Bert's Alerts - September 2, 2016
In the Spotlight
Monday (Sept. 5) is Labor Day, which means a well-deserved extra day off for College of Western Idaho (CWI) employees and students. CWI will not hold classes on the holiday, while campus buildings, offices, and services will also be closed. We hope everyone enjoys the three day weekend.
News Highlights
CWI Business Grad Applies Education to Local Company
Casey Lewis is a recent graduate from College of Western Idaho's (CWI) Business Program. During the last few years, classes such as accounting, calculus, and statistics have made Casey realize the impact that mathematics has on making business decisions. He plans to build on this foundational knowledge by earning his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Boise State University. With the two separate degrees, Casey will have a calculated approach to his future business decisions.
Currently, Casey is working for a local paving company. With at least a decade under his belt, Casey has been involved in a variety of aspects of the company. While attending a business statistics class taught by Damaris Wight, he realized there may be better ways to create bidding estimates than they were currently using. Using the applicability of regression and correlation, he redesigned the way the company provided bids to customers.
Mr. Lewis modified a simple input form in Excel for the bidder to enter square footage and other pertinent information that provides more accurate bidding options. This equation is supported by prior year’s data and respectfully accounts for the different aspects that drive prices including square footage, employee hours, and materials. Casey recalculated the equation for each 5,000 sq. foot increment minimizing room for error. Furthermore, he incorporated different percentages of profitability giving the bidder three different options to ensure he will win the bid over other companies.
This new design has been fully implemented recently so there is no data yet to prove the equation successful. However, Casey has been sampling with regression on one salesman and within the last two months the salesman’s accepted bids have already raised by 15 percent. The company has now given Casey the position of statistically analyzing the different departments of the company to hopefully better their profitability company-wide.
Casey is thankful for the knowledge and support he received from the Business faculty at CWI, and is excited to see results by the end of the year.
CWI’s Dickinson Engages in Sociology at National Level
Charles Dickinson, associate professor of Sociology at College of Western Idaho (CWI), recently returned from the 111th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in Seattle, Washington. The national conference had over 5,000 attendees and contained more than 500 individual sessions as part of the program. The conference provided a great opportunity for Dickinson to network with community college and university faculty from around the nation, attend more than a dozen sessions, and deepen his involvement at the ASA.
Dickinson, who served as Session Organizer, managed sessions within the Section on Teaching and Learning. He reviewed over twenty paper submissions, selected the ones to be included, and presided over one of the sessions. The papers included topics such as inter-disciplinary teaching, evaluating mentoring programs, and engaged learning models.
In addition, Dickinson met with the ASA Task Force on Community College Faculty in Sociology, which he has served on for the past four years. They conducted a national survey using a probability sample of sociology instructors at community colleges. A sample of that sort had never been drawn before; it included both full-time and part-time faculty. The task force is concluding their work this year, the final report will be presented to the ASA along with recommendations to support sociology faculty at community colleges throughout the United States.
Join CWI’s Culture and Employee Engagement Team
Do you like to have fun? Are you interested in promoting a culture of employee engagement and fun at College of Western Idaho (CWI)? If you answered yes, then the CWI Culture and Employee Engagement Committee needs your help.
CEEC needs fresh ideas and faces. This is your opportunity to shape CWI’s employee culture and to create a positive, team oriented community.
What does the CEEC do? The committee is here for employees. They organize events like Employee Appreciation Night at Wahooz, Fall Festivus, and Step-up Walking Challenges, as well as community volunteer activities such as Rake Up Idaho and toy drives. Not only do they plan these and other fun activities for CWI employees, the CEEC also builds community and works to create a positive and team oriented culture here at CWI.
Please consider volunteering and email your interest to ceec@cwi.edu.
Sharing in Bert's Alerts
Each semester at College of Western Idaho (CWI) means the return of a number of wonderful activities occurring throughout the College. The Marketing and Advancement Department encourages employees to share these happenings through Bert’s Alerts. Activities may include events, recognition of employees and students, changes in processes or policies that affect employees, or simply letting peers know what is going on in departments or campus locations.
Bert’s Alerts requests can be submitted through Help Desk, by selecting “Marketing” under the Request Type drop down menu. Bert’s Alerts is distributed every Friday and the deadline for submitting content is end of day Thursday. Please direct all questions regarding Bert’s Alerts to communications@cwi.edu.
