NJC reorganizes student services area

***Press Release***

Extended Studies restructured, staff reassigned

By Barbara Baker

Leadership at Northeastern Junior College is always looking for ways to improve customer service, streamline workloads and maximize available personnel. As a new school year begins, a number of leadership changes were recently made at the college in the structure of the student services division, including modifications to the college’s community education department.

Former Dean of Student Success Steve Smith has been promoted to Vice President of Student Services, providing the overall management of activities and services available to learners and others in Hays Student Center. He will be the primary liaison with the college’s academic and administrative areas. 

Ronda Bowey, formerly the Director of Extended Studies on campus has been moved to the student services area and  named the Director of Concurrent Enrollment and Student Success. She will continue to manage concurrent enrollment and teacher certification, as well as direct the counseling, advising and testing services on the campus.

Terry Ruch, a long time student recruiter, assigned to the Denver metro area for many years, and formerly the Assistant Director of Admissions, has accepted the position of Director of Admissions. He will share his time between northeastern Colorado and the Front Range.

This re-organization has brought about a modification to the way community education classes will be delivered. Rather than having a fully-staffed community education division, short-term classes, some non-credit, and some for special interest groups such as culinary arts, will be organized and offered by the various academic areas on campus in the future. “We had a community education department, staffed by several individuals who were committed to making sure we were offering a good selection of both credit and non-credit classes,” notes Northeastern’s President Jay Lee. “From both a financial and staffing perspective, we felt like this  personnel would be better utilized if we put them into the student services area where we have a significant need for more assistance.”  Diana Anderson, who has overseen business and industry training, has also moved to the student services area as a career coach.

Lee notes that many of the classes offered through Extended Service, while they had solid value, they often did not run due to lack of enrollment. Some of this programming was aimed specifically at the over-50 learners, made available from some grant funding Northeastern previously received. “It is a difficult time in higher education and we are making some difficult choices based on what we see happening to us budgetarily,” Lee said. A large part of Extended Studies’ has always been to oversee concurrent enrollment of area high school students who are taking college-level, dual credit courses and finding opportunities to provide work-force training. “These key areas can now be served through our student services area,” Lee said, adding, “by asking those who use these services to do it directly through student services, we will do better at getting these students integrated into our overall array of student services offered in that building.” He makes reference to counseling and advising and financial aid as services all students need to be familiar with, regardless whether they are taking one class for credit, or a full load.

Some of the popular programming offered through Extended Studies, like the ongoing Ladies Lunch Out series, which was co-sponsored by the Logan County Chamber of Commerce, can certainly continue to take place, however it will  require that someone other than the college personnel take on the coordinating role to line up speakers and oversee registration. The ongoing fitness classes, which have made up a significant portion of the class offerings from  Extended Studies over the years are being offered as usual, directly through the Bank of Colorado Event Center.

”We will see how this change works,” notes Lee. “If we find over time that we need to reinstate a full-blown community education department, we will explore that possibility at that time.”  In past year, a major responsibility of the Extended Studies department was to coordinate the annual Wildfire College here which brought as many as 600 students from all over the nation to campus each year for a week of intensive training. The organizers of the Wildfire College opted to move their college to Greeley in 2007. Extended Studies also operated a summer water safety program that has since chosen to operate differently.  The Kids College programming has been a popular offering by NJC’s community education area for a number of years now. Discussion is taking place to determine how this programming, offered to grades K-9 will be managed and offered in the future.

“We simply have to look at ways that we can best utilize all of our resources—money, people and facilities,” notes President Lee. “We will continue to find ways to be the best stewards we can be of state dollars and community trust.”