Maryland Higher Education Commission

January 2010 Press Release

 

 

For immediate release: January 5, 2010                                    Media Contact: Christopher Falkenhagen
                                                                                                             Communications: (410) 260-4511

                                                                                                             cfalkenh@mhec.state.md.us

 

December 2009 MHEC Report for Governor O'Malley

December 1, 2009: Secretary Lyons met with Governor O’Malley’s Chief of Staff Matt Gallagher in Baltimore City.

December 1, 2009: Secretary Lyons attended the launch of Anne Arundel Community Colleges Student Success 2020 at its campus in Arnold. AACC President Martha A. Smith, Ph.D., plans for AACC to double the number of its students who earn degrees, certificates and industry-recognized certifications by the year 2020. In addition to Secretary Lyons, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education attended.

December 1-31, 2009: Director of Communications sent out almost daily updates on the H1N1 Swine Flu – provided by Karen Black at DHMH – to all Maryland college presidents and public relations colleagues to keep them aware of what the CDC is doing to combat the pandemic. The colleges and universities used this information on their websites and other forms of in-house communication and to parents.

December 1-31: Management Associate responded to 32 inquiries sent to the governor’s office regarding higher education issues.

December 2, 2009: Secretary Lyons, Director of Communications and Director of Government Affairs participated in a financial literacy forum held within the agency.

December 3, 2009: Director of Finance Policy attended the December Annual meeting of the Board of College Savings Plans of Maryland.

December 4, 2009: Director of Finance Policy attended December meeting of the Community College Facilities Planners.

December 7, 2009: Secretary Lyons attended and participated in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)’s Invitational Symposium on College Readiness.

December 7, 2009: Assistant Secretary for Planning and Academic Affairs represented Governor O’Malley at “The Johns Hopkins University School of Education 100th Anniversary Celebration” and the launching of “Shaping the Future: a series of discussions addressing the most challenging issues in public education.” Dr. Reid gave regrets that Governor O’Malley was unable to attend the celebration. December 8, 2009: Secretary Lyons and Assistant Secretary for Planning and Academic Affairs attended Governor O’Malley’s reception in honor of retiring Morgan State University President Dr. Earl Richardson at Government House.

December 8, 2009: Director of Finance Policy met with Division of Workforce Development, Information Technology and Research to discuss community college reports and reporting calendar for due dates for all reports required from community college to Commission.

December 8, 2009: Communications Management Associate represented Director of Communications (who was developing projects for both the governor and Lt. Governor at MHEC) at an H1N1 Swine Flu meeting with DHMH representatives in Baltimore City.

December 9, 2009: Secretary Lyons attended the Fort Meade Alliance Workforce Forum. Speakers included Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, a representative from Ft. Meade and Howard County Executive Ken Ulman.

December 9, 2009: Secretary Lyons attended Cabinet secretaries’ luncheon with Governor O’Malley then went to the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board meeting at Anne Arundel Community College.

December 9, 2009: Maryland Fire-Rescue Education and Training Commission meeting was held. Items discussed included State certificates of approval for training academies, activity updates, personnel qualifications review board, instructor certification review board update, reports from present organizations and old and new business.

December 9, 2009: Director of Finance Policy attended FY 2011 operating budget meeting for the University System of Maryland at the Department of Budget and Management.
December 11, 2009: Secretary Lyons attended the conference of the Maryland Association of Private Colleges and Career Schools (MAPCCS).

December 11-15, 2009: Director of Communications coordinated with 11 colleges and universities who received BRAC grants through the Governor’s Higher Education Investment Fund (HEIF) asking them to promote the grants through their press contact lists and through their internal communications. The 12 grants were awarded to 11 Maryland colleges and universities. The amounts of the grants range in size from $44,000 to $93,000 will be used to develop new programs addressing BRAC-related workforce needs or to expand upon existing related programs at the recipient schools next year. The effort was a major success with numerous newspapers, television networks and radio stations running the releases sent out by the institutions and on the Lt. Governor’s press release letterhead.

