Fort Hays Tech Northwest Luncheon Recap

This Monday, Fort Hays State President Tisa Mason, Fort Hays Tech Northwest President Corey Isbell and Fort Hays State Vice President for Economic and Workforce Development (former FHTN president) Ben Schears spoke at a luncheon at the Price Convention Center in Goodland, Kansas.

There was a lot to go over from their speeches, including a new child care center that’s under construction according to Isbell. They’ve already broken ground on the facility and plan to start taking kids in around January or February. He also discussed the importance of their Commercial Driver’s License program, and getting that program live online.

Isbell then talked about the "Not So Tiny House," a home on the Fort Hays Tech Northwest campus made entirely by students. In Isbell's words, "he doesn't even know the full story" behind the house. They plan to turn it into a press box, with use for the school's softball fields.

Mason focused a lot on the student population at Fort Hays State early, citing updated enrollment numbers. Their in-person student body is on the rise and their online student core has stayed about even with previous years. She also brought up Fort Hays Tech Northwest students making the jump to the Fort Hays State main campus, as there were 50 that did so.

She also discussed goals for the school, including a three-year plan: "We had our first five years and we're in our second year of our three-year plan," Mason said, "all in the same goal theme, academic excellence, making sure we stay up on professional development for our faculty, learning outcomes for our students and good program outcomes for our programs."

Ben Schears got to talk about some of the things they're developing at Fort Hays State: "One of the exciting things we're doing on the university side of things is taking some of these model behaviors that we see with the technical colleges," Schears said, "and trying to invent more of that into those business industry connections within the university."