At the end of 2024, Kentucky’s Interim Joint Committee on Education got its first look at a large swathe of drawn recommendations, designed to improve and enhance the state’s Community and Technical College System.
Known as Senate Joint Resolution 179, it passed during the 2024 session — and has since gained traction to be heard once again in 2025, evaluating key topics and findings to make sure the state’s critical educational network is meeting postsecondary, economic and workforce needs.
During Monday’s quarterly Board of Directors meeting for Hopkinsville Community College, President/CEO Dr. Alissa Young elaborated on five recommendations that, if approved, will impact the school’s top governing body.
The second, she said, is that in addition to the five already-present advisory duties now in statute, include a sixth responsibility.
This, she added, meant the potential for HCC’s Board to potentially regularly meet with Madisonville Community College, West Kentucky Community Technical College, Henderson Community College, or other similar educational platforms, in order to help generate a similar regional footprint.
The third: eliminate a nominating committee process, giving the Governor authority to appoint members to boards based on KCTCS nominations.
Fourth: the Board will consist of 10 members — seven appointed by the governor, as well as one faculty member, one staff member and one student, each selected by their respective bodies.
And fifth, Young noted that all appointments then needed to be modified to match term limits of the KCTCS Board of Regents, where all members would stagger to serve a minimum of four years and a maximum of eight years, with a new student selected each academic calendar year.
Faculty and staff would serve a minimum of three years, and a maximum of six.
In other HCC news:
— The spring calendar is plenty busy. February 17 is President’s Day, Spring Break is scheduled for March 10-14, Spring Fest has been inked for April 26 and Spring Commencement is planned for May 9.
— March 20, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate Silas House will be in Hopkinsville for extended celebrations of HCC’s 60th Anniversary.
Continuing from the 2016 honor bestowed on the late Governor Edward “Ned” Breathitt, the Breathitt Lecture features House for a noon, free-to-the-public educational discussion of his literary works in the Auditorium Building.
Later in the day, a ticketed fundraiser sponsored by Planters Bank called “An Evening with Silas House” will be hosted by the Hopkinsville Community College Foundation from 6-8 PM in the Emerging Technologies Building. A social hour will be follwed by a discussion moderated through Gwenda Motley. Single tickets are $100, and can be ordered through HCC’s Advancement Office at (270) 707-3733, or by email at email patricia.hinton@kctcs.edu.
Among his innumerable works and awards, House is a former commentator for NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and his writing has appeared recently in Time, The Atlantic, Ecotone, The Advocate, Garden and Gun, and Oxford American. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the recipient of three honorary doctorates, and is the winner of the Nautilus Award, an EB White Award, the Appalachian Book of the Year, the Storylines Prize from the New York Public Library/NAV Foundation, the Lee Smith Award, and more.
