College Embraces Starfish Story

Mid-South Community College has become the home of the Greyhounds, but the sleek and focused canine logo is not the only easily recognizable symbol on our campus. While you won’t find them emblazoned across the chest of a sweatshirt or embroidered on a hat, you will see more than a few starfish at MSCC. The small, gold-colored pins worn by our employees are much more subtle than the Greyhound logo, but their meaning runs exceptionally deep.

Our adoption of the starfish emanates from a story inspired by the writing of poet and scientist Loren Eiseley. His story is a source of motivation, inspiration, and perseverance for everyone who works at Mid-South Community College. Here is the version of the story we provide (with a pin) to every new employee:

Nichols Family Establishes Bessie Dobbs Scholarship at MSCC

Dr. Larry Nichols and his wife Trisha have established a Mid-South Community College scholarship in memory of a grandmother who positively impacted his life in numerous ways.

The Bessie Dobbs Memorial Scholarship provides funding for full-time students with demonstrated financial need. The fund is administered by the Mid-South Community College Foundation.

“My grandmother was a really influential woman in my life and gave me a lot of direction, self-confidence, and self-esteem,” Dr. Nichols said. “She also taught me people skills and good basic core values in life. She was really a Christian-principled person.”

225+ Students Earn Fall 2013 Semester Honors at MSCC

More than 225 Mid-South Community College students from 34 cities and towns in Arkansas, Tennessee, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Georgia, Ohio, and New York have been named to academic honors lists for the fall 2013 semester.

The President’s List includes 98 students who earned a semester grade-point average of 3.81 to 4.0 in college-credit courses. The Honors List includes 128 students who compiled a GPA of 3.5-3.8 for the fall term.

Students eligible for MSCC academic honors include full-time (minimum of 12 credit hours) and part-time students (6-11 hours) who completed 12 hours of previous course work (prior to the fall 2013 term) and who have earned the required semester GPA.

ADTEC Continues to Make National News

For the second time in four years, representatives of the Arkansas Delta Training and Education Consortium will travel to the College Futures Assembly in Florida as a nominee for a nationally-recognized honor. The Bellwether Legacy Award, which acknowledges outstanding Bellwether-winning programs that have demonstrated five+ years of successful implementation, will be on the line Jan. 25-28 when the best of the best will gather.

In 2010, ADTEC turned back nine other finalists to win the Bellwether Award for Workforce Development in recognition of its strategic alliances to promote community and economic development. ADTEC will be up against nine new challengers, all previous Bellwether Workforce Development award winners, this time. Obviously, another national award would be a feather in the cap of the eastern Arkansas consortium, but the Legacy nomination alone shows that our efforts continue to be recognized from coast to coast.

MSCC Recognizes Outstanding Employees

At some workplaces, employee recognition efforts are as smooth as glass because the selection pool is relatively shallow. A handful of workers rise to the top, and they are not difficult to identify and honor.

At Mid-South Community College, however, the process is exceptionally challenging because we have so many people who deserve recognition.

Each year we select two employees (one faculty and one staff member) for National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) honors. Created in 1989, the NISOD Excellence Awards program supports MSCC and other individual colleges in recognizing and celebrating their finest at home and on an international stage. The awards are something we take great pride in as an avenue for recognizing our best employees. The selection process provides us a great opportunity to showcase the dedicated, talented, and committed people who are so vitally important to keeping an institution like ours afloat.

Greyhounds Lead NJCAA Division II in Attendance

In only our fourth year of intercollegiate athletics, our men’s basketball program has climbed to the top. No, we’re not the No. 1-ranked team in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II poll (yet), but we ARE No. 1 in average home attendance. With an average of 326 fans per game, we rank first among 126 teams in Division II that have reported their figures to the NJCAA. And our program has also outdrawn all but six of the Division I schools (including Southwest Tennessee Community College which is playing five NCAA Division I signees). I don’t care who you are, that’s pretty cool.

The Greyhounds enter Saturday’s showdown with the North Arkansas College Pioneers with a 7-5 record which includes a pair of victories over Division I programs (St. Louis Community College and Northwest Mississippi Community College). Those are schools that don’t expect to get beat by a Division II team in West Memphis, Ark., because they’re not familiar with the caliber of student-athletes we have recruited to our campus. Our team is among the top 25 in points per game 21st), field goals per game (15th), field goal percentage (20th), free throw percentage (23rd), assists per game (15th), and steals per game (17th). The Greyhounds are an exciting bunch to watch, and I encourage you to see one of their games.