College of Education P.O. Box 117049

School of Human Development and Organizational Studies 229A Norman Hall

Institute of Higher Education (IHE) Gainesville, FL 32611-7049

Community College Futures Assembly 352-273-4293

Bellwether College Consortium 352-846-2697 Fax

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 29, 2014

CONTACT: DALE F. CAMPBELL, Ph.D., 352-514-0937,

Alternate contact: Timothy J. Wilson, 352-273-4293,

2014 COMMUNITY COLLEGE AWARD WINNERS SELECTED

AT THE ANNUAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE FUTURES ASSEMBLY

The winner of the first Community College Futures Assembly Legacy Award was announced today at the Lake Buena Vista, FL: Cleveland State Community College and Chattanooga State Community College’s joint program, Do the Math: Solving the Nation’s Math Problems. They were competitively selected from 10 finalists. Each of the finalists was a previous winner of the annual Bellwether Award demonstrating an outstanding and innovative program or practice. In the 20 years of the Community College Futures Assembly there have been more than 5,000 applicants, 500 finalists, 56 Bellwether winning programs and 1 Legacy award-winning program.

(From Left to Right: J. Noah Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT); Dr. Carl Hite, President, Cleveland State Community College, Cleveland, TN; Mrs. Karen Wyrick, Math Department Chair, Cleveland State Community College, TN; Mr. John Squires, Math Department Head, Chattanooga State Community College, TN; Dr. Dale F. Campbell, Professor and Director, Institute of Higher Education, University of Florida.)

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Community College Futures Assembly (CCFA) issued a call for Legacy Award nominations in the fall of 2013, and 10 finalist colleges were chosen from the applicants. The Legacy award application criteria included only former bellwether finalist programs that are able to illustrate 5 years of program effectiveness. The Legacy award is sponsored by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). The call for nominations extended out to over 500 community college programs and 60 postsecondary institutions. The field of Legacy nominations was very competitive this year with 30 Legacy applications. Ten finalist community colleges presented at the Assembly on January 25th, 2014 in Orlando, Florida. Being competitively reviewed by a panel of judges, the 20th annual Community College Futures Assembly has announced the winner of the coveted Legacy award.

The featured keynote address was presented by Dr. Terry O’Banion, President Emeritus and Senior League Fellow of League for Innovation in the Community College, Chair of the Graduate Faculty at National American University, and author of 15 books and over 190 monographs, chapters, and articles on the community college. His current work includes a monograph on Access, Success, and Completion and a book on Academic Advising: The Key to Student Success. Jack Uldrich, a renowned global futurist, also provided a session showcasing his most recent book Foresight 20/20: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow. Together the lessons from the keynote speakers served as the basis for introspection, strategic decision making, selecting critical issues, and directing policy creation for distribution to key administration and community college oversight board of directors including the Department of Education, American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), the National State Directors of Community Colleges, the National Council for Continuing Education and Training (NCCET), the Council for Resource Development (CRD), the National Council of Instructional Administrators (NCIA), the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), the Academic Chairs Academy as well as legislators and key policy makers.

The Community College Futures Assembly has been held annually in Lake Buena Vista, Florida at the Hilton Hotel and serves as an independent policy summit, to identify the critical issues facing community college leaders. For 20 years, the Community College Futures Assembly has recognized and promoted cutting-edge, trendsetting programs that other colleges might find worthy of replicating.

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