At the regular KCC Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday night, Board Chair Steve Claywell announced the recommendation of Dr. Adrien L. Bennings to be the next president of KCC. Current President Mark O’Connell will officially retire on Dec. 31 and Bennings is expected to start on Jan. 1, 2020.
Bennings currently serves as the vice president of Administration and Finance at Clovis Community College in Clovis, New Mexico. Bennings holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Texas Tech University; an MBA from Wayland Baptist University; and a B.S in Agricultural Development from Texas A&M University.
A special meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 3 in the Kellogg Room with the KCC Board of Trustees and KCC Foundation staff to negotiate and approve the contract for the presidency.
“I know that the person that we have picked will lead this college in the right direction,” said Trustee Xenia McKay at the Wednesday meeting. “We have a great foundation here and I am very grateful to have been a part of the process.”
Also discussed at the board meeting Wednesday:
- An audit report for the 2018-2019 fiscal year was presented by Plante Moran, PLLC.
- A site visit was successfully conducted by a Higher Learning Commission representative, and positive feedback and recommendations on how to improve before the Fall 2021 visit were given.
- Kate DeGraaf, Director of Integrative Learning, was chosen to participate in the 2019 cohort for Leadership Battle Creek, where she will participate in a seven-month curriculum.
- Math professor Anna Cox was recently awarded the Teaching Excellence Award from the Michigan Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges. Former KCC student Joshua Adair received the Karen Sharp Scholarship, and is currently studying Architectural Engineering at Lawrence Technological University. Danh Do, current KCC student, also presented his honors project on How Calculus is Applied to Car Designs.
- In the annual MCCBOA Gibson Tuition survey that compares the total cost of the same student taking the same classes at each community college in Michigan, KCC was the most affordable among its peers once again.
- Registration for the spring 2020 semester began on Oct. 28, and the first week of registration activity was busy both online and in person with more than 1,600 students signing up for classes.
- Executive Director of the KCC Foundation Teresa Durham provided an update on Foundation activities, contributions, events and campus-wide projects.
- The EAC Career and Technical Education Project is progressing on schedule and the majority of the site work is to hopefully be completed prior to winter.
- New policies about audiovisual/closed captioning, facility usage, and minors on campus were discussed.
