Michael Farris, Germanna's Financial Aid Coordinator, reports that applications for financial aid this year are up 67% as of August 6 over last year at the same time. This is 104% increase over the same point in 2007.
Despite no increase in staff in the Financial Aid office because of state budget cuts, Michael and his colleagues have managed to keep up with this tremendous growth in demand. My personal thanks goes out to all of them for going above and beyond to help our students afford college.
Michael reports that students may still apply for financial aid right up to the start of classes. However, he notes that students' awards may not be ready in time to pay for classes the longer that they wait.
Therefore, "... [the student] needs to be prepared to make payment at the time of registration. After the August 12th tuition due date has passed, payment is due at the time of registration. For these students, financial aid is used to reimburse for courses already paid for and cannot be processed quickly enough to reserve courses."
This dramatic increase in applications for aid is due to two things: 1) the economy is causing many more students to need assistance; and 2) Michael, his staff, and counselors and student affairs staff have done a tremendous job of reaching out to students and informing them in a timely way. My thanks again to them all.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Thank you to all the Germanna staff for geting the Stafford Center Ready
Shown with the Governor are just a few who made the event possible (from left to right, Ron Williams, Aubrey Collier, Governor Kaine, Garland Fenwick, and Chris Cooper.
Every day our faculty and staff do a great job and much of it is hidden from view.
Tuition
As the Free Lance-Star and the Culpeper Star Exponent note today, community college tuition and fees was increased by 7.6% at the May meeting of the State Board for Community Colleges. However, it is not true that Germanna's increase is more than the other 22 community colleges.
Germanna's tuition is set by the State Board and is the same as 20 of the other 22 community colleges. Northern Virginia and J. Sergeant Reynolds CCs both charge a slightly higher tuition. Germanna has the option of requesting a similar increase, but we have chosen not to do so in order to stay more affordable. Fees varies slightly from college to college, although Tidewater has the highest student activity fee as part of their effort to erect student center buildings.
While the percentage increase for community colleges was higher than other public institutions for higher education in Virginia, it was the second lowest dollar increase across the state.
As a comparison, while Germanna's tuition for an average full-time student will rise by just under $200, both Virginia Tech and UVA will see an increase of about $400 and William and Mary about $500. The difference in cost between a community college education and a state university education in Virginia will thus grow even greater.
Nonetheless, we do not take the cost increase lightly. Our mission is to be both accessible and affordable. We regret any increase in tuition and fees.
But we face the third cut in state funding in less than 2 years, which the Governor will announce in the next few weeks. We are too often faced with a choice between increasing tuition or reducing even further the services and programs we offer our students and communities.
Should further budget cuts put at risk our ability to offer fundamental services or necessary programs, we will be forced to seek additional funding. We hope to do so through grants and donations.
It is a tough time for our citizens, students and communities. Community colleges are being called on to be an even better resource to help turn our commonwealth and nation around, and to prepare the citizens and workforce for a positive future. We at Germanna promise to do all that we can to limit the harm done by the budget cuts and to provide the key programs, learning and services you need.
That is the mission we have signed on to.
Germanna's tuition is set by the State Board and is the same as 20 of the other 22 community colleges. Northern Virginia and J. Sergeant Reynolds CCs both charge a slightly higher tuition. Germanna has the option of requesting a similar increase, but we have chosen not to do so in order to stay more affordable. Fees varies slightly from college to college, although Tidewater has the highest student activity fee as part of their effort to erect student center buildings.
While the percentage increase for community colleges was higher than other public institutions for higher education in Virginia, it was the second lowest dollar increase across the state.
As a comparison, while Germanna's tuition for an average full-time student will rise by just under $200, both Virginia Tech and UVA will see an increase of about $400 and William and Mary about $500. The difference in cost between a community college education and a state university education in Virginia will thus grow even greater.
Nonetheless, we do not take the cost increase lightly. Our mission is to be both accessible and affordable. We regret any increase in tuition and fees.
But we face the third cut in state funding in less than 2 years, which the Governor will announce in the next few weeks. We are too often faced with a choice between increasing tuition or reducing even further the services and programs we offer our students and communities.
Should further budget cuts put at risk our ability to offer fundamental services or necessary programs, we will be forced to seek additional funding. We hope to do so through grants and donations.
It is a tough time for our citizens, students and communities. Community colleges are being called on to be an even better resource to help turn our commonwealth and nation around, and to prepare the citizens and workforce for a positive future. We at Germanna promise to do all that we can to limit the harm done by the budget cuts and to provide the key programs, learning and services you need.
That is the mission we have signed on to.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
July 29 Events - A Good Day for Germanna
On Wednesday, July 29, Governor Kaine joined Germanna Community for three outstanding events:
- First at 10:45am the Governor cut the ribbon on our new Stafford Center in Aquia Park. About 100 guests witnessed the ceremony and toured our new center, which has 3 standard classrooms, one computer classroom, a computer lab, and an office for faculty. The center will be open for classes to begin on August 20.
More photos are available for viewing on the Governor's web site.
