Bellwether Award winners selected
By CCTIMES, Published March 2, 2008

The Community College Futures Assembly named Brookdale Community College (BCC) in New Jersey, the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) in Maryland and the University of Hawaii-Maui Community College (MCC) this year’s winners of the Bellwether Awards, which recognize outstanding and innovative community college programs.

BCC won in the planning, governance and finance category, which recognizes programs or activities that improve efficiency and effectiveness. The assembly cited the college’s leading efforts in New Jersey’s Coastal Communiversity, an eight-member partnership of colleges and universities that serves as a one-stop center to increase access to post-associate degree education.

To enroll in Communiversity courses, a student must first be admitted to one of the member institutions, which is designated the student’s home college. The partnerships makes it easier for students to transfer among the institutions.

For more information, visit http://njcommuniversity.org.

CCBC won in the instructional programs and services category, which recognizes programs and services that foster or support teaching and learning in the community college. CCBC’s assessment program involves using data to determine changes needed at the college to improve student learning. Guided by a five-stage design, the assessment program is faculty-driven and externally validated.

For more information, visit www.ccbcmd.edu/loa/index.html.

MCC won in the workforce development category, which recognizes strategic alliances that promote community and economic development. The college was honored for its model for sustaining change through education, partnerships and workforce development.

MCC has several initiatives and partnerships that promote sustainability on campus and throughout the community, while preparing students for living-wage careers. They include the Sustainable Living Institute of Maui, student internships, a new windmill and the college’s Rural Development Project, which has trained more than 21,000 residents in rural Hawaii since 1997.

For more, visit http://sustainablemaui.com/institute.html.

The Community College Futures Assembly, now in its 14th year, convenes annually as an independent national policy forum both for key opinion leaders to work as a think tank in identifying critical issues facing community colleges and to recognize Bellwether finalist colleges as trend-setting institutions.