ILCC Announces Expansion Plans

By Amy Janssen
Staff Writer

Lynn Kueck, Trudy Katner, and Dr. Hupfer

On Friday, March 5, Iowa Lakes Community College President, Dr. Michael Hupfer, announced plans to expand the south side of the Algona campus facility this fall in order to accommodate increasing enrollment.

Hupfer said the expansion will allow for more classes not currently available at the college.

Hupfer, who spoke about the college’s new and future class offerings, was the guest speaker at the Kossuth County Economic Development Corporation CEO Network meeting at ILCC in Algona.

“I’ve appreciated the friendships I’ve acquired here in Kossuth County,” Dr. Hupfer said. “There are a lot of exciting things going on in this area.”

Although Hupfer reported ILCC lost over $1 million from its budget, the college has experienced an eight percent increase in enrollment. College administrators are hoping to implement more classes for area high school students in order to bring enrollment up even more, while also helping the high school students get a head start on college.

According to Hupfer, there had been a consistent waiting list for the nursing school certification courses at ILCC, but this year the college added evening and weekend nursing courses in Algona in an effort to eliminate the waiting list.

“We now have 30 pre-nurses finishing their LPN certification and wanting to work on their RN certification,” Hupfer said. “We only lost one or two students and we have had others come in, so we’ve kept an average number of 30 students throughout.”

With the availability of the nursing classes during more convenient hours, the college also has students coming in from NIACC, Fort Dodge and various schools in the surrounding area.

One class already offered at ILCC college campuses is the computer forensics course. Hupfer said ILCC is the only college in Iowa offering this course and it is a success with the students, filling up the seats within three days of registration.

On the upcoming fall semester the college will offer an associate of applied science degree dealing with wind turbulence. The students who sign up will be trained at an Estherville wind farm and will have to generate their own electricity throughout the course. Hupfer said an engineer trained in this particular field has been hired to work with the students.

In the fall of 2005, an ethanol and soy engineering course is planned on the Emmetsburg campus in the applied science degree program. This course, Hupfer said, includes labs and instruction on ethanol plants and products.

“The current ILCC board of trustees is the best I’ve ever worked with as far as being open to changes and willing to try new things,” Hupfer said. “They’re doing everything to help keep employment in this area.”

When Hupfer completed his college reports, KCEDC director, Maureen Elbert, notified the attendees of upcoming programs.

Elbert said her office is already starting to receive calls and emails from college students regarding availability of internships in Kossuth County. Due to this, Elbert said businesses need to inform the KCEDC office on their open positions for interns this summer, as well as to notify the office when an intern position is filled.

As part of the intern program, Elbert said her office is busy planning golf outings, barbecues and breakfasts for the interns this summer to make sure they have plenty of social contact with other interns in the community.

“We want to make their internship as enjoyable as possible so they remember Kossuth County has a lot to offer,” Elbert said.

Elbert said she is invited to attend business trade shows in a variety of cities across the nation that deal with individual market niches.

“We’re looking very, very well in comparison to other counties,” Elbert said. “Everyone is working hard and doing their diligence.”

To discuss legislative issues, Algona Community School District superintendent Harold Prior, brought the school funding crisis up to the CEOs attending.

“We appreciate all the help we get for the community schools,” Prior said. “We’re very concerned about school funding… we’re facing a funding crisis if these trends continue.”

Prior said part of the decreasing funding is due to declining student enrollment as an effect of the aging community. The state’s allowable growth limitations also impact the dollar per student ratio given to schools from the state.

“The state legislators, over the years, have made cuts that reduced school revenue $5.4 billion dollars,” Prior said. “Iowa is ranked 48 out of 50 for amount of state aid received for education.”

Prior said it’s important the message gets out about the lack of school funding in order to make school funding a priority of state legislators. If there isn’t an increase in the allowable growth for Iowa schools, Prior said the legislators know it will affect the votes come November elections.

“We’re just asking for support in joining the education debate,” Prior said. “We’re representing the rights of the kids who can’t vote.”

To conclude the meeting, Elbert spoke about the need for county business men and women to be leaders in getting things done for the county and not just sitting back to let things happen.

“We need to focus on the leaders of this county to get things going…partnership is critical,” Elbert said.