CPD superintendent talks technology, officer training improvements PAGE 25
PAGE 16 April 16, 2018
Volume 53, Issue 27
ColumbiaChronicle.com
Pop-ups proliferate as people seek unique experiences
Reflections & Replacements College talks provost departure PR E S I D E NT
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College students struggle for daily meals » ERIC BRADACH MANAGING EDITOR IN THE NATION’S higher education institutions, some students use their free time harnessing their creativity to craft art projects, music or films. Others try various ways to earn money for food by selling their blood, said Anthony Hernandez, a third-
year doctoral educational policy studies student and research assistant at the Wisconsin HOPE Lab. With skyrocketing tuition, fees, textbook prices and more than $1.5 trillion in college student loan debt, young minds hungry for an education also find their stomachs craving an adequate meal, according to a 20-state survey of 40,000 college students by the
» FILE PHOTO
Textbooks or lunch?
Wisconsin HOPE Lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison released this month. Thirty-six percent of college students said they are food and/or housing “insecure” and 9 percent reported themselves homeless during the previous year. The alarming numbers are even higher among community college students, with 42 percent struggling to find a meal and 46 percent unsure whether they will have shelter at night, according to the survey. All the researchers were “alarmed” by the survey’s results, said Hernandez, who co-authored the report. The stronger the obstacles to basic filling life needs, the
greater the challenge for college students to complete their education The survey supports the idea that college is too expensive, he added. “There’s a stress that students experience, and it can be harmful not only to your mental health, but it could be harmful to your physical body,” Hernandez said. “When you’re not eating meals regularly and have poor nutrition, your body and mind pay a price. If you’re in that state, you cannot be your best possible student.” Hernandez said students told him stories of how their financial struggles caused distractions in the classroom.
SEE FOOD, PAGE 29
FO L L OW I N G
CEO Kwang-Wu Kim’s April 6 announcement that Senior Vice President and Provost Stan Wearden will be stepping down in June 2019, the college community is reflecting on his accomplishments and what work remains for a new provost. Wearden was appointed provost by Kim on Feb. 26, 2014, and began in June 2014 after the position had been filled on an interim basis for three years, as reported Feb. 28, 2014, by The Chronicle. Kim told The Chronicle that the provost’s decision was not surprising because they agreed to discuss Wearden’s future at the college upon nearing the end of his five-year term. “What we agreed is if he was thinking about stepping down, I need to know so I can think now about the transition. We’re great colleagues and I have a lot of
respect for Stan,” Kim said. “I’m beginning to have the conversation about what he’s thinking about next. He’s thinking about a lot of different directions, but he’s really helped us accomplish a lot, and as I keep reminding him, he’s not done yet.” Wearden’s duties included implementation of the college’s five-year Strategic Plan, approved by the Board of Trustees in May 2015. Along with continuing to execute the plan’s goals, Kim said Wearden will also be preparing the college for its next accreditation site visit, which will be next year, according to Kim’s April 6 email. “By the end of his five years [Stan] will have overseen most of the [Strategic Plan’s] implementation,” Kim said. “The college has an accreditation site visit and those come every 10 years so he will have helped the college through at a very key moment in our ongoing development. Those two things are a very substantial legacy for a provost.”
SEE PROVOST, PAGE 9
» ARIANA PORTALATIN MANAGING EDITOR