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Mission:The mission of the University Centers of the San Miguel is to insure that the residents of the San Miguel watershed
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President Carol Dix, MLIS - Retired librarian and President of Ski Ranches HOA. Vice-President Yvette Hensen, MS - Colorado State University Extension Director San Miguel and west Montrose Counties Secretary Sarah Landeryou, MLS - Public Service Coordinator, Wilkinson Public Library Treasurer Paula MacMillan, MBA (candidate) - Chief Financial Officer, Kirkendoll Management LLC Eric Nepsky, MA - Adjunct Faculty, Mesa State College Heather Exby, ME - Director of Regional Programming, Mesa State College Joel Lee, Dr. P.H. - Joel M. Lee, Dr.P.H., Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and Professor, University of Georgia Timothy Gibbs, MPA - Director of Industry and Workforce Development, Colorado Northwestern Community College
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Robyn Thiel Wilson, ME, MA - Executive Director
Elizabeth Cichella, MS - Program Coordinator
Part-time/Occasional Instructors for UCSM's Continuing Education courses must be able to document expertise in their field and successful teaching/demonstration/mentoring experience with adult learners. We are interested in hearing from those qualified to teach computer applications, business, accounting, and hospitality courses, and from native Spanish speakers with college level training in teaching Spanish to adults. Our continuing education courses run the gamut from small 4 hour workshops to 16 - 20 hour courses, and generally meet once a week except for intensive language courses.
Part-time; contracted by term. Faculty for UCSM's accredited courses must be approved by the accrediting college and academic department and are paid directly by the colleges according to their adjunct faculty payscale. Minimum qualifications include an undergraduate degree in the discipline and a masters degree, or equivalent advanced degree, in a related field. UCSM seeks experienced teachers who are interested in the challenges of teaching and mentoring non-tradtional students, many of whom are enrolling in college courses for the first time as mature adults, or returning to college after a long hiatus. Flexibility and creativity and a committment to the mission of the University Centers is requisite. The UCSM uses grant funds to subsidize some core general education college courses so that compensation will not reduced by our typically small enrollments. Minimum enrollment is six. There are some opportunties to mentor independent study students especially through Prescott College. Faculty are needed for 100 and 200 level general education courses in math, business management, hospitality and tourism, and history. Faculty typically teach one or two courses per year in our three term schedule.
Welcome to the University Centers of the San Miguel, Inc. Established in 2005, UCSM is a 501c3 non-profit college access program providing convenient and affordable higher education and professional skills classes for the residents and employees of the San Miguel River Watershed region and neighboring rural communities. Our professional staff provides free academic and college counseling for anyone interested in starting or completing college and/or seeking to improve their career options.
The educational functions of the UCSM are similar to those of a rural community college branch campus. UCSM brokers with several regional colleges to provide accreditation of our local credit courses. Like a community college, we focus on providing access to lower level core academic courses which prepare students to transfer to four year programs. We also provide a full range of academic advising and student support services, develop courses of particular benefit to the continuing education and training needs of our local workforce, and cater to the interests of lifelong learners, including our large contingent of part time residents.
UCSM enhances the cultural life of the area by including courses that integrate and increase knowledge and appreciation of the area’s many cultural resources and that encourage intellectual creativity and multi-cultural competence by applying place-based education.
Economic benefits: USCM was designed to contribute to the economic health of the community by improving the training and education of our local workforce. Local businesses, schools, and government offices are paying for their employees to take courses through UCSM because it improves their productivity and competence and because it is much less costly than sending such employees to programs outside the area. UCSM also provides needed supplemental income for our core of local faculty and instructors. Telluride needs to continue to attract and keep residents, employees, teachers, and investors who have the potential to contribute personally and professionally to the health and sustainability of the community. For many such people who may consider moving or staying here, a higher education program or institution is considered a vital community asset and one that speaks to the long term viability of the community, as well as to its ability to provide them adequate resources for continued personal and career growth. In the past many ambitious and talented local employees have left the community and their local jobs to start or finish a college education. Now there are options in their home communities and access to professional and accessible student support services to help them plan and succeed.
Community responsiveness is measured simply and accurately by annual enrollment and re-enrollment figures. We have consistantly increased our annual enrollment to 260 since the first UCSM academic year in 2005-2006. Local residents and business owners consistently praise the organization and UCSM is working more closely than ever with local businesses and organizations to provide classes that will directly benefit them.
UCSM assists students with applying to our partner colleges for federal and state financial aid. The Textbook Loan Program is a revolving loan program which buys textbooks and loans them to low income students for the semester at a nominal fee. The exorbitant cost of textbooks is identified as a major barrier to college enrollment for low income students in the United States.
Unique and Creative: The University Centers of the San Miguel is the only locally supported rural higher education access program in the State of Colorado and one of only a few such grass roots community initiatives in the nation. UCSM was created to fill the critical gap in educational and professional training for our residents and workforce that no public college is able to fill because of our low population numbers and remote and scattered communities. UCSM mission is uniquely integrated with the natural, multi-cultural, and economic environments of the San Miguel Watershed communities and thus offers creative options for programs and course content relevant to these environments and appropriate to field based and other experiential learning. UCSM’s decentralized structure, using community facilities for classrooms and services in socio-economically diverse and distant communities, is modeled after a similar program on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota that serves a group of remote and culturally distinctive communities within that reservation’s enormous territory. UCSM is committed to the concept of teaching students in face to face classes led by highly qualified local faculty, rather than through impersonal and canned curricula in online distance courses taught by instructors with no commitment to local students or community needs. However, UCSM is also a local support center for students planning to pursue or already enrolled in degree completion or graduate work through the unique community-based distance programs of Prescott College.