By Ziba Kon
In Motion Staff Writer
At the October Daytona State College Board of Trustees meeting, member Forough Hosseini opened up the discussion by initiating a vote for donations from DSC to be given to Hope Place. The motion was approved unanimously by members in attendance.
Recently DSC has acquired a new 3-D printer and at this meeting Daytona State President Tom Lobasso passed around a few samples of what could be made using the printer. In addition, the board reported that recently there was a successful hosting of the Florida Innovations and Excellence Expo that focused mainly on math.
In the ongoing construction of the student center progress was made when steel beams were finally delivered. Also, Homecoming events were reviewed, including the Mr. and Ms. DSC which took place the day before at the Hosseini center. During the meeting, a slideshow of the pageant was played.’
Prior to the meeting, earlier that morning, the board honored four alumni. The Distinguished Faculty/Staff Alumni Award went to Bill Tillard, a 1977 graduate of the institution’s Law Enforcement Academy. Prior to returning to the college in 1998 to serve as director of Campus Safety, Tillard had a 25-year career with the Daytona Beach Police Department. At DSC, he has spent nearly 20 years honing an effective Campus Safety unit that serves all college properties. He has helped to secure nearly $1 million in federal, state and local grants, and has led numerous campus safety initiatives, including installing security cameras at all campuses and partnering with law enforcement to have a police presence at all campuses.
Entrepreneur Chris Gilpin was presented the Young Alumni Excellence Award. Gilpin earned his Associate of Arts degree from Daytona State, then transferred to the University of Central Florida, where he majored in business. Today, he is the president of Signal Vault, a DeBary-based company that produces a card-like device that is designed to block hackers from remotely scanning the electronic chips embedded in today’s credit cards. Last year, Chris was the featured presenter during the college’s L. Gale Lemerand Entrepreneurial Speaker Series event.
Dr. Mikael Jones received the prestigious Margaret Crumley Award for Distinguished Achievement in Science, which honors an alumnus who achieved an associate degree from DSC’s School of Biological and Physical Sciences and who has made significant contributions in their field. Recipients of this award are nominated and selected by science faculty. Dr. Jones earned his Associate of Arts degree from the college in 1998. He received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Florida, and completed a Pharmacy Practice and Primary Care Pharmacy Practice Residency at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center.
Today, he is the university’s Patient Care Laboratory director, as well as a course coordinator for UK’s Patient-Centered Care Experience course sequence. He also coordinates the Advanced Pharmacology course for the Doctor of Nursing Practice program at UK’s College of Nursing.
Alumni of the Year honors went to Dixie Morgese who started her DSC studies as a new mother looking for a new start. After completing the Center for Women and Men’s Fresh Start program, she earned her Associate of Science in Human Services degree in 1995, and went on to receive her bachelor’s degree Magna Cum Laude from St. Leo University. Later, she added Certified Addictions Professional and International Drug and Alcohol Counselor designations to her portfolio. Dixie served as a consultant for health and family service organizations throughout Florida before being named executive director of the Healthy Start Coalition of Flagler and Volusia. She also has served as an adjunct faculty for DSC’s Institute of Health Services.
Next on the agenda was an overview of DSC online courses and updates from Daytona Beach Campus Provist Amy Locklear. One of the items talked about was the bachelor’s program and results from the annual online education survey reported to U.S. Best News. The board members were pleased that for the last five years DSC received a good ranking.
Locklear continued by stating that DSC has the most courses taught by faculty with a high percent of them having terminal degrees. She went on to explain that office hours and online services such as the library, tutors or technical support, helped DSC score higher in the study.
She mentioned that percentages of students taking out financial aid loans went down from last year to this year. The only bad remarks DSC received in the study was that students are given a much larger window of opportunity to perform and complete tests.
President Lobasso said, “It’s a philosophical question whether or not we should care about a survey question because students that work that are getting a larger window for taking tests online is something good for them.”
The board voted and approved numerous items, among them replacing many roofs on campuses for hurricane preparedness and funds for the Soccer Complex, Greene Center (Building 300, which houses the Center for Men and Women and the Credit Union) and News-Journal emergency hurricane repairs.
Next the college’s finances were reported by Senior Vice President of Isalene Montgomery, Chief Business Officer at DSC. She said most of the figures remained the same from previous months, but reported an improvement in tuition fees paid, which currently stand at $12.7 million.
Finally, SGA President Sofia Rivas said she was very happy that Mr. and Ms. DSC was so packed and successful, saying “We hope we put smiles on faces that night.”