KCC: Growing to meet the needs of the community

CIRA de CASTILLOTGI Writer

PUHI — Kaua’i Community College has always been a place to start and now, more

than ever, it’s also a place to grow, says Provost Peggy Cha.

“We are a

community college and our mission is to provide Kaua’i with access to quality

learning. The bottom line here is serving the community.”

The profile of

KCC students has changed over the years. Cha said the traditional path of

education may not meet the needs of many of today’s students, especially those

who are looking for workforce training or retraining to meet the demands of the

labor market.

The average age of KCC students is 27. Students over 30 tend

to achieve the highest grades with grade point averages of 3.6 to 4.0.

Over

80 percent of KCC students work full- or part-time jobs.

Students who

continue their education beyond high school are generally driven by the need

for job-related training, career change, or a desire to participate in today’s

information-based environment.

KCC offers a variety of programs to meet

students needs and interests, Cha said.

“We have been paying a great deal

of attention to the General Plan Update and the ongoing economic discussions,”

she said.

“The college has been particularly interested in, and felt that

we can play a role in, the workforce development of Kaua’i by providing the

community with access to the traditional higher education path and meeting the

needs of today’s workforce development.”

With a current enrollment of more

than 1,100 students and a $7 million budget, Cha says there is room to grow by

about 150 students.

Appointed as provost earlier this year, Cha brings more

than 20 years of experience with the University of Hawaii system to her desk.

Experience she says helps her to navigate the budget and enrollment challenges

facing the college today.

Cha stepped into her position as acting provost

in 1998 when David Iha left the college for a position with the UH Board of

Regents.

One of the first items on Cha’s agenda was to impanel an

Enrollment Management Task Force (EMTF) comprised of faculty and staff from

across the campus, representing all the units and all the division.

The

task force is developing a plan of alternatives, options and strategies to best

meet and deliver the education needs of the Kaua’i community for today and the

future.

For more than 70 years KCC has provided the basic higher education

needs for the island, beginning as a vocational school in 1928, than 15 years

later developing into a technical college.

By 1965 the curriculum expanded

to a community college.

Today, Cha said, using the resources of campuses

across the state the college is able to be responsive to the needs of Kaua’i

residents.

“We view our combined resources of Kaua’i Community College and

the University Center, Kaua’i — as the University of Hawaii on Kaua’i — for

Kaua’i.”

Students are taking courses that are held on campus, at other

locations on Kaua’i, and through distance learning technologies.

They take

courses at home and after work at the office. They may even keep up with their

classes when they are traveling.

Making the resources of the entire UH

system available to Kaua’i’s residents means the college is able to provide

residents with expanded options to meet their needs for higher education while

balancing the demands of their personal and professional lives.

“While we

cannot offer all majors offered at other UH campuses, we are increasing the

choices for combining higher education with life on Kaua’i,” Cha

said.

“Maybe you want to take only courses offered by Kaua’i Community

College. Or, perhaps a cable TV course, an Internet course, or an interactive

TV course that will allow you to fit education into your busy life. Or, like

many students on Kaua’i, you may want to register for both KCC courses and

courses offered via distance technologies,” Cha said.

Distance learning

technologies are expanding the options for students on Kaua’i to fit higher

education into their busy lives. While the students may be separated from their

instructors by space and/or time, students are assured that any course offered

through cable TV, the Internet, or the Hawai’i Interactive Television System

(HITS) is a quality, academically demanding course that is comparable to that

of an on-campus course.

In other words, distance learning allows students

to study when and where they choose while ensuring that they are receiving the

same quality of education they would receive in an on-campus course.

This

is the case for KCC students Lehua Ka’auwai and Tweety Juarez who one day

recently were deep in discussion with Professor Noeau Sam Warner, who teaches

Hawaiian language.

The only hitch is that Warner is in actuality over 100

miles away in a building on the UH Manoa campus and is being tuned in via live

interactive video, or the HITS system.

At first the class itself was

canceled, having no UH Manoa enrollment but was reinstated when Helen Sina,

Director of the University Center at KCC and others convinced Warner to teach

the class via distance learning.

Now he broadcasts his class to 27

students on Molokai, Maui, and Kaua’i.

“Different people like different

media,” says Sina, who is also assistant dean for academic support .

She

says that many teachers and students are turning from the traditional classroom

to alternative learning methods.

One English professor at Kapiolani

Community College on Oahu teaches his course only via e-mail, without

necessarily meeting the students face to face.

Research shows that more

shy students whose English is not the best, feel more included during an e-mail

chat session than in the classroom, Sina says.

She says that there are

technologies available to fit whatever is most comfortable for a student,

teacher or department. Next semester at KCC there will be four classes offered

via distance learning.

One class on EKG, for example, employs multiple

media.

Instructors Judy Chovanic-Toy and Joanne Noone will be using HITS

to reach students statewide while at the same time broadcasting on local

cable to reach the EMT and hospital shift workers on island.

Computer

science instructor Ed Coll is teaching a course next semester giving the

students the option of taking the course at home via Internet or on

campus.

You can earn a Certificate of Completion, a Certificate of

Achievement, or an Associate in Science Degree in a number of job-related areas

like office administration, culinary arts or electronics technology at KCC.

Today liberal arts is one of a dozen AA degrees available. Accounting,

hospitality service and early childhood education are among the

choices.

The KCC nursing program is accredited at the highest level by the

National League of Nursing. “Our nursing students have one of the most

extensive and rigorous clinical experiences of any UH nursing programs,” said

Cha.

Important to many of today’s KCC students is the option to live on

Kaua’i while continuing to peruse education beyond the traditional two-year

program.

KCC serves as the University Center for Kaua’i, providing

coordination, facilities, and resources for upper division baccalaureate

courses as well as graduate courses and programs delivered via the Internet and

interactive and cable TV.

Brandon Sprague contributed to this report.