Higher education programs receive funding, grants - Community ...

Grants
EWCHEC
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of its kind in Texas, said Laura Hobgood-
Oster, chair of the Environmental Studies
Program. Though other schools in Texas
have environmental programs, she said
the program is unique in its setup as an
interdisciplinary study. Students in the
program take classes relating to a multitude
of disciplines, including religion,
history, sociology, economics, anthropology
and sciences.
“Right now, we are the only program in
Texas that is offering an environmental
studies academic program that is integrated
in terms of all these different approaches,”
Hobgood-Oster said.
She said the program has a visiting professor,
but the school has been looking for a
way to fund a full-time position.
“We will be searching for somebody next
year, and we are already playing around
with the job description,” she said. “It will
be someone with either a [doctorate] in
environmental studies or environmental
geography and does [Geographic Information
Systems]. That is going to be part of the
focus of the academic arm of this.”
GIS is a mapping system that takes different
kinds of data and layers it into digital
maps. Grant money from the Kendeda
Fund, which totaled $436,000, will be used
to buy the equipment for the GIS lab and
support sustainability projects on campus.
Part of the grant money will also be used
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Taylor ISD, Temple College at
Taylor Foundation and Texas State
Technical College.
House Bill 2805, introduced
this year by state Rep. Diana Maldonado,
D-Round Rock, would
require those partners to regularly
Educational partners
The East Williamson County Higher Education Center
is a collaboration of Temple College at Taylor, Texas State
Technical College, Texas Tech University, and Hutto and Taylor
independent school districts.
Students are enrolled at one of the partner schools and
may attend classes at the EWCHEC campus. EWCHEC is the
umbrella institution that houses the other schools and
helps them work together, said Chuck McCarter, EWCHEC
executive director.
Students can attend Temple College classes at the Main
Street building at 516 N. Main St., and high school students
can also take advantage of free automotive mechanic classes
at Taylor or Hutto high schools. Students in ninth through
12th grade can also participate in the Legacy Early College
High School program that allows student to earn up to 60
college credit hours during all four years of high school.
Courtesy Sledge Engineering
East Williamson County Higher Education Center phase one rendering
to fund a full-time staff coordinator who
has strong skills in GIS, said Hobgood-
Oster. The new faculty member should
be hired in the fall and help in the staff
coordinator search. Both positions would
likely start in August 2010, she said.
Other Mellon grant money will be used
to create a Center for Social and Environmental
Justice and create a Mellon Environmental
Fellows Program.
Students will be able to apply for $5,000
through the fellows program to participate
in study-abroad programs with a
focus on environmental studies during
their junior year.
Upon their return the students apply
the knowledge they gained while abroad,
which could translate into local environmental
projects that may benefit Georgetown
and the surrounding area, Hobgood-Oster
said. The program could also
provide student leadership at the center.
“[The fellows program] is tying together
this idea of cultural and environmental
studies — that you can’t really understand
what is going on with environmental issues
unless you understand the global impact
of it,” she said. “The idea is that the students
will bring these ideas from abroad
back here, and also take ideas of things
they learn here when they study abroad
and those things will all play together.”
Postdoctoral fellow
A $129,000 grant from the Associated
Colleges of the South will fund a postdoctoral
fellow for two years.
Jinelle Sperry accepted the position
appropriate those funds annually.
“EWCHEC is about providing
quality education. It’s about having
access to education. It’s about
having affordable education as students
transition to college,” Maldonado
said. “The affordability of
going to a major college or university
is so daunting. Through this
legislation, we will provide a road
to success for students and families
At the RETI
State Rep. Diana Maldonado, D-Round Rock, the Taylor
Economic Development Corporation and the East Williamson
County Higher Education Center have established a
Renewable Energy Training Institute. The $805,000 for the
institute was included in the budget appropriations bill,
Senate Bill 1, approved by legislators in May. At press time,
the bill was awaiting the governor’s signature.
The money could be used for training in solar and wind
energy manufacturing and installation programs and other
renewable-energy or green-collar job training programs,
TEDC president Jason Ford said.
U.S. Rep. John Carter initiated the plan.
