GOV. KAINE RECOGNIZES IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN BUDGET INTRODUCTION SPEECH

IF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES GOVERNOR’S PROPOSED VCCS REDUCTION, NO LAYOFFS ARE ANTICIPATED AT GERMANNA.

I write to reduce confusion about the governor’s proposed budget adjustments. This week
Gov. Tim Kaine recognized the important role community colleges can play in saving financially strapped Virginia families money on tuition and in jump-starting the Commonwealth’s economy during a speech he made to introduce his proposed state budget adjustments.

For 2010, Gov. Kaine proposed a further reduction of another 5% on top of the 5% we’ve already cut out of the biennial budget (2008-2010) for a total of 10% starting July 1, 2009.

The good news is that this is just 5% less than where we are now. The good news is also that his budget “also includes increases in the Community College Transfer Grant program, helping more students begin their higher education at a two-year college and then transfer to a four-year institution to get their degree at a lower cost to their families.”

We are doing everything we can to avoid layoffs and/or pay cuts, while recognizing that Germanna must do its part to help deal with a projected $3 billion shortfall in state revenues.

If the General Assembly approves the reduction level Gov. Kaine proposes for community colleges, no layoffs are anticipated at the college for the coming year.

We recognize that in the current economic climate, sacrifices must be shared across all government agencies, indeed across society. We are as prepared as we can be to shoulder our part of that sacrifice.

Germanna has already been taking the following actions to prepare for this cut without layoffs:

· Offering early retirements (3 have accepted so far)
· Freezing most hiring
· Maximizing efficiencies and looking at restructuring positions
· Exploring further partnerships with other community colleges and universities and other organizations, including some in the private sector

This does mean that we have to continue to tighten our belts while trying to serve the needs of students and communities. But we clearly recognize that the governor sees community colleges as a critical tool in helping Virginia and Virginians to recover, and thus has treated us differently than other parts of the budget.

We appreciate the difficult decisions involved in this budget and appreciate that the governor sees us as an investment in the future.

“Even in this atmosphere,” the governor said, “our excellent schools, colleges and universities produce the ideas and graduates that will keep driving our economy. The advances we have made in career and technical education and our restructuring of workforce efforts under the community college system enable us to better prepare our dedicated workforce.

A Christmas message

Friends and Colleagues,

Here in Virginia, with the Blue Ridge as a backdrop and history alive around us, the snow falls, the skies suddenly clear, and the semester ends.

At year end, we take time to reflect, to celebrate, to remember, and to plan for the future.

Whatever holiday we celebrate, let us remember the origin of the word comes from 'holy day.' Let us remember that every day is sacred, an opportunity that comes to us once to live this particular day in the best way we can.

In this season of renewed hope, in a time of great challenges and opportunities for our nation and our commonwealth, let us remember that we work in a place of hope.

Let us remember the sacred trust we hold here at Germanna Community College. Every day we have been given the opportunity to make a difference in people's lives. Each student we meet presents us with this opportunity.

Each student we meet is the opportunity to fulfill hope: The hope of the individual student. The hope of the family who entrusts us with that student. The hope of our community that this student will be an effective and contributing citizen. Each student we meet gives us the opportunity to help someone find a dream and earn the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to achieve that dream.

Each student presents us with the sacred opportunity to pass on the ethic of service to a cause larger than the self, the ethic of shared leadership, shared responsibility, shared power.

We face great challenges with a strength that comes from this common commitment.
We are blessed to be in this business of hope, and I am proud and grateful to work with all of you at Germanna.

As we spend time with our friends and families, let us remember the lyrics of that wonderful Christmas song,

“Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams”

and recall the many men and women serving our country who will not be home for Christmas except in their dreams, and pray for their safety and that they come home before the next year ends.

I wish you all a blessed time with your families and friends, a safe and happy holiday season, and the bounty of a new year with more opportunities to serve at a place of hope.

David

APPRECIATION: Dr. Arnold Wirtala, Germanna's founding president, passes away at 85

It is with deep regret that I inform you of the passing of Germanna’s founding president. Dr. Arnold E. Wirtala died Tuesday at home in Fredericksburg, at age 85. He served as Germanna’s president from 1969 to 1980.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete this afternoon.
As Germanna’s first president, Dr. Wirtala led the college through some of its most challenging times, keeping the institution going when low enrollment threatened its very existence. GCC opened with 400 students in 1970, and struggled to meet enrollment goals in the early years. There was talk in the state legislature of closing the college. Dr. Wirtala’s efforts helped give Germanna the chance to grow and thrive as it has today, serving a total headcount of nearly 13,000, and spreading out over an area the size of Rhode Island with campuses in Fredericksburg and Locust Grove, a tech center in Culpeper, and the potential for the opening of a Stafford center in 2009.
When Dr. Wirtala arrived at Germanna in September 1969, he says in a history of GCC, “I found only stakes marking the location of the college.”
Germanna opened its doors in 1970. He called starting the college, “an exciting adventure.”
He said building a college in a sparsely populated spot such as Locust Grove “required an act of faith and a commitment to the future. The first years were not easy. …”
He said it was always his view that Germanna: “was here to reach out to young people who otherwise could not have the opportunity for a higher education. Also, it was to give another chance to those who had failed previously. Gov. Mills Godwin on many occasions cited success stories of Germanna Community College as examples of what community colleges are about.”
Dr. Wirtala was born on May 4, 1923 in Ashtabula, Ohio. He was the son of the late Ernest and Lylli Wirtala. He graduated from Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky in 1947 with a degree in Music Education. His college education was interrupted by World War II, and he served in the U.S. Army from 1943-45 overseas with the 117th Armored Group, 3rd Army Battalion in Normandy, France; the Battle of the Bulge, Rhineland, and in Central Europe.
He married Mary Grace Land in June 1947. They both enrolled and completed work in the Master's Degree Program in Music Education at the University of Michigan. They moved to Gainesville, Fla. in August 1948, where he was employed as an instructor in the Division of Music at the University of Florida. Dr. Wirtala received his Doctor of Education in 1954 at the University of Florida, and was then promoted to Assistant Professor of Music. He taught music theory, music literature, 'cello and clarinet. He was the cellist in the Faculty String Quartet and clarinetist in the Faculty Woodwind Quintet. He was the Associate Conductor of the University Symphony. He also served as the choir director at University United Methodist Church in Gainesville from 1957-1969.
Dr. Wirtala became the Assistant Dean of Men in 1962 at the University of Florida. He then served as the Dean of Academic Affairs at Central Florida Community College in Ocala from 1965-1968. He returned to the University of Florida as the Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies in the College of Education from 1968-69.
After leaving Germanna, Dr. Wirtala and his wife Mary returned to Gainesville, Fla. to enjoy their retirement. In additional to traveling throughout Europe and the United Kingdom many times, Dr. Wirtala also served as the President of the Foundation of Music as well as the President of the Retired Faculty of the University of Florida, as well as remaining active in the University United Methodist Church.
He was preceded in death by his wife. He is survived by his daughter Cathy Keathley of Gainesville, Fla., his son and daughter-in-law Joe and Kathy Wirtala of Fredericksburg, and his five grandchildren-- Ben and Dan Keathley of Gainesville, and Sara, Tim and Amy Wirtala of Fredericksburg.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Germanna Community College Education Foundation, Inc., or the University of Florida College of Education Support Fund.
As the first president of Germanna Community College, Dr. Wirtala helped to create the foundation for the college that serves the region today. He will be deeply missed.
--David