce Policies to Address Worker and Employer Needs) in Madison, WI from July 21st to the 24th.
• Mr. Kendall participated in two USDOE conference calls, both regarding Career and Technical Education/Perkins IV funding as they pertain to community colleges.
• David Jorgenson, Education Analyst, reviews on a daily basis all Community College continuing education courses for regulatory FTE eligibility.
In an ongoing process, Mr. Jorgenson continues to work with MHEC IT staff to develop a viable process for continuing education course applications to be available online, and to make the MHEC inventory of continuing education courses publicly viewable online.

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 326,000 college students in Maryland, for the State and its needs, and for business and industry in Maryland.