As Danville Area Community College gets ready to start their new semester on Tuesday, January 18th; DACC president Dr. Stephen Nacco told Linda Bolton on 1490 WDAN’s News Makers program that one great thing they are doing right now is offering a $600 bonus to get students who are taking 12 credit hours up to 15 credit hours, which keeps them on track for graduating on time. Dr. Nacco says this can really help the “working student.”
AUDIO: Over 60 percent of our students have jobs to subsidize their lives; to pay for their homelife, to pay for their gasoline and everything. So that $600 program is really about helping students succeed.
Another very interesting item Dr. Nacco brought up is that some states; like Wisconsin, New York, and Connecticut; have their junior colleges governed by one single state board. But in states such as Illinois, every community college, except for the seven in Chicago that have their own combined board, the other 41 statewide are municipally governed by a single local board. Nacco says that makes all the difference in the world.
AUDIO: The other ones are autonomous. And autonomy is what you have, in a state that’s tip-to-toe 750 miles, you need that autonomy. So it’s the local boards. It’s the Dave Harbeys and Greg Wolfes and Sandra Finches. It’s people like Terry Hill, who know the community, who oversee that; so those kinds of community colleges can remain nimble.
Dr. Nacco says this allows Illinois community colleges like DACC to respond to community needs, and provide needed classes for available jobs, such as this example.
AUDIO: I mean we have as barber school, that was a big initiative that Laura Hensgen started with a local barber who became an educator, Terrence Gouard. We’re going to start barber school in the summer, based on people really are looking for alternate careers.
Dr. Nacco says, it’s impossible to provide enough welders, tractor-trailer drivers, engineers, and CNC machinists for local demand; so DACC’s job is to do everything they can help turn out more qualified candidates.
