May 6
Champions:
Pitch Perfect Page 6
2015
Baseball wins Jayhawk Conference. Tennis goes to Nationals.
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Crusader
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Year 46, No. 10
www.crusadernews.com
Presorted Standard US Postage PAID Liberal, KS Permit NO.114
Liberal, Kansas
Dorm-A-Palooza DEAN CYNTHIA RAPP
PRESIDENT DR. DUANE DUNN
DEAN DR. TODD CARTER
DEAN DR. JANESE THATCHER
DEAN DENNIS SANDER
CHANGE Dunn resigns as college president Maria Lara Editor The administration at SCCC will have different faces next year, as spring of 2015 saw the resignation of the president and two changes in dean positions. Changes in personel will also include the resignations or retirements of 18 employees. Dr. Duane Dunn announced his resignation effective June 15. The effect of his resignation is compounded by the retirement of the dean of academic affairs, Cynthia Rapp, and the resignation of Dr. Janese Thatcher, dean of career and technical education. Dr. Todd Carter, director of research and assessment, has been hired to fill Rapp’s position. They have worked together for many years, according to Dunn, and “that’s huge... In my mind, it’s a perfect transition.” While the Board of Trustees will not be appointing an interim president, a succession plan will be in effect which will recognize Dennis Sander, dean of finance and operations, as the acting president until a new president is hired. The intent of the board is to have a new president in place by August, Dunn said. In regard to Thatcher’s position, Dunn stated that they will not be filling that spot, for now, two reasons: 1) it will only be fair for the incoming president to establish their own organizational structure, “so we’re holding that off.” 2) finances. “We’ve lost state aid, so we have to wait to see what the budget comes up to,” Dunn
said. A former K-State graduate, Dunn has accepted the position of associate dean and director of programs for The Global Campus at Kansas State. The Global Campus deals with anything online, outreach classes and classes offered for industry. “My role is to work with community colleges, tech schools and other industries, identifying the needs that are outside of Manhattan and then try to develop and improve those programs,” Dunn said. “It was totally unanticipated, frankly. It wasn’t something that if you would’ve sat down with me last fall and said, ‘What do you think the end of the year would be like,’ I wouldn’t have pictured this,” Dunn said. According to Dunn, this will be his last career move. He saw it as a good opportunity to do something that isn’t what he already does and would still be able to keep the relationships and interactions with community colleges. “That was important to me,” he said. Family was also an influential factor to Dunn deciding to take the position. His wife, Dr. Cindi Dunn, works for K-State, telecommuting from here for the last 11 years. Her job has grown to the point where she spends about three weeks of a month out in Manhattan. This change will make things easier for both of them. “I am really confident about exiting,” Dunn said. But there will be some challenges that he sees for the future of SCCC/ATS. “The challenges of funding
and expectations will require a lot of diligence on behalf of the staff and faculty– making adjustments, whether it’s teaching styles, accountability measures or the curriculum,” he said. Things change so fast that Dunn believes the pace of that change makes it difficult to keep up to date. Higher education is changing a lot and receiving pressure from external groups; it’s a concerning factor for Dunn. But the involvement from the community is incredible, in his opinion, and thinks that it will step up to the next level. From his perspective, Dunn advises the new president coming in to get to know the students. The new president will have to look at improving the organization, and in order to do that, he or she will have to be among the students. Another challenge for the new president will be balancing and creating relationships on and off campus. “My advice would be, ‘Figure out your time management’, because you have a whole lot that is going to be expected of you, whether it’s reports, putting together meeting agendas, responding to state and federal reports, managing grants, to getting to know every employee and student by first name, if you can.’” “We have an incredible campus and community atmosphere.” “We have issues here, but there’s still an atmosphere that supports, accomplishes, where the faculty and students, knowing each other, say, ‘I’m proud of this student, look what he
did.’ Those kind of things that make up a unique environment.” The unique environment traces back to when Dunn first came to Seward. He grew up 60 miles from here, so he considered this area to be home. “I’ve always had a lot of respect for Seward, and familiarity played a big role as well.” “This college is known for doing things right, so I saw it as a good first-community-college presidency for me, the next career step-up.” The first semester for Dunn was a tough start at a campus dealing with the death of the former president. In those moments, Dunn didn’t want to implement any changes but rather a healing process. In the midst of raw emotions, Dunn’s theory was to “implement change through improvement rather than abruptly.” Because in that manner, one can look back in 11 years and see that the college is a different college. “I didn’t have to come in and say, ‘We’re going to be a different college, it was a gradual, improving process.’” One of Dunn’s memories is when he first walked into his office and the thing that popped out to him was that the desk was clean. “It was completely cleaned off and I thought, ‘Wow, this is a great job. There’s nothing on the desk.’” The previous interim, Dr. James Tangeman, had cleaned everything up for Dr. Dunn. So now his personal goal is to leave a clean desk for the incoming president. n For the full story, see CrusaderNews.com
Spring 2015 retirements and resignations Retirements: • Cynthia Rapp - Administration • Nancy Bansemer - Allied Health • Veda King - Allied Health • Mark Merrihew - IT • George McNitt - Industrial Tech. • Richard Miller - Maintenance • Anita Reed - Humanities • Susan Copas - Humanities
Graduation mural of tiles in progress
Crusader photo/Diana Chavira
Tiles painted by graduates are being installed on the back side of the ampitheatre after enough tiles were collected to start the project.
