By Dr. Ross Tomlin, TBCC President
The fall term is well underway at TBCC. In fact, this week is already mid-term. Besides the growing number of academic programs we have been offering, we have just started a couple of new programs. One is an Entrepreneurship option within our Business Management program.
The other new program is a Nursing Assistant program which awards a short-term certificate and prepares students to take the certification exam to be licensed as a CNA. That class with 10 students is going on right now and will help produce some much needed CNAs for healthcare providers in Tillamook County.
We are also moving forward in the development of our new Nursing program. We have the first big hurtle in November when our application is considered by the Oregon State Board of Nursing. If we pass that hurdle, we will be able to start marketing the program to get the word out to those students who will be eligible. Our plan is to recruit our first cohort of students this coming spring to start their RN classes next fall. We are working with Adventist Health Tillamook to secure space at the hospital for lectures and labs for the nursing students next fall.
In other news of the college moving forward this year, we have just hired the firm, Wenaha, to be our project managers for both the renovations to the new Center for Industrial Technology building, as well as the new Healthcare Education building. One of their first tasks will be to help the college find architects to work on both projects. Once that is done sometime in early winter, we will start work on designing the new building. We will pass on more information about the construction projects as they progress.
Finally, we recently had two of our Board of Education members resign. They are Jennifer Purcell and Pam Zweifel. Both served on the board for the past several years and we greatly appreciate their service to TBCC and our board. The Board then voted to appoint two new members as replacements. Andrea Goss from Netarts will replace Pam Zweifel. She is very active in community groups and advocacy work, like CASA and Tides of Change, and has also been a member of the TBCC Foundation Board. Shannon Hoff from Bay City will replace Jennifer Purcell. She is a nurse and is the Clinical Educator and Residency Program Manager for Adventist Health Tillamook. They both started this month and will serve as appointed Board members until the May 2023 election where they can run to serve out the final two years of these terms.
So, TBCC is moving forward with big projects, new academic programs, and new board members as this academic year begins. We are excited about our continued growth and ability to serve the citizens of Tillamook County with high quality higher education opportunities.