For more information, contact Michael Dawes, 620-792-9307, dawesm@bartonccc.edu

Nov. 4, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Story by: Michael Dawes
dawesm@bartonccc.edu 

Kansas National Guard soldiers in Afghanistan take an online Western Civilization course in their off-duty hours. Nearly 10 thousand miles away at Fort Riley Army Base a soldier’s spouse concentrates in a classroom, while she is taking a daytime psychology course, on her way toward earning an associate’s degree. Nearby on base, soldiers are getting a detailed study of U.S. Department of Transportation fuel regulations. A few miles away from the base, EMT instructors prepare emergency workers for state certification. And a hundred miles west of the base, or even a few states away for that matter, employees of a manufacturing plant train on the proper handling of hazardous materials.

Such diversity in education happens in typical fashion nowadays in the name of Barton Community College. The varied education and training programs are coordinated by the College’s Fort Riley Campus and its outreach training institute at Grandview Plaza. Those two areas are responsible for nearly half of Barton’s credit-hour production, which generated approximately $350,000 in revenue over expenditures last year. They have also made Barton recognizable at industries across the region and at Army bases across the nation. It wasn’t always that way, however.

Barton’s Fort Riley and Grandview Plaza operations started with a toehold in Junction City with emergency medical technician programs and law enforcement training class offerings in 1979. The partnership with Fort Riley began because Barton’s outreach coordinator possessed a sensitive ear and listened to the needs of the community. Barton’s president of that time, Dr. Jimmie Downing, recognized a need for Barton to expand its programs in order to grow enrollments to help ease the burden of county taxpayers.

“I was an education counselor at 1st Brigade Education Center at that time,” recalled Mark Sodamann, who now serves as Director of Education Services at Fort Riley. “A colonel with the 16th Infantry Battalion wanted college math for his soldiers in the evening and he wanted it in the unit, which was unheard of at the time. He wanted it in his classroom with his soldiers only on the days that he chose. There was a man by the name of David Lake who was doing medical classes with the soldiers …”

That man, David Lake, was Barton’s Director of Academic Outreach. Lake had extensive background in emergency management training and was already conducting EMT courses on base before his initial contact by Sodamann in 1983.

“We just got our foot in the door that way,” explained Lake, who is now retired and living in Lawrence. “It was just a matter of going where the need was.”

A year later, Barton earned the bid to offer developmental courses in the Army’s Basic Skills Enhancement Program and its Advanced Skills Enhancement Program, along with GED testing. A training contract was signed, but after several years of renewing contracts, the two parties signed a memorandum of agreement that Barton’s course offerings would be ongoing without a contract.

“Once the military realized we could offer programs and were flexible enough and we were able to provide other courses and programs for them, that confidence in Barton Community College allowed the program to expand to where it is today,” said Marvin Bahr, who served over Community Education as Barton’s Associate Dean of Administration.

Barton Fort Riley Campus began with one director, several full-time staff members and plenty of associate faculty and part-time employees. Barton’s operation grew rapidly, not only with general education for soldiers, but with eventually offering those courses to dependents, establishing military training and continuing with emergency management training.

“If they ever asked us for anything, we’d do what we could to make it happen,” remembered Lake. “I can’t remember a single time that we weren’t able to produce something that they wanted. Then we became more involved in asking them about certain types of training that would benefit them. It was just a matter of having your ear to the ground and listening to what was needed.”

“Our office had strong people, hard workers who were committed to quality education. The military had strict requirements about who could teach classes. They had to be certified and they had to have education requirements and we always found them. It was a lot of work, but it was a labor of love because we could see the difference it made for the soldiers and for our College.”

To be sure, coordinating efforts from two campuses was challenging. Lake taught an eight-hour EMT class every day for four straight weeks and still found time to serve 25 outreach sites in Barton’s seven-county service area. As Lake describes it, “there was a lot of good stuff going on.” Sodamann attributes the success of the program to Barton’s ability to successfully and effectively always answer the call.

“Flexibility is the key for any school that works with a military base,” explained Sodamann. “Some colleges are steeped in bureaucracy and have a difficult time changing; it’s hard for them to do. Barton has always been able to manage to find ways to achieve that flexibility and still deliver quality programs and support soldiers and their families here. Flexibility and the fact that Barton can meet the needs of our soldiers greatly impacted their success here.

“What people see today represents a heck of a lot of effort from a lot of people,” said Dr. Paul Maneth, a longtime administrator for the College who became a regular face in Topeka, meeting with the Kansas State Department of Education to approve yet another course for Barton-Fort Riley. “We took on the challenge at Fort Riley to see where it would go. I don’t think anyone really knew where it would go. We weren’t even thinking about online education at that time.”

Eventually, those three employees who had a heavy hand in the Barton Fort Riley operation moved along to pursue other opportunities. Bahr left the College in 1996, and Lake and Maneth left in 1999. Still today, all three said they feel a special connection to Barton-Fort Riley because of what transpired in establishing a foothold with the varied programs in the Fort Riley and Junction City areas.

“From time to time we go back to Great Bend,” said Bahr, who is now retired and living in Kansas City. “Whenever we drive by the Fort, I think about those days of helping to establish Barton at Fort Riley. It obviously turned out well. I’m proud to have a part in that.”

They continue to monitor the fruits of their labor as Barton’s Fort Riley operation continues to evolve and grow with creative minds and leadership of those who currently work with a sensitive ear to the ground.

“Today, I think the people we have working with the military are doing a great job,” said Maneth, who retired from the College as Dean of Instruction, but now serves as Chair on the College’s Board of Trustees. “It’s evidenced by the kind of harmony that still exists between Barton and the military.”