coming up on City spotlight we are talking education in Mattoon with Lakeland College President dr. Josh Bullock we will discuss how Lakeland has grown across its for campus locations during dr. Bullock's tenure also how Lakeland has adjusted to the illinois state budget situation we will talk about the impact that the late dr. Robert Webb had on Lakeland stay tuned city spotlight begins now city spotlight is supported by consolidated communications CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area as well as providing TV Internet and phone service to local homes and businesses we live where we work and are proud to support the communities we serve more information available at consolidated.com and thank you to all of you for joining us for another edition of City spotlight today we're talking education in Mattoon and joining me today is the president of Latham college dr. Josh Bullock happy to be here today thank you appreciate you taking the time to be on City spotlight and again thank you for being here and tell us a little bit about yourself how long have you been at Lakeland College labette Lakeland College now since July first of 2013 so it's hard to believe two and a half years have passed so I'm in my third year and have thoroughly enjoyed it the Mattoon Charleston Coles County area is incredible and my family has adapted well and we are really loving this area I on a recent episode we had dr. Glassman of Eastern Illinois University I asked him what did he know about EIU before when he applied for the position of a president Eastern when you a couple years ago what what struck you with wanting to apply for the position of president at Lakeland College well Lakeland College nationally has a great reputation and I knew that one of the things that I always looked forward that were nominated as Aspen Award winners in the community college world Aspen Award winners are usually the creme de la creme of community colleges those that are nominated for that award are generally the best of the best and what I found as I was researching Lakeland colleges they had been nominated twice for an aspen award so that told me that it was an institution of extremely high quality and honestly when I read the position description what Lakeland College stood for its values the family structure that surrounds the campus it really fit me to a tee and I knew that in my heart that that was where I want it to be so two plus years later how is Lakeland groaned under your tenure you have four campuses Mattoon Effingham Marshall and pana how was Lakeland groaning the time that you've been here well Lakeland College has has grown in a variety of ways since I've been here I don't want to attribute that growth to myself I think we have an incredible staff at Lakeland College our faculty are there they're committed to our students our staff are there for our students so it really isn't necessarily my growth but but what our entire college campus has been able to achieve we've done a lot of things for our students as in the way of programming so if you look at sustainability for instance helping our students grow and learn about sustainability and the things are going to better our environment for the future we've been able to expand our nursing program and allied health programs we've been able to do more with manufacturing we've been able to do much more with our local employers and not just preparing students who are graduating high school and entering college but transitioning those incumbent workers to new skill sets so they can advance in their own organizations so I tribute that level of growth to all of the hard-working staff in Lakeland College I guess you could call those accomplishments are there any others that you could say you're very proud of well I'm proud of what we've been able to do in the last year so Lakeland College recently has been re-accredited by the higher learning commission and that that's really important to us and that's a process that is a very long process it's a ten-year accreditation cycle so typically the colleges and constant preparation for those visits cost of preparation for submitting the information of the Higher Learning Commission looks at we have site visits so we have a creditors that come on campus so I'm extremely proud of what we've been able to accomplish in Lakeland College is won numerous awards in the last several years as well we have been recognized by cnnmoney as one of the top 100 community colleges for completion which truly is an institution is what we're all about it's about helping our students get the skill sets and degrees they need to move their lives forward and we're extremely proud of that and you mentioned the accreditation obviously a long a hard working process that takes people to to get done what does it was the accreditation mean to Lakeland accreditation is our lifeblood if you're not accredited you can't receive financial aid there are many different types of programs you can't participate in accreditation is essentially the assurance to our community to our students that we are a quality institution it's that assurance that we provide the process is long and extensive and involves just about every single member of the Lakeland College family from providing reports to ourselves compile a comprehensive overview of who we are as an institution and then having reviewers come on campus and essentially validate that the story we've shared of them about Lakeland College is an accurate story about who we are and I'm happy to say the reviewers had extremely positive feedback when they are on campus you know one of the things that struck them was how engaged our students are they said your students feel like Lakeland College is a family to them and that to me is probably the thing I am most proud of is Lakeland College is a family environment for our students for our faculty and staff and i think that was recognized by the accreditors who came to view the college so family atmosphere at Lakeland a couple of new things going on in Lakeland is the Lakeland lakeland college career academy it gets started this fall in Mattoon what can you tell us about that program the Career Academy is one of those programs that's there to ensure students can get a leg up on the job skill sets that they need to form a career so the way we look at it is there are many high school students who there are about forty percent who attend Lakeland College about twenty-five percent that attend a four-year public university and that means there's about thirty five percent that they might not have a goal in life or might not have a direction after high school so our goal with the career academies to take every student whether they're college bound or not college bound and say okay let's look at getting you some career skills while