Higher-ed center, Stryker upgrade get grant support
Exploring the feasibility of establishing a “higher education center” as part of the Arcadia Commons West (ACW) initiative in downtown Kalamazoo is being supported by the KVCC Foundation.
Joining forces with its counterparts at Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College, the KVCC Foundation Board of Trustees has approved a $5,000 grant to help support a master-planning phase of the ACW, the main component of which could be a higher-education center involving the three institutions.
The foundation board also endorsed a $100,000 technical upgrade of the sound, video, and projection equipment in the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s Mary Jane Stryker Theater.
President Marilyn Schlack of KVCC, President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran of Kalamazoo College, and WMU President John Dunn have committed to working together to provide a stronger and more cooperative higher-education presence in the core of Kalamazoo County.
The agreement to explore the creation of a “higher education center” as one of the Arcadia Commons West’s major components has provided opportunities to apply for planning grants for the center and for the ACW’s other educational and economic-development elements " job creation, housing, neighborhood improvements, retail and commercial growth, parking and transportation, urban gardens and a food-producing cooperative, an enhancement of Kalamazoo’s art community, and entertainment.
During the planning phase, programs that have been proposed to be housed at a higher education center will be examined -- a culinary-arts school that would be unique to the Kalamazoo community, food-administration and dietetics degree-granting programs, an art gallery/curatorial-training center, the community’s sustainability center, and a collaboration that would bring together elements involving international education and diversity.
For the 2010-11, academic year, the KVCC Foundation has established funding-request deadlines for internal grant proposals and filled some vacancies on the governing board.
Those faculty and/or administrators seeking financial support from the foundation must make plans in advance and adhere to the established deadlines.
Here’s the schedule for the next two rounds:
Proposal deadline: Dec. 22; decision by the KVCC Foundation Board of Trustees the next month.
Deadline: April 22; decision in early May of 2011.
For more information, contact Steve Doherty, KVCC director of development and foundation executive director, at extension 4442 or sdoherty@kvcc.edu.
New appointees to the foundation’s governing board are:
· Tom Schlueter, president and chief executive officer of Keystone Community Bank.
· Dan Scheid, chief financial officer of the Harold Zeigler Auto Group.
· Jim Turcott, a pioneer KVCC faculty member who recently retired as dean of liberal arts.
The chairman of the board is Jeff Gardner, president of the Gardner Group. Moving up as vice chair is attorney Michele Marquardt. The new treasurer is David Tomko, PNC Bank’s regional president for Southwest Michigan while Larry Leuth, president of First National Bank of Michigan, will remain as board secretary.
New three-year terms have been extended for Gardner, and for trustees Ed Bernard and David Jarl.