December 15, 2009: Director of Finance Policy met with Assistant Attorney General and Assistant Director of Finance Policy to discuss eligibility of locally, state or federally-funded community college enrollments for State funding under the Cade Formula.

December 16, 2009: Director of Communications attended meeting of BRAC coordinators and fellow DOCs to discuss how each agency is marketing BRAC and will continue to market BRAC in the State. BRAC executive director Asuntha Chiang-Smith emphasized the need to promote jobs and to move away from using technical terms like BRAC so incoming citizens and those who already live in Maryland will better understand how it will benefit them.

December 17, 2009: MHEC’s Secretary’s Advisory Council on Private Career Schools met. Items of discussion included applications for change of ownership at the Gandhi Institute of Health Foundation, New Creations Academy of Hair Design School and SANZ school.

December 18, 2009: Director of Finance Policy attended final meeting of the Capital Debt Affordability Committee to determine the recommended FY 2011 State debt level

December 18, 2009: Director of Academic Affairs met with the University System of Maryland representatives and Gary Martin of the Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) The purpose of the meeting was to explore ways in which USM institutions can be supportive of the BRAC expansion at APG. APG is still in the process of identifying and defining its needs in three basic areas: talent pool development, research & development, and continuing education. Once APG determines its needs this information will be communicated to the USM leadership who will disseminate it to campus colleagues for initiative development. The USM institutions represented were University of Maryland, College Park, University of Maryland University College, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Towson University and Salisbury University.

December 21, 2009: Director of Finance Policy met with Chair of the MHEC Student Advisory Council to discuss State funding and tuition and fees at Maryland colleges and universities.

December 29, 2009: Director of Finance Policy Worked with DBM to calculate community college and independent institution funding for FY 2011.

Private Career Schools

December 11: The Associate Director for Career Education made a presentation at the annual meeting of the Maryland Association of Private Colleges and Career Schools.

December 15: The Secretary’s Advisory Council for Private Career Schools met and reviewed three applications for changes of ownership of private career schools.

One school change of ownership was approved by the Secretary.
Approvals for five programs were withdrawn by the Secretary.
42 Solicitors’ Permits issued to out of state private career schools

Records from Closed Institutions of Postsecondary Education
Thirteen requests for transcripts from closed schools and 9 education verification requests were responded to.

Academic Common Market
Twenty-four constituents called about the application process for the Academic Common Market.

Workforce Creation and Development
December 8, 2009: The Associate Director for Workforce Development represented MHEC in a National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education (NASDCTE) consortium webinar.

December 9, 2009: The Associate Director for Workforce Development participated in two GWIB meetings, one for Career Readiness Certification and the other the GWIB Board meeting.

December 11, 2009: The Associate Director for Workforce Development represented MHEC at the MCCACET monthly meeting, and then met with a small group of community college continuing education deans/VPs to review regulatory content in the continuing education manual.

December 23, 2009: The Associate Director for Workforce Development met with representatives from the Maryland Center for Construction Education and Innovation to review currently offered construction related training in MD.

December 23, 2009: The State Approving Agency visited newly approved VA school Medix School-West to train school personnel on the VA certification process.

Throughout the month of December:

• 42 State Solicitor Permits were reviewed, processed, and issued;

• 449 community college continuing education course applications for FTE funding were reviewed and processed; and

• 19 requests for transcripts from closed schools and 7 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 as March 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. The first industry sector report is targeted to be completed by March 1.

Office of Student Financial Assistance – (OSFA)

• OSFA staff participated in 9 financial aid outreach activities held at various venues in Baltimore City, Prince George’s County and Montgomery and Caroline County. These activities were directed toward college bound secondary school students, their parents and members of professional associations.

• The Associate Director of OSFA attended the Federal Student Aid conference in Memphis during the first week of December. This is an annual national conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education for financial aid professionals. The week long conference is designed so that participants have both hands on and classroom training experiences.

• Completed the awarding for the Maryland Loan Assistance Repayment Program for Physicians for the 2009-2010 academic year.

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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