- Next, the Governor spoke at a Business Sales Growth Seminar held at our Fredericksburg Area Campus, presented by the Virginia Department of Business Assistance and cosponsor ted by Germanna Community College, Fredericksburg Department of Economic
Development, Spotsylvania County Department of Economic Development, Stafford County Department of Economic Development, Fredericksburg Regional Alliance and Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce. - There followed a luncheon sponsored by Spotsylvania County Department of Economic Development,and Fredericksburg Regional Alliance on our FAC campus. Thanks always to Gene Bailey for his support of Germanna.
I deeply appreciate all of the work done by college staff to get the new center ready, make arrangements for the Governor's visit, and support the three events in the same day.
I also appreciate Michael Kelly's work in the Governor's Office. He made the schedule go very smoothly.
Finally, I want to thank Stafford County Government for all of their support, Stafford County Economic Development Authority for their investment in Germanna and the new center, Jack Rowley for his help in getting the process going, and the Harts at Virginia Properties for their collaboration and ability to develop the center to our specifications in an amazingly short time.
It was a very good day, and we are happy that we can continue to serve our citizens, communities and businesses in these ways despite the budget cuts and hard times.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Leadership Fredericksburg Selects 2 Germanna Administrators
Congratulations to Dr. Yanyan Yong and Michael Catell. Both were this week selected as participants in the 2010 class of Leadership Fredericksburg.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Independence Day
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
With these words, some 56 men chose to set themselves against the greatest military power of their time 233 years ago this month.
It is easy for us in our own troubled times to think things are as bad as they can be. Certainly the state of the economy and our risking the lives of some of our best young women and men in two different wars would argue for that. Certainly the arrogance and deceit of a few of our business leaders would argue for that.
But consider what it must have been like for those men--and for those women and men who depended on them to make right decisions rightly at the risk of their lives and well-being. Not only were we likely to lose the war, it was considered impossible that if we won we could govern ourselves as a democratic republic across such a huge expanse of geography and with so many people. And there were some fundamental flaws built into our beginnings, including slavery and a basic disagreement about how far individual liberty should be taken at the expense of the common good, and vice versa.
They knew what they were facing, and wrote their pledge accordingly:
"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
Or as Benjamin Franklin more wittily put it:
"We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
On this 233rd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration and the birth of a new nation, let us all draw from their courage and vision to face our challenges and fundamental flaws as a nation and a people.
This weekend, as we watch the "pomp and parade, ...shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations" that John Adams predicted, as we get together with family and friends to picnic and barbecue, let us silently, or by singing, or by affirming out loud reaffirm our own commitment to what really makes the United States great:
More than wealth and natural resources, more than size and military might, it is the idea that a people can govern themselves, can make and support hard choices, can defend their own liberty by serving in the military but also by serving on a jury or voting or signing a petition or helping their neighbors recover from disaster without being asked.
Please join with me in that reaffirmation, in pledging our sacred honor to making those brave words written over two centuries ago live on for our grandchildren and beyond.
Please join with me in thanking those who serve their nation across the globe and praying for their safe return home.
I wish all of the students, faculty, staff, friends, supporters, alumni and their families a fun-filled but meaningful Fourth of July.
David Sam
With these words, some 56 men chose to set themselves against the greatest military power of their time 233 years ago this month.
It is easy for us in our own troubled times to think things are as bad as they can be. Certainly the state of the economy and our risking the lives of some of our best young women and men in two different wars would argue for that. Certainly the arrogance and deceit of a few of our business leaders would argue for that.
But consider what it must have been like for those men--and for those women and men who depended on them to make right decisions rightly at the risk of their lives and well-being. Not only were we likely to lose the war, it was considered impossible that if we won we could govern ourselves as a democratic republic across such a huge expanse of geography and with so many people. And there were some fundamental flaws built into our beginnings, including slavery and a basic disagreement about how far individual liberty should be taken at the expense of the common good, and vice versa.
They knew what they were facing, and wrote their pledge accordingly:
"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
Or as Benjamin Franklin more wittily put it:
"We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
On this 233rd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration and the birth of a new nation, let us all draw from their courage and vision to face our challenges and fundamental flaws as a nation and a people.
This weekend, as we watch the "pomp and parade, ...shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations" that John Adams predicted, as we get together with family and friends to picnic and barbecue, let us silently, or by singing, or by affirming out loud reaffirm our own commitment to what really makes the United States great:
More than wealth and natural resources, more than size and military might, it is the idea that a people can govern themselves, can make and support hard choices, can defend their own liberty by serving in the military but also by serving on a jury or voting or signing a petition or helping their neighbors recover from disaster without being asked.
Please join with me in that reaffirmation, in pledging our sacred honor to making those brave words written over two centuries ago live on for our grandchildren and beyond.
Please join with me in thanking those who serve their nation across the globe and praying for their safe return home.
I wish all of the students, faculty, staff, friends, supporters, alumni and their families a fun-filled but meaningful Fourth of July.
David Sam
Monday, June 29, 2009
A record 601 students pass GED exam during 2008-09
With 35 men and women passing their GED exams on Saturday June 27, a grand total of 601 test-takers have earned their GEDs for 2008-09. The previous high was 537 in 2007-08.
My congratulations to the students and thanks to the staff at Germanna and all of our partners who helped them succeed.
My congratulations to the students and thanks to the staff at Germanna and all of our partners who helped them succeed.
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