you're in high school so essentially students come to Lakeland college's campus five days a week every morning and they are lakeland college students and we're training them we're piloting this into specific areas and manufacturing skills training which we know is an extremely high demand in our communities and construction trades so those areas are are so important i and i should add automotive trades as well those areas are really important to our district Lakeland College District which quite honestly covers four thousand square miles so it's a very large district that we want to make sure those district employers have the workforce those students can take that skill set they'll leave Lakeland College as a senior in high school with a credential they'll have a high school degree and a college credential and they can take that credential on and continue to improve themselves either to go on for an associate degree will hopefully go on for a bachelor's degree at some time as well so it's really about building a skilled workforce for our employers the key for Community College is a key for universities is ensuring we can can give a strong education here locally so that students want to stay they build their families here they build their careers here and they become contributors to society they get involved in their communities and that's really that's the whole premise of the Career Academy is to foster that sense of learn here grow here get employed here and contribute back to your communities so off to a good start is the lakeland college career academy and it's going to be going on at the van hamme campus soon yes we are in discussions currently with the Effingham community so we have business and community leaders involved we have the Chamber of Commerce involved we have all of the school districts Effingham County involved we're formulating a collaborative means to provide something similar in Effingham we're again the students from Effingham County will have the same opportunity to gain skill sets those technical skill sets while they're in high school that they can take out into the workforce again it's about building and growing our workforce to sustain the employers we have here and encourage people to stay right here at our wonderful communities and before we get into some of the structural updates and some other fields of study that our strengths of Lakeland I want to ask you about the state budget state budget situation Illinois we're taping this in the middle of November and still has not been resolved how has that impacted Lakeland and how have you guys dealt with that situation well I think it's impacted every institution in the state of Illinois in Lakeland is absolutely no different where we may be a bit different as Lakeland College has begun preparing for this years ago and actually in the last two years we've ramped up that preparation we saw the budget crisis coming last year as we started the budget year we took some very difficult or made some very difficult decisions we ended up laying off some staff we cut our operational budgets we did some other things that were in the right fiscal means to ensure that Lakeland College could be solvent during the budget crisis and thankfully we did because right now we are weathering a storm very very well but time will tell and depending on when we get a state budget what other actions need to need to occur and no matter what we do during these times we've made a commitment that the state budget is not going to impact the quality of education for our students or the services we can provide for them so whatever adjustments may need to be made down the road as we learn more about what the budget really will be our goal first and foremost is to ensure that our students have that quality education and that they have the services they need to make sure that they can be successful bar none that is our number one priority and talking with community leaders here on City spotlight since the spring constantly having to change their future plans adjust their budgets it's never easy and have you guys have been able to it having to adjust week to week month the month that's that's going to be really tough it is but again good fiscal planning on the front end has allowed us to adapt on the back end so as I mentioned in the last several years as we've tried to real and cut our costs and anticipation it positioned us in a much different light than many of our peers we are positioned right now very well to weather a budget crisis and we are doing so does that mean additional changes won't need to be made it likely may be the case depending on what the outcome of the budget is or when that budget has passed but i think we are an extremely strong position right now as an institution to whether the fiscal crisis the state has is giving to us and one of those programs offered by lakeland college that was affected by that was the adult education how was it affected by well adult education in the state of Illinois funded through partially state dollars but really its majority of its federal dollars and what's happened recently is that there are the federal dollars have been appropriated the state but the state simply has not passed through those federal dollars to the community colleges that's a significant amount of money to Lakeland College to the tune of four to five hundred thousand dollars with that said where there's no money flowing we simply are not able to offer del basic education courses and so the college and the Board of Trustees made a difficult decision that if the state budget if they do not pass through the federal dollars we will be suspending our Adult Basic Education Program December 31st now with that said the Lakeland College Foundation stepped up to the plate and said listen we want to make sure we can at least offer some of the basic courses so the dolt Basic Education which entails a multitude of things basic education welding basic nursing but also things like english as a second language in GED preparation to help individuals get their high school degrees our foundation stepped up to the plate and said listen we want to provide some money to help those occur so i'm happy to say that the spring term across our district will be offering 20 classes in ESL in GED preparation will serve a minimum of 180 students so we're still there's a lifeline for those students who really need us to make themselves to better their their place in life and we want to continue to make sure that that happens in thankfully our Lakeland College Foundation was there to step up to the plate and ensure that that could happen excellent glad to hear that it's going to be able two things will be offered there during these tough times another program at Lakeland is the AG program nationally recognized if you could