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Map not to scale
that are taking that first step of going
into higher education or even
being successful in high school.”
Along with securing the annual
appropriations, the bill also
allows some partners to act as
secondary securers.
“We allowed the other entities
to guarantee each other’s payments,”
Nelson said. “Let’s say for
some reason the banks wanted
973
2nd St.
Carlos Parker Blvd.
Student environmental activism
impactnews.com June 2009 | 21
Students at Southwestern can participate in the Students for
Environmental Activism and Knowledge group, whose purpose is to
encourage more environmentally sound practices and bring awareness
to Southwestern, according to the school’s website.
“One of the things that is so fun and also very challenging about
environmental studies — and it is a lot like feminist studies in this way
— is that the academic component almost necessarily means a kind
of activist thing on campus,” said Laura Hobgood-Oster, chair of the
Environmental Studies Program.
SEAK is one of Southwestern’s largest student groups, she said. Last
year some meetings drew up to 50 people.
SEAK projects:
Earth Day – Each semester, students promote activism on campus and provide information.
Recycling initiatives – Recycling bins for paper, aluminum, plastic and glass are available in all
academic, administrative and residential buildings.
Green residence hall – Students who reside in the Dorothy Manning Lord Residential Center practice
sustainable living. Hobgood-Oster said the group hopes to make all residence halls “green.”
Earth Tub – Using approximately $10,000 from the Kendeda Grant, Southwestern will purchase an
Earth Tub, a large bin to compost all of the school’s food waste.
To-go boxes – Compostable to-go boxes instead of Styrofoam will be available in the dining hall. The
new boxes will cost students 25 cents a piece in the first year. The cost will be absorbed into meal plan
costs in 2010.
with Southwestern and will begin teaching
in the fall. Sperry, who completed her
doctorate in conservation biology at the
University of Illinois, will teach a course
in biodiversity in the fall and may teach
community ecology or conservation biology
in the spring, Hobgood-Oster said.
Sperry has spent time in Killeen researching
the Texas rat snake and songbird
nests.
“Her research really looks at how
predator and prey relationships happen,”
S. Main St.
95
more security. [The bill] would
allow the city to maybe make
up the payment for the EDC or
vice versa if for any reason any
of those financial partners were
not able to make their payment
in any particular year.”
After passing the senate, the bill
will be brought to the governor’s
office to be signed into law. If the
bill is left unsigned by the governor,
it will become law by the end
of June, said Thomas Martinez,
president of the Temple College
at Taylor Foundation board.
Once the bill becomes law, it
could be August before the bonds
are issued. Following that timeline,
construction could begin
and be completed by November
2010 for a spring 2010 opening,
he said.
EWCHEC’s history
The idea for EWCHEC began
with Temple College at Taylor,
which is the center’s primary partner,
Nelson said.
“EWCHEC is really an outgrowth
of Temple College at Taylor,”
he said. “TCAT started in
1996. At that time we acquired
an old vacant building that was
30,000 sq. ft. The Temple College
at Taylor Foundation and Temple
Hobgood-Oster said. “She looks at snakes
and birds more than anything else, and
which snakes are eating which endangered
birds and where they are doing that.
It is really interesting research.”
Her research has also included the effects
of military equipment on animal habitats
and how that affects the relationships between
predators and their prey, she said.
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College realized that what we
were offering wasn’t satisfying all
of the needs that were in the area.
So Temple College invited Texas
State Technical College to come
in and begin offering technical
courses in this area.”
The legislature approved HB
2074 in spring 2007, creating EW-
CHEC; however, the bill created no
funding mechanism for the center.
In March, the TCAT building
at 516 N. Main St. was renamed
EWCHEC.
Plans for EWCHEC’s campus
include a 24,900 sq. ft. building
at the intersection of FM 973 and
Carlos Parker Boulevard on the
south side of Taylor. The building
could house a library, bookstore,
administrative offices and
classrooms.
The second phase could include
a building for Texas State Technical
College, Martinez said. A timeline
and funding for the second phase
have not been determined.
The campus would be located
next to land purchased by the Taylor
school district for its new high
school facility.
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