Contact: Bill Wagnon
Nearly two dozen community college administrators and teachers from Mississippi and Alabama gather next week for an annual specialized professional development program organized by Mississippi State University.
The 1997 Mississippi Community College Fellowship Program begins Sunday [June 20] at the Hinds Community College's Eagle Ridge Conference Center in Raymond. From Monday through Friday [June 21-25], the participants will be at the Lake Tiak O'Khata Conference Center near Louisville.
Now in its fourth year, the program is organized and sponsored by the university's educational leadership department. Support is provided by the Phil Hardin Foundation of Meridian, the state Board of Community and Junior Colleges and the participating community colleges.
This year's keynote speakers include Donald Cotten, executive director of the Mississippi Public Education Forum; Howell Garner, president of Copiah-Lincoln Community College; Capt. Robert C. Klosterman, first commanding officer of the USS John C. Stennis; Clyde V. Muse, president of Hinds Community College; Olon Ray, executive director of the state Board for Community and Junior Colleges; former Gov. William F. Winter; and Mississippi State President Donald W. Zacharias.
Also on hand during the intensive, week-long program will be faculty, administrators and other representatives of Mississippi State, the community colleges and their state governing board, state and local government, and private industry and organizations.
Topics to be addressed include problem-based learning, team building, gender differences in the workplace, exemplary leadership skills, diversity in the workplace, economic development and higher education, and conflict management, among others.
"Our goal today, as it was when we began this ambitious project four years ago, is to help nurture and prepare the next generation of community college leaders," said educational leadership department head Ned Lovell.
"There is an acute need to reflect Mississippi's diverse population in top higher education posts, and through the Mississippi Community College Fellowship Program we encourage and train minorities and women for positions of leadership."
MCC Fellows are nominated by their institution's president or the state Board of Community and Junior Colleges.