maybe elaborate on some of the highlights of students that are involved in the AG program where do they get out of that well it's incredible program we get students now for about nine different states that seek out Lakeland College and come to Lakeland College because they want to learn from our our faculty and staff we were recognized by Community College Week is one of the top 12 in the nation of those offering associate degrees and that's universities as well so we're extremely proud of that but what they get out of that is really a top right education they have put we have partnerships with agricultural companies from the the smallest to the very largest across the nation that our students will go out and conduct their supervisor occupational experience or internship as part of we have a very very strong relationship with John Deere one of a few John Deere training sites for their technicians in the nation and that program is always full with waiting lists our dealerships I look forward to partnering with Lakeland College to ensure they get technicians so overall Lakeland College with their reputation our students will know when they graduate from Lakeland College number one we have guaranteed transfer of the University of Illinois so they can continue that that degree we have transfer agreements with our other institutions east illinois university if they want to get into a business degree for instance so those students know they have options they can transfer anywhere not only in the state of illinois but within the nation and those students who are in the terminal degrees or the AAS degrees they have opportunities to enter the workforce in generally given priority because they are a Lakeland College graduate this is continued success with the AG program at Lakeland College also Lakeland has had success with technology enhancing the learning environment you tell us how some of the technology at Lakeland is helping helping students out we use technology at Lakeland all across the board as a matter of fact the center for digital education again for the second year in a row ranked in the top ten community colleges nationally for use of technology and advancing our students and we're very proud of that as well and to share some examples in the classroom for Allied Health we have a fully fully stocked nursing lab that has human simulators so when students come in if they if they're shortage of clinical experiences or if we want to supplement clinical experiences they can work on human simulators fully computerized simulators two years ago we built our zero energy building which not only serves as a building on campus for our staff but there's also an open lab so our students who are on our sustainable energy programs can go on and look at technology they can see the photovoltaic and how it generates power they can see the LED lighting in action they can see how geothermal works so we do as much as we can in the programmatic areas to ensure technology is there for our students but more importantly for all of our students we are now in a thin client system so imagine a student in the past might have to go into a cad lab to take their cad class or to do their homework they'd have to come to campus they'd have to enter the cad lab those students now can log in from their home computer and it's a virtualized machine they will see every piece of software that the classes are enrolled in should they should have access to based on those classes and so it helps the students and measurably they don't have to drive to campus I don't have to spend the gas or the time they can now do these things from home so our goal is to take technology and enhance the student experience wherever possible whether it's classroom related or whether its overall technology for the campus a person that would be smiling about all this new things success at Lakeland College will be dr. Robert webby recently passed away dr. Webb had ties with Eastern Illinois University in addition to his a work with Lakeland College Lakeland College got started 50 years ago and dr. Webb was one of the I guess he's call original leaders of Lakeland what did you what did you learn from dr. Webb you know dr. Webb began you right at the college he was there when it started and imagine a man who would leave a secure job as a superintendent of schools in Shelbyville to take on this entirely new venture there's unproven adventure of community colleges amazing to me that somebody would have that passion and then to move from a vice president to serving as president for 12 years incredible but what I've learned from dr. Webb because I not only saw him in many many Lakeland College events but I serve as a Rotarian with dr. Webb and if he's taught me anything it's not to take yourself too seriously that don't ever let the job don't have let the job overtake you as an individual take time to to count the count your blessings smell the roses and you know I'll always appreciate that from dr. Webb to to help me see that in what can often times be an onerous job and to what you learn from dr. Webb what should people remember about him and hit what his impact on Lakeland College was oh gosh dr. Webb's impact was tremendous he was there from the day that we were operating in various locations around Mattoon from the the armory to an old gas station to seeing the campus grow and built to building the beautiful campus we have on on route 45 now he was there through all that he took us from a few students to 2,600 FTE by the time he retired as president you know I think staff will remember his his wisdom his friendship but I think also his commitment to our communities he was one of the founders of the east central Illinois Development Corporation which is a collaboration of multiple communities multiple entities in those communities and it's still alive and going one of the few in the state that has cross county collaborative economic development engine and he started that at Lakeland College so he his contributions are truly a measurable for who we are as an institution today we wouldn't have Lakeland College as it stands today if it weren't for dr. Webb and dr. Webb as I previously imagined he had ties to Eastern Illinois University how would you describe the EIU n Lakeland College relationship yeah I think we've have a fantastic relationship we've done a number of things in the past we now have a service center in lakeland college's campus for EIU and that's because the majority of our students who transfer transfer to east you'll annoy University and we recognize that we want to make sure we can continue to facilitate that transfer because as I said before if we can keep them in our communities for education we can keep them here to become employees and become contributors and become good citizens so that was opened