February 17, 2004

Architect shares blueprints of W.S. Scott Auditorium remodel with Board

The minute the women's and men's basketball teams step off the W.S. Scott Auditorium/Dan Kahler Court floor for the last time during the 2003-2004 season, construction crews will begin work on remodeling the south portion of the building.

Cowley's Board of Trustees, at its regular monthly meeting Monday night, viewed architect's drawings of the outside and inside of the building, plus got a glimpse of some of the materials that will be used in the project.

David Herlocker of Gordon & Associates of Winfield showed Board members blueprint drawings of the plans to renovate the south portion of the building. That portion will include expanded restrooms for women (10 stalls) and men (eight stalls), a new concession stand and ticket booth, new offices, new trophy cases, and a new Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame room. The project is scheduled to begin in early March, as soon as the Tiger basketball teams complete home playoff games in the Region VI Tournament. The target date for completion is Oct. 1.

Groundbreaking for the work on W.S. Scott Auditorium/Dan Kahler Court and the new classroom building at Third Street and Washington Avenue will take place at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at each site. Construction on the classroom building is expected to begin in early May.

In other matters, the Board:

Saw Dr. Pat McAtee, president, present Nathan Markley with a gift for being named February Student of the Month. Markley is a freshman psychology major from Wellington.

Heard a report from Board members LaDonna Lanning, Mark Paton and Donna Avery on their recent trip to Washington, D.C., and the Community College National Legislative Seminar. All three said the conference was good and well attended by community college trustees nationwide. Paton, attending his first legislative seminar in Washington, added that one session he attended covered the importance of technical training.

"That's exactly what Jeff Turner (Boeing Wichita vice president) talked about" during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Cowley's Aviation Tech Center in Wichita Feb. 4. "That's exactly what we're doing with KTTI (Kansas Technical Training Institute) in Wichita," Paton said."That showed me that we seem to be out in front of other community colleges in providing this training."

The Aviation Tech Center is designed to train men and women in airframe and powerplant mechanics and prepare them to take the exam to be Federal Aviation Administration certified. Classes began Jan. 26 at the center.

Viewed a spring semester enrollment report which indicates that as of Feb. 11, there were 3,096 full-time equivalent students enrolled, compared to 2,936 on the same date a year ago.

Approved the following personnel transactions: A letter of retirement from Sue Morris, Registrar's Office secretary, effective June 1; the employment of Rita Thurber as administrative secretary for the IMPACT office effective March 1; the employment of Donni L. McClaflin as financial services clerk effective Feb. 17; the employment of J. Carl Garison as preventive maintenance specialist effective March 1; and the employment of Emily Bontrager as academic advisor at the Southside Education Center effective Feb. 17.

Held an executive session for 45 minutes to discuss property acquisition, non-elected personnel and professional negotiations.