The Voice - Student Newspaper

Lumm's win will determine future of Maricopa's colleges

The recent election has appointed several new leaders to head the federal and state governments. However, students may find it valuable to also take note of the elected officials who will be making the decisions directly affecting the community college.

Randolph Lumm was elected as a Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) member for District 4, Glendale Community College's district.

As a governing board member, Lumm has a large amount of responsibilities including adopting policies, determining salaries of employees, hiring and removal of employees as necessary and determining proper locations to construct new community colleges.

With the current economical woes, financial issues may be the most notable topic that must be dealt with by Lumm.

According to Lumm, "Budget cuts are our biggest issue. To do deal with budget cuts we need to cut costs that do not affect learning and programs and staff which support student success." Avoiding wasteful spending is important also.

Randolph Lumm has also made it clear that he will work to get more high schools to offer community college classes.

Several high schools currently offer dual enrollment and advanced college courses, but more schools doing this would be beneficial to students.

"I think students would benefit from taking college courses in high school so they will see themselves as college students, so they feel they are already part of the college system and the step to college is natural and easy", Lumm stated.

Among other plans, he hopes to put forth a strong effort to lower the amount of dropouts in the community colleges. This can be done by offering more counseling and mentoring to students.

Lumm would also like to see an increase in employment activities and programs in Maricopa to help individuals, especially with the worsening unemployment issue in Arizona.

"I would like to see Glendale College become a Hispanic Serving Institute, which can bring in millions of dollars in grant money", says Lumm. This would require that all enrolled students include their ethnicity on registration forms.

Lumm has high hopes for the MCCCD in the coming years.

"I would like to see Maricopa (MCCCD) continue to be the premier educational institute in Arizona", admits Lumm. "We need to be an institute that responds quickly to the employment and educational needs of the community.

Randolph Lumm encourages students and faculty to contact him with ideas and input at Randolph.lumm@domail.maricopa.edu.

Please send comments to jshepard@gccvoice.com