CCC pushes in-person graduation back

CLOVIS — Clovis Community College has pushed in-person graduation ceremonies again due to the COVID-19 pandemic, following an announcement Wednesday by President Charles Nwankwo.

Graduates from the spring and fall 2020 semesters will be allowed to join spring 2021 graduates in the May ceremonies if they wish, and Nwankwo is looking at the Curry County Events Center as a site given the potential large number of students. The Curry County commission voted in September to close the events center until March.

A virtual pinning ceremony for graduating health students is still planned for Dec. 10.

Other business during the virtual meeting largely focused on two federal grants the college had received.

A Title V project grant of $2,623,565 was awarded in 2015 and divided over five years for “accelerating progress for high-need hispanic and low-income students,” according to the meeting agenda. Laura White, the college’s Title V project director, said another grant will replace it.

“I am pleased to say that this grant we are discussing just closed out yesterday,” White said. “We do have a new Title V grant that starts today so we’re geared up to launch that one. This five-year grant that we just finished, I wanted to say that it looks like we have managed to be good stewards of our grant and utilize almost 100% of the funds that we were awarded — which is really excited news because it’s not unheard of to have to send back money.”

Projects funded include six high-tech classrooms, a financial literacy workshop and a “Quality Matters” program for college classes.“Quality Matters is a nationally recognized, faculty driven, peer-review process that is built to insure the quality of online and blended course design,” Vicki Bridinger-De Leon, CCC’s Title V Activity Coordinator, said.

The other grant review discussed in the meeting was $990,936 awarded in partnership with Eastern New Mexico University for Title V.

“We have fulfilled all of our objectives and most of them if not all of them we exceeded the expectations for each objective. So we’re very proud of that,” Nancy Meadows, CCC’s Title V campus coordinator, said.

In other business at the meeting:

• Nwankwo said the college is “making a lot of efforts to reach our students because we want to see our enrollment increase,” with Student Services focusing on students who have attended CCC in recent years and are close to graduation.

• The college’s financial aid department, Nwankwo said, has posted video workshops on the CCC YouTube channel regarding the financial aid application process.

• The next meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. Nov. 4.