Resignations: • Dr. Duane Dunn - Administration • Dr. Janese Thatcher - Administration • Teddi Winslow - Agriculture • Chris Guyer - STEM • Shaspen Young - Student Services • Veronica Thor - Student Services • Lauren Mahrous - Student Support Services • Jerry Thor - Athletics • Ryan Grubbs - Industrial Tech. • Greg Unger - Industrial Tech.
• Lucinda Henness - Allied Health • Carmen Summer - Allied Health • Macy Millikan - Allied Health • Sandy Wolfman - Allied Health • Clemente Torres - Industrial Tech. • Ara Barnes - STEM • Amelia Jones - Outreach • Michael Hamilton - Maintenance • Patricia Stegman - Maintenance • Alaina Sill - Business & Industry & Title V • Steven Strickland - IT
Crusader photo/Diana Chavira
Secean Johnson challenges one of his teammates during Dorm-apoolza activities on May 4 in the gym.
Crusader photo/Diana Chavira
Saint athletes from baseball, softball and basketball stand in line for air brush tattoos while enjoying the snacks provided by the cafeteria. The event had to be moved indoors because of rainy weather.
Year ends with celebration Diana Chavira Sports editor Dormapoolza was an afternoon filled with music, food, games and awards for the student body. Air brush tattoos, sno cones and inflatable games were popular parts of the evening during Dormapalooza, but the real highlight of the night came at the end when students were given awards that were voted
on by the students. Awards like Ms. & Mr. Clean (cleanest room), Sleeping Beauty (most likely not in class) and Campus Clown (most likely to make you laugh) were presented to those voted on in the dorms. But the award that received the most reaction, that went to Grace Petersen and Hayden Howard, was the Grammy Awards for those causing the most drama.
Phonathon adds $39,830 in funds Tania Valenzuela Crusader staff
The SCCC/ATS annual phonathon, with the help of volunteers, raised more than $39,830.27 for student scholarships. “This was my first Phonathon at SCCC, and I am so impressed by the volunteer spirit of the students and their advisers,” said Charity Horinek, associate director of institutional advancement. Student organizations such as ENACTUS, the baseball team, HALO, Phi Theta Kappa, nursing, volleyball, SGA, and others contributed time to raise all the money they could, not only for scholarships, but also for prizes. The Saints baseball team was the winner of the $500 gift card for being the group that raised Crusader photo/Diana Chavira $11,754, the most money in Three years ago, a plan to install a mural with tiles hand-crafted by student graduates from SCCC/ATS was pledges, with the nursing stuthought of and on May 4, that plan took its first steps with the laying of the first tiles. dents not far behind, raising
$10,386. “The competition aspect of the phonathon was cool. I was kind of bummed that I didn't raise much money, but I did win a candy box so that made it better," ENACTUS member, Ana Rodriguez said. Prize winners were announced at Dormapoolza on Monday. The students were a major part of the success of the phonathon, but success is also credited to Tammy Doll, Irene Blackwelder, Faye Zimmerman, Celeste Donovan, Wade Lyon, and Kate Mulligan, who all helped from organizing alumni files, logging pledges, and buying prizes, to decorating the room and overseeing call nights. “Next year I hope to get even more staff and students involved in volunteering a few hours of their time for this great cause,”Horinek said.