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Hello, and welcome to Dateline Delta.

I'm Paul Barbeau, Chair of the Delta College Foundation Board of Directors.

On today's show, we will discuss Delta's expanded partnership with STARS public transportation in Saginaw.

And we will talk about the search for a new college president.

Next, we will visit A Chocolate Affair and watch the next installment of Perspectives.

To wrap up the show, we'll hear how a student is finding their way the Delta Way.

Get a holiday show's preview from the planetarium and learn about Girls Day out.

In September of 2022, Delta College began a partnership with the Saginaw Transit Authority Regional Services or STARS, to develop Delta Direct, a free bus route from Saginaw to Delta College.

Now that partnership has been expanded to provide free rides on any STARS route, lets hear more.

Back in September of 2022, Delta and STARS Transportation entered a contract to take Delta students from the downtown Saginaw Center to the main campus.

This was important that our students could access, different programs that we don't have the programing for at our downtown Saginaw Center.

So things like nursing or physical therapy that require, like, specialized labs.

So this gives our students in downtown Saginaw a good transportation option to get to main campus.

In the beginning, we weren't sure what we would see for ridership, but over the last three years, we've seen it increase.

In fact, just from last year to this year, we've seen a 35% increase in the ridership.

So that's very positive.

And we're making a big difference for students by providing this service.

The program started out, at the vision of Dr.

Michael Gavin, our president.

He really is dedicated to making sure that being in the classroom is the hardest thing that students should have to deal with.

So removing that barrier of not being able to get out to campus, was a big win.

Because that had been something our students had been challenged with.

The previous route that students had to take, took, several hours to get to campus.

Whereas this is a direct route.

So it goes directly from the depot in downtown Saginaw out to our main campus.

And it just makes a loop.

So four times a day.

A new and exciting thing that happened this year is that STARS did open it up so that our students, as long as they have a current student ID, they can ride any of STARS bus routes for free.

So this helps our students get to be able to go to grocery stores and, just doctor's appointments and anything that they may need to go to for free.

So that's been a a big help to our students and something that STARS has just added to our contract this year.

So that's really exciting for our students.

With the success of this program, we're expecting it to continue moving forward into the future.

If anyone has any questions about the program, please reach out to me with the information on the screen.

Last month, Dr.

Michael Gavin, Delta Colleges President announced his impending departure from the college.

Since then, a nationwide search has started for his successor.

To get an update on this process we talked to Stacy Gannon, Chair of the Delta College Board of Trustees.

Hello, I'm Stacy Gannon, board chair of the Delta College Board of Trustees.

And you may have heard that we are in search of a new college president.

We're very happy for Dr.

Mike Gavin, who will be pursuing another opportunity and look forward to replacing him with someone just as fantastic as he has been.

And so we begin.

Our hope is to have a college president in place by July 1st of 2026.

And there's a lot of steps that have to take place between now and then.

So the first step in the process is to establish the presidential profile, which is basically the job description for the role of the president of Delta College.

And to develop that, we will use a draft and get community input through a search advisory committee who will look at that and provide input along with a number of other constituents, and develop a final draft.

That draft then goes to the Board of Trustees, that have the responsibility for making the ultimate decision on who the next president will be.

Fortunately for us, we have experience.

Seven of our nine trustees were involved in the last presidential search.

So we have a wonderful blueprint to follow.

But each process is unique.

And we've grown a lot in the last four years under, Dr.

Gavin's guidance.

So be assured that we will keep you posted.

It's very early again in the process.

We're making some of the decisions.

We are working with, national consultant.

That helped us the last time to find the great candidate that we had in Dr.

Gavin.

And we're confident that we're going to find someone that can continue to do the good work that's being done here at Delta College.

And the momentum and trajectory that we have that's been so wonderful and positive.

So please stay tuned so we can keep you updated for more updates and know that we have everyone's best interest at heart.

For 25 years, caring citizens have attended A Chocolate Affair, the sole fundraising event for Delta's Possible Dream.

This program provides free cultural and educational opportunities, as well as generous scholarships to promising middle school and high schoolers who may not view higher education as a possibility.

Let's go visit this year's event.

Talk about a gift that keeps on giving.

Well, over 600 individuals and a number of generous sponsors came out to Horizon's Conference Center, November 6th in support of our annual Chocolate Affair event to benefit the Delta College Possible Dream program.

A fabulous time was here by all who enjoyed the fun and friendship, food and festivities.

Guests lined up for incredible desserts, cut loose in the photo booth and dance the night away to the music of Jedi Mind Trip.

Some graduates of the possible Dream program traveled some distances to come back and give back, saying they wouldn't miss it for the world.

The world has opened up for the thousands of middle through high school students who have participated in educational, cultural, college prep and career exploration activities and received full scholarships to attend Delta.

Because the Great Lakes Bay region showed up for them and chocolate.

On behalf of Delta College Foundation's Board of Directors and staff, and especially our possible dream scholars.

Thank you for championing student success.

If you're curious about a possible dream or interested in being part of our November 5th, 2026 event, you can connect with us at 989-686-9224 or foundation@delta.edu.

