Bert's Alerts - February 6, 2014
In the Spotlight
On Friday (Feb. 6), College of Western Idaho (CWI) celebrated a group of employees who have been formally recognized by their peers for outstanding contributions to the College. CWI hosted a luncheon for the first honorees from its “Valuable to the Core” initiative as well as Staff of the Month and Faculty of Distinction winners from October, November, and December. Seen here at the lunch are (back left to right) Jason Herz, Bartt Anderson, Rob Healea, Michelle Fellows, Terri Scofield, (front left to right) President Bert Glandon, Rachel Martinez, Teresa Lowney, Meagan Newberry, Anita Tuttle, and Kim Bettencourt.
"Valuable to the Core" nomination cards and stickers can be found at bulletin boards across campus. Employees are encouraged to help recognize colleagues who demonstrate CWI’s values.
News Highlights
Lewis-Clark State College and College of Western Idaho Expand Transfer Agreement
On Feb. 3, College of Western Idaho (CWI) and Lewis-Clark State College (LCSC) signed an agreement to expand a transfer partnership between the two institutions. The partnership is aimed at providing opportunities for CWI students transferring to LCSC with Associate of Art (AA), Associate of Science (AS), or Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degrees.
The articulation agreement designates that upon completion of an AA or AS from CWI a student will be recognized by LCSC as core certified. Meanwhile, students completing an AAS at CWI are eligible to transfer into a Bachelor of Applied Science or Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Technology degree program at LCSC with junior standing.
As part of the new agreement LCSC has designated a pair of scholarships specifically for CWI graduates, in addition to transfer scholarships available to any transfer student who meets the criteria and applies by the March 1 deadline. LCSC will also continue to provide on-campus support for CWI students with admission, registration, financial aid, advising, and credit transfer questions.
"Idaho is one state and we have one publicly supported education system,” says LCSC President J. Anthony Fernández. “This agreement between LCSC and CWI is another fine example of this
fact. We look forward to expanding the higher education opportunities for Idahoans so ably served by CWI."
Since 2010, 63 students have transferred to LCSC from CWI. The growing collaboration has been most apparent in recent years as 52 percent of those students have transferred in just the past three semesters.
"At College of Western Idaho, we are proud to be a gateway to postsecondary education for southwest Idaho and encourage our students to continue their education beyond their success at CWI," states CWI President Bert Glandon. "We are thrilled to formalize an enhanced commitment with our partners at Lewis-Clark State College. Additional opportunities to access such a fine institution will be a great advantage for our students."
CWI Hosts First Program and Career Expo
On Feb. 11, College of Western Idaho (CWI) will welcome future students, community members, and education partners to Nampa Campus to explore CWI’s professional-technical programs at the inaugural technical program and career expo. CWI's Professional Technical Education program labs will be open for tours, refreshments will be served, and faculty, advisors, and industry representatives will be on-site to help with:
- Hands-on activities
- Demonstrations
- College Readiness Tips
Event Details
- Wednesday, Feb. 11
- 4-8 p.m.
- Nampa Campus Micron Center for Professional Technical Education
5725 E. Franklin Rd., Nampa – View Map
CWI Night at the Steelheads Returns
College of Western Idaho (CWI) invites employees, students, alumni, and the community to support student scholarships by taking in CWI Night at the Steelheads, Friday (Feb. 13), at CenturyLink Arena. CWI has partnered with the Idaho Steelheads hockey team for the second consecutive year to offer discounted $15 tickets (full price is $19), of which $5 will be donated to the CWI Foundation for student scholarships. The puck drops at 7:10 p.m. and the game is sure to provide a fun night in downtown Boise as the Steelheads take on the Utah Grizzlies.
To purchase tickets, visit www.igrouptix.com/idahosteelheads.
Username: CWI
Password: NIGHT
CWI Night at the Stampede Funds Scholarships Again
College of Western Idaho (CWI) invites employees, students, alumni, and the community to support student scholarships by taking in CWI Night at the Idaho Stampede, Saturday (Feb. 28), at CenturyLink Arena. The game will provide a great opportunity for the College community to take part in an event full of fun and camaraderie, while enjoying a night of basketball downtown and supporting CWI student scholarships.
CWI has partnered with the Idaho Stampede basketball team for the second consecutive year to offer discounted $10 tickets (full price is $15), of which the Idaho Stampede are donating 100 percent of the ticket price back to the CWI Foundation for student scholarships.
