Last week, I had the pleasure of traveling to Richmond to meet with my state representatives, joined by several students and faculty from Germanna Community College. I heard a variety of stories from students, ranging from a retired firefighter injured in the line of duty at the Pentagon on 9/11 to a mother attending college [...]

My name is Scottie Davis. I am a student at Wytheville Community College (WCC), majoring in Construction Trades with a specialization in HVAC and solar technology. I worked as a maintenance technician for 12 years at a local industry. When that industry closed, I could have gone to college but didn’t — because I didn’t think [...]

In an article published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this past Sunday, Lieutenant Governor Bolling focused his attention on Virginia’s high unemployment in the manufacturing industry and the policies he plans to implement to combat the problem. “Virginia has a long tradition of supporting a thriving manufacturing industry. However, during the past decade, the manufacturing sector [...]

Nat Marshall, chairman of the State Board for Community Colleges, testified Tuesday at the Senate Finance Education Subcommittee in support of Governor McDonnell’s Top Jobs legislation. Here are his remarks:  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee. I am delighted to spend a few minutes to talk about the Top Jobs legislation; the [...]

The week of January 24 began with a presentation by Chancellor Glenn DuBois before the Education Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee on the VCCS’ role in noncredit occupational funding.  The Governor’s introduced budget includes $3 million to expand the public-private partnership with Virginia companies and individuals. This partnership has been in existence since the [...]

Yesterday, Governor McDonnell traveled to Washington D.C. to address the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workforce. In his testimony to the committee, McDonnell highlighted Virginia’s national reputation as one of the best states in which to do business and discussed several major accomplishments including “the announcement that Northrop Grumman will move [...]

On Thursday January 20th, 2011 I had the chance to go to Richmond and visit the General Assembly. This was a pretty unique experience because it is not every day that you get to see and talk to our senators. We had the opportunity to meet with Senator Quayle, Senator Lucas, and Senator Barlow. During [...]

Yesterday, SB 819 (Community College Scholarship Match) was reported unanimously out of the Senate Education and Health Committee and passed the Senate today on first reading. Senator Stosch’s SB 1363 to enhance Two-Year Transfer Grants was also heard in Senate Education and Health and reported unanimously yesterday. Senators on the committee were very complimentary of [...]

Governor Bob McDonnell’s Commission on Higher Education, in its report issued in December 2010, contained a blueprint for helping the governor attain his goal of 100,000 new degrees. The report recommended enhanced incentives and aggressive promotion of options for students to first obtain a bachelor’s degree by enrolling in one of Virginia’s Community Colleges and [...]

The General Assembly begins its “short” 46-day session today. As of this morning—before the session officially started at noon—over 900 pieces of legislation had been introduced. Legislation of interest to Virginia’s Community Colleges is identified, monitored, and tracked carefully and is located on the VaHigherEd site on the legislative tracking page. This list is refreshed daily, and is [...]