Thanks again for all you make possible for our community.

We are truly thankful.

Now it's time for the next installment of Perspectives, where Delta's president, Dr.

Michael Gavin, shares a community college perspective on national topics in higher education.

Thank you for joining me.

You may have heard a lot about politics and its intersect with higher education as a sector, but also Delta College in the last number of months as you're watching the news.

And I'd like to take a little bit of time to demystify for the audience out there what we see as obstacles facing us in the political realm.

Many might think that they're esoteric or, complicated ways of looking at things with regard to the political nature of higher education right now.

But really, if one reduces it down, we're talking about students and we're talking about people.

1 in 33 jobs in this region come from graduates of Delta College, and many of them are in the service industry and or the what one might call the protection industry.

So from police academy to, engineers, we do a lot of work to ensure that the infrastructure is safe as a result of the education that we provide.

However, as the political realm has escalated in the way it thinks about higher education, funding has been cut significantly for not only us, but higher education in general and where that impacts your neighbor today is in the following ways.

We have a couple of grants that are federally funded by the government that are now no longer in existence, and those grants were specifically focused on getting access for students who were first generation, college going students, which means they be the first people in their families to ever go to college.

I think most people would agree, no matter what side of the aisle they sit on, that is a good thing.

Unfortunately, the funding is threatening actually has already impacted our ability to perform that work.

There's other significant ways in which the current political environment is impacting us, not only at Delta College, but as a higher ed sector where the kinds of funds that are allowed to go towards, allocating resources for students based on their upbringing, demographics has been limited in general.

And as a result, the work that we do in terms of uplifting and social uplift of people from lower classes to middle classes, are significantly reduced, whether they're in the rural area of Saginaw County or the urban area of Bay City.

Our in our abilities to do that work has been significantly reduced as a result of the money's coming in from the federal government currently.

We also have seen some threats to financial aid that did not come through, thank goodness.

In the last budget cycle.

But the concern that I have in many of us in the higher ed sector have is it's the first time where we've seen part time students financial aid being threatened in my career, and we certainly will see that in the next budget cycle.

As a result, those who are on the margins of society, those people who have desires to become better and get education for their family, will not be able to do so in a way that they have in the past, which is through federal Pell Grants that are now on the chopping block of the next budget cycle.

As Medicaid has gone down, in funding, so too does what's called the discretionary monies for the state, which means the state has some money that they can decide where it goes, as those monies have, as Medicaid will be taking up some of those dollars, so too will the free tuition dollars that we've been offering to students, whether they were through what was called Michigan Reconnect or the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, where students were literally coming to Delta College for free, that's really at risk for fall of ‘26.

This this next year as a result of the budget that just passed.

So you may not see the impact right away.

Because some of the the lagging impact comes as a result of fiscal years being on a different calendar than an academic year.

But certainly we're already seeing the supports that we've usually given to our students truncated as a result of less dollars.

And we will see the dollars allowed to that go directly to students to help those students pay for college go down as a result.

So the threats are really to your neighbor or those of you who are going to college and they are impacting not only them, but the the region itself and its ability to get people into the workforce and subsequently help the tax base.

The next student feature is on Collin Johnson, Jr.

and C.J.

A father son duo enrolled in Delta's electrician program.

With shared determination they lean on each other's strengths to ensure they'll both walk across that graduation stage together.

When I first started college I did start at Eastern, but it really didn't work out to well for me.

It was my first time doing online school again, I really wasn't prepared for it at all.

I actually didn't even know my first class started.

I actually found out about it a months afterwards.

Yeah, it was during Covid, so I couldn't use it as an excuse for that.

I don't like I like using excuses anymore.

Actually, I stumbled a couple times.

I started in ‘92.

I had a baby, so I had to take on the grown person role.

I did good, but after the semester I didn't return, which I should have.

And now I'm back again with him.

It's a lot better.

And he won't let me have an easy way of life.

No, you gotta sing.

You gotta learn this.

Now, we're not going to know so many good, easy ways to get answers now with the technology.

Write it down.

Figure it out.

But he motivates me.

Sometimes it's not the way I like it, but he does.

It was amazing to.

It was about three years ago.

I had had three surgeries and three major surgeries.

My arota had split and I never thought I would be like walking, talking around, doing any of this again.

It's amazing to me.

Like I said earlier, I take alot of pride in me being there and just really being working hand-in-hand with my father, and it's really been like blessing in disguise.

I was very nervous that, you know, when he got his heart surgery that many times when my dad was going to become very soon and didn't know that I've actually even gone and this many years with him and know that me and I actually planned on spending lots of years together and running a business and it sounds great.

Nice little Kobe and Shaq duo.

Really plan on tackling this head on.

And you really think that you just in this the first example of many, alot of father son duo owners can probably get this done.

We're going to try to come back with this interview.

As business owners, definitely.

The Delta College Planetarium is an iconic staple in the heart of downtown Bay City.

Each holiday season, the planetarium offers appropriately themed shows for public viewing.

To hear more about these family friendly shows, we heard from Mike Murray, Astronomer and Manager of the planetarium.

