From left to right are J. Noah Brown, president and CEO of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT); Dr. Carl Hite, president, Cleveland State Community College, Mrs. Karen Wyrick, Math Department chairwoman, Cleveland State Community College; Mr. John Squires, Math Department head, Chattanooga State Community College; Dr. Dale F. Campbell, professor and director, Institute of Higher Education, University of Florida.
The winner of the first Community College Futures Assembly Legacy Award was announced Thursday at the Lake Buena Vista, Fl.: Cleveland State Community College and Chattanooga State Community College’s joint program, Do the Math: Solving the Nation’s Math Problems. They were competitively selected from 10 finalists. Each of the finalists was a previous winner of the annual Bellwether Award demonstrating an outstanding and innovative program or practice. In the 20 years of the Community College Futures Assembly there have been more than 5,000 applicants, 500 finalists, 56 Bellwether winning programs and one Legacy award-winning program.
In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Community College Futures Assembly (CCFA) issued a call for Legacy Award nominations in the fall of 2013, and 10 finalist colleges were chosen from the applicants.
The Legacy award application criteria included only former Bellwether finalist programs that are able to illustrate five years of program effectiveness. The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) sponsors the Legacy award. The call for nominations extended out to over 500 community college programs and 60 postsecondary institutions. The field of Legacy nominations was very competitive this year with 30 Legacy applications. Ten finalist community colleges presented at the Assembly on Jan. 25, in Orlando. Being competitively reviewed by a panel of judges, the 20th annual Community College Futures Assembly has announced the winner of the coveted Legacy award.
The featured keynote address was presented by Dr. Terry O’Banion, President Emeritus and Senior League Fellow of the League for Innovation in the Community College, Chair of the Graduate Faculty at National American University, and author of 15 books and more than 190 monographs, chapters, and articles on the community college. His current work includes a monograph on Access, Success, and Completion and a book on Academic Advising: The Key to Student Success. Jack Uldrich, a renowned global futurist, also provided a session showcasing his most recent book Foresight 20/20: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow. Together the lessons from the keynote speakers served as the basis for introspection, strategic decision making, selecting critical issues, and directing policy creation for distribution to key administration and community college oversight board of directors including the Department of Education, American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), the National State Directors of Community Colleges, the National Council for Continuing Education and Training (NCCET), the Council for Resource Development (CRD), the National Council of Instructional Administrators (NCIA), the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), the Academic Chairs Academy as well as legislators and key policy makers.
The Community College Futures Assembly has been held annually in Lake Buena Vista, Florida at the Hilton Hotel and serves as an independent policy summit, to identify the critical issues facing community college leaders. For 20 years, the Community College Futures Assembly has recognized and promoted cutting-edge, trendsetting programs that other colleges might find worthy of replicating.