Extension Communications
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
8/19/02
Contacts:
Cornelia Flora, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, (515)
294-1329, cflora@iastate.edu
Julie Stewart, NCRCRD communications director, (515) 294-7648, jstewart@iastate.edu
Del Marks, Continuing Education and Communication Services, (515) 294-9807,
delmarks@iastate.edu
ISU Center to Work With Community Colleges on Economic Development
AMES, Iowa -- An Iowa State University center has been chosen to administer a $400,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to work with rural community colleges on economic development and access to higher education.
The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development will work jointly with the Southern Rural Development Center on the project to increase educational access for equitable economic development through a partnership of extension, community and tribal colleges, and community leaders, according to Cornelia Flora, ISU sociologist who heads the NCRCRD.
The Rural Community College Initiative is an on-going effort supported by the Ford Foundation. It was launched in 1994 in collaboration with a nonprofit research organization, and has worked with community and tribal colleges at 24 sites in economically depressed areas.
The latest grant will support the third phase of the project. It currently is funded for two years, and that contract is eligible for renewal for a second two-year term. Flora said the Ford Foundation felt that the project would have a better chance for long-term sustainability if it became a joint effort of universities that are part of the Land Grant System and the community and tribal colleges.
The two regional centers bring together efforts of several Land Grant universities. An advisory committee of extension directors, community and tribal college leaders and the president of MDC (a private research organization that directed the first eight years of the project) has been formed to give guidance in choosing the states in which the project will carry out its efforts. The committee has developed criteria for choosing institutions among rural community and tribal colleges in those states, the criteria for choosing extension educators to serve as partners and coaches in a Vision to Action process that will develop projects that lead toward economic development and access, Flora said.
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