last year we signed a reverse transfer agreement with Eastern Illinois University that provides a seamless reverse transfer students if they should happen to leave Lakeland College before graduating in transition Eastern we can now take those credits back and graduate them from from Lakeland College and I'll say I've had many many interactions dr. Glassman and I are on the phone probably once or twice a week and i will say that our relationship i can guarantee will only continue to get stronger and I think our partnership will only continue to get stronger we have a lot of good that we can do together for our communities and for the surrounding communities and I have no doubt that that's going to occur under dr. Glassman's leadership strength of the community's strength for coles county they have to hire forms of Education it's quite a unique opportunity and I'm sure matching Charleston all of coles county is really proud to have Lakeland College and Eastern Illinois University what do you think about that uniqueness of small coles county USA and Illinois to have to hire forms of Education you're absolutely right what a blessing for the community and what a blessing for us as institutions to have the support that we have Coles County is extremely blessed and the surrounding communities we serve our Blessed we have very positive relationships as a college we serve 53 communities and 15 counties but we're extremely proud of our relationship with Mattoon in our relationship with Charleston it's a matter of fact last year the Mattoon City Council approved putting on the water tower by the home depot home of Lakeland College but to show that that's that's orton that relationship that we have we work extremely closely together as communities with the college's with the university to ensure that we're all there to support each other and as I asked dr. Glassman previous episode of City spotlight I asked him about how he I you impacts Charleston and vice versa how does like on college impact Mattoon and how does Mattoon impact Lakeland College well I think mattoon's impact on Lakeland College is probably more important the college's impact on Mattoon we work extremely collaborative together I'll give you an example of the Lakeland College Police Department which is a fully sworn law enforcement agency serves as backup to Mattoon so in times when there might be shortages or might be late at night and something happens we work collaboratively together and I think we see that across everything that we do we work extremely collaboratively with the city of Mattoon so we're very proud to be located in Mattoon we're very proud to be located in Coles County what does Lakeland College get from Mattoon I don't think we expect anything from the city I think we just expect to continue to have a strong partnership and we continue to be there for each other to ensure that we can help our communities grow and one thing I want to ask you about Eastern Illinois University I adopted a new logo and I understand we're taping this prior to the it happening but lakelands going to have a new logo branding marketing is something that's probably very important to most institutions in any any business talk about that process of changing the Lakeland logo it was quite an extensive process a matter of fact we we had well over 100 community members staff students variety of people involved in discussions about what is our brand mean what does Lakeland College mean to you and through all those discussions we realized that what we were portraying is lakeland college and our current logo at that time really didn't express who we were as an institution to those individuals and so we worked on developing a new logo which we're extremely proud of we're also going to be november 24th releasing the name of our new mascot we have a new lakeland college mascot the mallard and that is after many many years of having dunker duck at the college that just didn't seem to fit anymore it's more related to basketball it's not broadly used for athletics and and student activities and things so our lakeland college mascot is new the students love it the staff love it hopefully when the naming comes out November 24th the community will embrace our new mascot in its new name so we're taping this prior to it so yes we were showing that on the screen right now what what what does that do for a changer to change your logo which is you know kind of the symbol it how people recognize what else what does that do for an institution I think it brings a fresh new look and feel the institution it makes people reconsider who we are as institutional one of the things we found in our research was everybody knew Lakeland College was there and everybody knew what Lakeland College did for the community but I view it much like being in a marriage for a long period of time where maybe you kind of grow accustomed to each other and you don't really have a lot of expectations beyond what you know of each other and so this is a new way for us to express who we are as institution and to get people excited about gosh maybe I better check out Lakeland College again and see what the new lakeland college is about it so it's really hopefully they're 22 rhian tice people to think about Lakeland College sorry exciting a brand new logo for lakeland that's all the questions I have for you josh is there anything else that may have pop in your head now that you want to reiterate here as we conclude this episode of City spotlight I just want to say thank you for allowing me to be here and share the Lakeland College story again we are so proud to partner with Eastern Illinois University and I can assure you that good things are on the horizon for those partnerships into the future and I know all of us are struggling with budgets but you know what if we all consider that our students are our number one priority and helping our communities to thrive and sustain themselves we'll all be ok so I'm going to go great ending to this episode dr. Josh bullet the president of Lakeland College thank you for coming on City spotlight you're very welcome and as we continue on here on City spotlight let's take a look at some of the upcoming activities going on in Mattoon you city spotlight is on YouTube past episodes can be viewed on east central Illinois towns that have been featured on City spotlight just search on youtube City spotlight with the show number and the name of the town listed on your screen are the recent episodes of City spotlight city spotlight is supported by consolidated communications CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area as well as providing TV Internet and phone service to local homes and businesses we live where we work and are proud to support the communities we serve more information available at consolidated.com