CICC Hill Briefing Spotlights Rural Serving Institutions
Workforce development, innovation, and importing and retaining talent were three themes that emerged during a Capitol Hill briefing this week co-hosted by the Congressional Independent Colleges Caucus (CICC) and the House Rural Caucus.
The briefing, which focused on the impact private, nonprofit colleges and universities have on rural communities, was the second of two annual seminars held by the CICC and featured Matthew Thompson, president, Kansas Wesleyan University (Salina, KS) and Burton Webb, president, University of Pikeville (Pikeville, KY) who recounted the impact their institutions and graduates have in their communities.
The event kicked off with remarks by CICC Co-Chairs, Reps. Ben Cline (R-VA) and Deborah Ross (D-NC), both of whom cited the crucial contributions of rural serving institutions in their states as economic and civic anchors. Ross noted that 94 of 100 counties in North Carolina are considered rural, and that “…these schools can provide the only realistic pathway to higher education for many low-income, first-generation students in geographically isolated areas.”
Thompson shared that Kansas Wesleyan has launched a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the institute that founded the organic farming movement, with students gaining the technical and business expertise to pursue regenerative farming and make it economically sustainable. He also noted that the economic impact of the private, nonprofit college sector in the state of Kansas—over $1 billion annually—was comparable to last year’s export of Kansas beef.
Webb discussed Pikeville’s commitment to serving the healthcare needs of its region and noted that next year they will launch the first school of dentistry in Eastern Kentucky, joining its medical school and school of optometry. The region has seen an entire generation of dental practitioners disappear over the past decade, with not a single new practitioner having moved in, creating a “dental desert” in a region that covers roughly a third of the state. Nursing students who commit to working for three years in the local hospital upon graduation receive scholarships covering all of their tuition and room-and-board fees. The university also launched a Disaster Relief Center, inspired by and building on the university’s response to last year’s devastating floods in the region.
The House Rural Caucus is co-chaired by Reps. Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Terri Sewell (D-AL),
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Suzanne Stokes Vieth