Creston— The Southwestern Community College (SWCC) board of directors met on Tuesday, August 21, 2012, at 8:30 a.m., for their regular monthly board meeting. Due to a light agenda, the meeting was held electronically.
In personnel, the board approved the resignation of nursing instructor Steve Orazem who has accepted a similar position at Des Moines Area Community College. Orazem came to Southwestern in August 2011 from Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, where he was employed as manager of the oncology unit.
The board approved the employment of Wendy Pringle for Orazem’s position. Pringle, who earned her associate degree in nursing from Southwestern, has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Grand View University and is working toward her master’s degree in nursing education from Chamberlain College. She has worked as a registered nurse and night supervisor at Greater Regional Medical Center in Creston since 2006 and has been a registered nursing clinical instructor for Southwestern since 2010.
During the president’s report, Tom Lesan, vice president of economic development, reported on the reconstruction progress following the tornado damage on campus. According to Lesan, as of Friday, August 17, the college has certificates of occupancy for the Spartan Hall and Spartan Suites residence halls. Therefore, Lesan said the college is cleared to allow students to move into the facilities. In West Hall, Lesan said the carpet was to be completed by the end of the day on Tuesday and the electrician was to be in later in the week to finish the electric work. Lesan said the plan was to be able to occupy West Hall as of Friday. As for the Technical Center, Lesan said all of the glass for the building front is now on site and the old metal is down, but the new metal has not arrived yet. The construction on the Technical Center should be complete by the end of September. Because the remaining re-construction on the Technical Center is just cosmetic, classes will be held in the facility while the work is wrapped up. Lesan said employees from the adult and continuing education department were back in their offices in the Performing Arts Center as of Fri., August 17.
The board received copies of the college’s five-year facilities report for their review. The board will take action on the plan at the September board meeting as required by the Department of Education.
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