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.

Commercial Appeal Lists MSCC Among Top 50 Workplaces for 2013

The Commercial Appeal of Memphis has named Mid-South Community College one of the Top 50 regional workplaces based on survey results compiled by WorkplaceDynamics.

MSCC, which earned “Great College to Work For®” recognition from The Chronicle of Higher Education four years ago, placed fifth out of 15 honorees in the Commercial Appeal’s mid-size category.

The College earned its highest marks in the category that included questions about the institution’s direction, values, and leaders. Mid-South employees ranked the College an average of 28 percent higher in those three areas than the “Colleges & Universities - 2013” benchmark scores.

MSCC Education Instructor Wins Outstanding Faculty Award for 2013-14

Mid-South Community College Education instructor Lori Payne has been named an Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges’ Outstanding Faculty Member for 2013-14.

“I was very surprised and honored that I would be selected for the award,” said Payne, a full-time MSCC faculty member for nine years. “There are so many hard-working, dedicated faculty members at the college, and they all have the students’ best interests at heart.”

“Everyone here is willing to do whatever is necessary to help students be successful, and I’m very fortunate to be a part of that.”

Early Registration for Spring 2014 Begins Nov. 11 for Current MSCC Students

Early registration for Mid-South Community College’s spring 2014 semester will begin Monday, Nov. 11, and continue through Thursday, Nov. 14, for current MSCC students.

Spring classes are scheduled to begin on Monday, Jan. 13, 2014.

“Early registration is always the best time to sign up for classes,” said Jeremy Reece, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services. “Our course and time selections are at their best at the beginning of the process, so we encourage currently-enrolled students to register as soon as possible.”