Running at the Delta College Planetarium.

Our most popular holiday programs are now in the mix.

We have shows for all kinds of interest in all kinds of ages, including Season of Light, which has a look at our holiday traditions.

Where did they come from?

The origins of a lot of our, traditions around Christmas and New Year's.

And then there's a show about the Northern Lights and the people of northern Scandinavia.

It's called Life Under the Arctic Sky.

The Saami people had all kinds of special celebrations of their own, which of course included the Northern Lights and Legends and stories about those.

Then we even have a music light show that is centered all around the music of the holidays.

Some of the most recognizable tunes from the holidays, of course, but there you might find a few that are a little bit less commonly played, but choreographed using the full dome imagery.

The full peripheral of the planetarium.

If you're looking to get into the holiday spirit the planetarium has a variety of shows for you to choose from.

If you want to know more, about the schedule, about the shows and the descriptions, be sure to go to our website at delta.edu/planetarium.

The Girls Day Out is a daylong event that provides middle school girls an opportunity to participate and hands on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, or Steam activities.

The goal is to pique their interest in exploring career fields that are traditionally male dominated.

To tell us more about the day's activities, we talked to Diane Lob singer Braden, a skilled trades professor.

Girls Day Out is a fun day where we invite many different girls from middle school to come to Delta to learn about different STEAM activities The main goal of our event is to bring girls onto campus and to actually get them to see these different activities.

And most of our activities are completely hands on, so they get to do the activities themselves.

And a lot of times take things home with them.

The activities throughout the day will be primarily hands on making jewelry from 3D printers, to different science experiments, to different art experiments, all kinds of different activities.

It's across the board.

We have probably around 40 different activities plan for the girls throughout the day.

In addition to the sessions that are happening at the main campus, we also have sessions that are happening in at our Saginaw downtown campus, which is really great.

We get a lot of schools that get to come there.

We have approximately 90 girls scheduled to go to the Saginaw campus, and we have approximately 7 or 8 sessions that will be happening over at the Saginaw Center also.

This year, we're going to have 16 schools at our event.

So we've had to limit the number of girls that we can bring from each school.

We used to limit it to 75, but we wanted to open it up a little bit more to get more exposure out there into the community.

So we've now limited the schools to 45, which has allowed us to bring 16 different schools.

It's a large event and there's a lot of girls, so we have a lot of challenges in trying to plan it.

First of all, we have to get the funding.

So we were blessed with a grant.

So we're able to fund the activities.

But then it's just a matter of trying to find all the activity leaders and coordinate everything with the schools.

So we have people within our committee that kind of focus in the different areas, and that helps a lot because we have like nine people on our committee.

So they're all doing a very significant part to make it happen, because it takes a lot of work to get this event together and to make it run smoothly.

It's really important to get girls involved in STEAM, because I think a lot of times girls aren't introduced to that and they don't realize that they can have a career in these firelds and they don't see themselves as being able to fit those careers, and there's no reason for them to think like that.

So that's why we like to get them here and to show them, hey, I can do this.

I can build a circuit, I can work on my computer.

So it's really interesting to us.

It's really important to us to be able to get the girls involved at a young age, and hopefully they'll stay interested.

I hope the girls take away that there are a lot of different areas that they can pursue in careers in their future, and that they can feel that those careers can welcome them and they can be a part of it.

So we had a wonderful event again this year.

We were really excited.

The girls had a great time.

It's just so fun to see the enthusiasm with the girls when they go to these different sessions and have a great girls day out.

That's what it's all about, getting the girls out of their classroom to experience some different things.

So lots of fun.

We really enjoy putting on this activity as a committee, and we're already looking forward to next year.

I want to thank Diane and all the members of the Girls Day Out event for the work they are doing to introduce these girls to the world of STEAM in such a fun and interactive way.

Now let's see what's on the Dateline Delta calendar of events.

The Delta College Planetarium will be hosting a series of shows during the month of December.

For more information about these shows and events happening at the planetarium, visit their website at delta.edu/planetarium.

The League of Women Voters of Saginaw County and NAACP Saginaw Branch invites residents of Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties to the 35th district.

Michigan State Senate Forum on Tuesday, December 2nd, from 5:30 till 8 p.m.

in Delta College's Lecture Theater.

The DECA Holiday Arts and Crafts Show will take place on Wednesday, December 3rd from 10 a.m.

till 2 p.m.

in the main campus hallways.

Are you enrolling at Delta College?

The admissions and financial aid offices will share information on enrolling and applying for financial aid at Delta College.

The event will take place Thursday, December 4th from 4:30 p.m.

till 6 p.m.

at the Downtown Saginaw Center.

For further information on these events or other campus activities, contact the Office of Marketing and Public Information at 989-686-9490, or visit our website at www.delta.edu.

Well, that wraps up our show.

Please join us again on December 21st when we highlight what's happening here at Delta College, one of America's leading community colleges.

Now, I leave you with the sights and sounds of Delta College for Dateline Delta.

I'm Paul Barbeau.

Thanks for watching.

Local production scene on Delta College Public Media are made possible with support from viewers like you.

Thank you.