An interesting report from Inside Higher Education outlines data from the National Student Clearinghouse.  The decline in college enrollments appears to be accelerating, with 2.3 percent fewer students enrolled on campuses this spring than there were in spring 2012, according to data published Thursday by the National Student Clearinghouse.

The 2.3 percent dip is steeper than the 1.8 percent decline that the clearinghouse reported in December when it compared fall 2012 numbers to those from fall 2011.
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/17/data-show-increasing-pace-college-enrollment-declines#ixzz2TYCyZ8jk
Inside Higher Ed

A memorial service will be held Saturday for Joseph F. Huyck, a former Hudson Valley Community College maintenance employee who died May 6.

His obituary appears in The Record.

Hey friends and coworkers, please support your HVCC colleagues by donating to Team Moscatiello for the June 2 Tour De Cure in Saratoga Springs.

It is only 17 days away and we are almost at our team goal of raising $5,000! HVCC team members include Eric Kiel, Scott Freedman, John Heiser and Roger Pinke. The HVCC team riders will be riding the 25 and 50 mile courses.

Team Moscatiello currently is in the top ten for the Saratoga Corporate fundraisers thanks in part to the HVCC team members. Please help us reach our goal for a great cause!

To donate go to http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/Events/General?pg=team&fr_id=8607&team_id=557595#donatenow and click on the team member of your choice. That link will bring you to that team member’s personal page. Then click on the donate to (member’s name) bar on that team member’s personal page. Fill out the form, select your donation amount or put your donation amount in the “other” box (minimum $5 donation required) and click “next” at the bottom of the page to complete your donation.

Thanks in advance for your support!

In this last Update of the 2012-13 academic year, the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs is delighted to share good news and information from a wide variety of departments, including a new training grant for Biotechnology, the 17^th Annual Viking Challenge, the new veterans’ peer mentor program, distribution of Lincoln exhibit resources to area high schools, the 20^th Annual Manufacturing Technical Systems Capstone Ceremony, a presentation at the International Online Learning Conference, a Girls in STEM event at TEC-SMART and much more!

Congratulations and thank you to everyone for your outstanding efforts and achievements in all these endeavors.

Please click here to access the full Update.

Student Access

Spring 2013 student access to Blackboard courses will end early Saturday morning May 18, 2013. It is difficult to give an exact time because disabling enrollment is a “process,” so students will be disabled at different times during the process.

The Blackboard system will begin disabling student enrollment access via Snapshot early Saturday morning and should be complete — barring any unforeseen technical complications — by 8 a.m. Saturday morning, at which point no student will have access to spring 2013 Blackboard courses.

Instructors, if you want to have all students in your course disabled at exactly the same time, you can make your course “unavailable” at the date and time that you determine (for example, if you want them to lose access Friday at midnight or even Thursday). If you choose to make your course “unavailable” earlier than Saturday, it would be helpful to post that information or e-mail your students, so they are not confused by different access policies between multiple courses.

Incompletes

• All Spring 2013 students given a grade of I (Incomplete) will be able to access the spring 2013 courses again in Blackboard  after grades are posted by the Registrar
• Students who have an I (Incomplete) will remain enrolled in their Spring 2013 Blackboard course until either the grade converts or 30 days into the Fall 2013 semester.
• If faculty have assigned any student a grade of I (Incomplete), they must make their spring 2013 course set to be “available” in the Course Settings area in the Control Panel or the student will not be able to access it.

Please contact DLhelp@hvcc.edu if you have any questions.

For many years, online access to the Chronicle of Higher Education (http://chronicle.com) and its premium content was provided by Information Technology Services (ITS). This subscription was cancelled recently as a cost-savings measure.

Dwight Marvin Library maintains a print subscription to CHE. The most recent issues are available for browsing in the Current Periodicals Collection display on the first floor. In addition, the research database Education Research Complete provides full-text access for current and past issues.

In response to recent inquiries from faculty and staff, the library has prepared a subject guide which links to the most current content available full text online, as well as links to back issues. This guide is now available at http://hvcc.libguides.com/che.

The library also is investigating options to reinstate the campus subscription directly from the CHE website through consortial purchasing with other SUNY libraries. We will also consider cancelling other resources in favor of the CHE online subscription if there is sufficient campus interest. Please contact me or your department liaison librarian to express interest in this option.

The college continues to position itself as a major training provider for the upstate New York biotechnology industry.

Hudson Valley was recently awarded a $272,960 grant from the State University of New York’s High Needs Program to sustain and expand its biotechnology training programs. The funds will be used to create career-specific course modules tied to the needs of employers in the Capital Region biotech sector. Additionally, funds will also be used to purchase equipment that will be used in the modules.

The college is at the tail-end of a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Labor that allowed it to greatly expand outreach and accessibility to its Biotechnology degree and certificate programs. The new grant will continue that work begun in 2010 and help link more career seekers to places like Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Taconic, AMRI and the New York State Police Crime Investigations Laboratory, each of which plans to expand their workforce in the next year.

A survey of greater Capital Region companies found that there is a shortage of highly-skilled technicians for the biotechnology/biomanufacturing industry, and that a stronger pipeline of educated techs is needed. In addition to driving people into the college’s degree and certificate programs, the new grant will help the college develop more intensive, module-based courses based on specific needs. A current entry-level laboratory skills course that will begin this month attracted more than 100 potential students.

“We really have a diverse group of biotechnology employers in this region. Companies like Taconic and Regeneron and academic institutions like UAlbany and RPI have differing needs when it comes to their lab technicians,” said Biology, Chemistry and Physics Department Chairperson Dr. Peter Schaefer. “We can set up a multi-faceted approach to train students for specific needs. Some courses may provide entry-level laboratory skills and other courses may focus on specific topics like Good Manufacturing Processes and regulatory compliance.”

In order to provide broader access to the training, the college has created two additional training hubs – one at Albany High School and another at Averill Park High School. Labs in both schools have been renovated to meet the standards of a modern biotechnology lab.

The Bookstore will be sponsoring a textbook buyback May 8 – May 17.

Faculty members please announce to your students that if the bookstore is buying back the textbook they are selling, they will receive 50% of the current new price of that book, whether they bought it new or used.

Buy back dates and times:

May 8 & 9 — 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
May 10 — 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
May 13 to 16 — 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
May 17 — 9 a.m. to noon

It will be held just outside the Viking’s Cove Bookstore in the Siek Campus Center.

The Times Union reported the Capital District Community Garden’s 26th annual Spring Brunch held Sunday in the Siek Campus Center.