Tip-off is at 7 p.m. and the game is sure to provide a fun night in downtown Boise as the Idaho Stampede take on the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
To purchase tickets, visit www.igrouptix.com/idahostampede
User Name: CWI
Password: MOXIEJAVA
CWI Foundation Online Scholarship Application Now Open
The College of Western Idaho (CWI) Foundation is happy to announce the online application for scholarships opened Feb. 1, 2015. The CWI Foundation has both general and program-specific scholarship opportunities available for students for the 2015-16 academic year. Interested students need to apply by the March 31 priority deadline to be considered for scholarships in the initial awarding session. Visit the CWI scholarship web pages at cwi.edu/current-students/scholarship-opportunities for more information.
Tech Talk: H Drive and Office365 Update
The College of Western Idaho (CWI) Information Technology (IT) Department presents this series of Bert’s Alerts articles intended to share updates at CWI as well as relevant technology topics.
What the H:\?
What is the H:\ drive that is seen listed in Windows Explorer? It is network storage assigned to employees and is the preferred storage location for all documents created at CWI. Why is H:\ preferred?
- It’s safe; it’s backed up every night. Data stored on H:\ can be restored. On the other hand, if work is saved to “My Documents” and a computer’s hard drive fails, it’s possible all work could be lost.
- It’s available at any CWI computer, anywhere on campus.
- Information on H:\ can be restored easily.
- With an increase in phishing emails, more people are clicking on links that load malware on computers. If that happens, the malware could make it hard to retrieve data from the hard drive.
- If a laptop is lost or misplaced and all the data has been saved to the H:\ drive, CWI’s data is secure and the employee is not liable for the potential loss of information.
Office365
The migration to Office365 is right around the corner. IT has completed extensive testing to ensure this migration will go smoothly for all staff and faculty.
The migration will begin Monday, Feb. 16, and will continue each night until all email boxes have been migrated to the new environment. Employees should look for an email with more details the day of their account migration, what to expect the day of migration and some information on new things to explore with Office365. Help Desk staff will be available to provide any assistance with individual email profiles.
Lowney Recognized as December Faculty of Distinction
Teresa Lowney has been selected as College of Western Idaho’s (CWI) Faculty of Distinction for the month of December.
Lowney is part of CWI’s Professional Technical Education division as an adjunct faculty for the Business and Information Technology programs. Lowney’s hard work is leaving a wonderful legacy of learning for her students. With short notice before the semester started, Lowney took on the responsibility of teaching a course she hadn’t expected to. She did so with her usual enthusiasm and positive energy. By taking on the class, it allowed multiple students the opportunity to keep their schedules and avoid a significant inconvenience for them. From the start Lowney embraced how this was the right thing to do for her students and took it head on.
Her colleagues say Lowney is always helpful and incredibly supportive of others. One coworker says, “When I put on events or have ideas for students in her classes, Teresa jumps in with both feet and spreads the word. I am thankful to work with her and appreciate her verve for life she brings to all around her.”
CWI is proud to congratulate Teresa for receiving December’s Faculty of Distinction.
February Faculty Award Presented to Mahoney
Michelle Mahoney has been selected College of Western Idaho’s (CWI) Faculty of Distinction for the month of February.
Mahoney is being recognized for leaving a wonderful legacy of serving in an atmosphere of caring as well as learning.
She is known to go above and beyond the call of duty, always with a great attitude and concern for her peers and students. Mahoney has worked with local media, including television stations KIVI (channel 6) and KTVB (channel 7) and The Boise Weekly, assisting students in acquiring part-time work while attending CWI. She has also worked diligently with the CWI Media Club, which has assisted in projects for the CWI Marketing Department as well as providing footage of the college, shots of faculty teaching, as well as student and faculty interviews that were shown at the SSPA recruitment and advising night. She has also worked with students to produce videos for various departments to place on "YouTube" for perspective students to check out CWI and obtain further information.
Mahoney has taken on the role of coordinating internships for the Philosophy and Communication Department and has created over 20 new relationships with organizations in the Treasure Valley who are supervising CWI students in these experiences. She has also created an inviting environment with Randy Reese at their Ada County Campus office, where students hang out, hold discussions, and produce and edit video. It has a great collegiate atmosphere and students constantly express the tremendous impact she is having in their lives.
Mahoney has also logged hundreds of hours helping community groups who support underprivileged women and children. She was previously a Canyon County Alternative High School teacher. She continues to support these schools with speech and communication resources and this spring is concurrently teaching a dual credit online course for an alternative high school that lost funding for their speech teacher. In addition to traveling with the speech and debate team to meet their judging commitment, which was not a part of her expected duties, she also judged the High School Broadcast competition for Future Business Leaders of America in Ada County.
She is a tremendous example for others with her positive attitude, hard work, sensibility, timeliness, accountability, and the contributions that she is making on our behalf within the college and with the community. Way to go Michelle!
