You Can Make a Difference By Making a Charitable Gift

Get to Know Your COE Development Officer

Dean Identifies the Need is Great

Private Support Changes Lives

Why People Give

Learn More About Giving

COE Development Officer

Ellen Carter
Director of Major Gifts
1701 South Broadway
106 Russ Hall
Pittsburg, KS 66762-7518
620-235-4930
ecarter@pittstate.edu

University Development has announced the addition of a major gift officer who will help raise funds to benefit the College of Education. Ellen Carter was chosen to represent the College of Education as the university seeks to expand support for academic fundraising. She works to establish scholarships, facilitate planned gifts, fund capital projects, and support current programs.

Please contact Ellen for more information on making a difference at PSU through a charitable gift.

Dean Identifies The Need is Great

Scholarships

While the College of Education has made considerable progress in expanding the number of scholarships and the total amount of funds awarded, many students who deserve our support continue to go without it. At the Clyde U. Phillips Awards and Recognition Ceremony held this past spring, less than 50 students received scholarships from the nearly 300 students who had applied for the scholarships and met the basic qualifications for receiving at least one of them.

Faculty Development

One of the greatest challenges faced by the College of Education is the graying of our faculty and the impending retirement of key faculty leaders. Some of this has already begun. For example in the past two years, we have lost two senior Special Education faculty with a combined 50 years of service to Pittsburg State University.

To replace these faculty and to move their replacements to the same level of contributions to the institution is proving to be very expensive. In several cases, we have hired faculty without doctoral degrees, but we have had limited funds to support these new faculty in earning their degrees. We currently have 5 full-time faculty in the College who are pursuing doctoral degrees in addition to their responsibilities as assistant professors or instructors.

Additionally, as knowledge bases continue to grow, and as technology continues to dramatically impact all disciplines, the cost of staying current continues to escalate. We need to find ways to support our faculty as they seek to stay up-to-date in their fields of expertise. Our students deserve faculty who operate on the cutting edge of their disciplines, and we owe it to our faculty to help them get there.

Center for Human Services

For a number of years, the Department of Psychology and Counseling has had the dream of consolidating several human service operations into a single entity to be called the Center for Human Services. In the spring of 2003, this dream began to become a reality as the Department of Psychology and Counseling moved into Whitesitt Hall. At that time, six service units were moved along with the department and formally housed, both physically and conceptually, under the Center for Human Services. Those units are: Center for the Remediation of Reading Difficulties (CARRD); Adult Diagnostic Services; The Learning Center; The Testing Center; Student Counseling Services; and the Sexual Assault Response Team.

In every case these services are integrated into the academic programs of the department and in most cases are led by a member of the department’s faculty. This connection provides an extraordinary opportunity for students and faculty to bridge theory and practice.

In most cases, these programs operate with minimal institutional support, yet offer critical services to the campus and indeed the region. The true fulfillment of the dream of creating the Center for Human Services will not happen without additional financial support. The faculty leaders of these units are seeking innovative and creative ways to expand their funding as well as broaden the services offered and the number of individuals affected by their efforts, but they need and deserve additional support to truly fulfill the dreams they have for the Center.

Center for the Assessment and Remediation of Reading Difficulties (CARRD)

The CARRD was established in 1996 and is one of the components of the Center for Human Services mentioned above. If you have a strong interest in helping children who have reading problems, dyslexia, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, you will be interested in the CARRD. Based on nearly twenty years of research, the programs offered at the CARRD were developed to help children who are at risk of becoming reading disabled or who have reading problems or dyslexia.

The CARRD has assessed approximately 10,000 individuals and helped 2,500 individuals become better readers since its inception. A web site was developed for parents, teachers, and other professionals to be able to assess their children, students, and clients, with a very specific and informative assessment tool (www.ReadingScreening.org). It is hoped that the Reading Screening will help parents, teachers, and other professionals understand reading difficulties and what deficiencies their children are experiencing so that interventions can be developed to help their children become competent readers. More information concerning these programs can be seen at www.ReadingScreening.org or www.pittstate.edu/carrd

Dean’s Fund for Excellence: Unrestricted Funds

While the university has endured several years of minimal or limited budget increases from the state of Kansas, the cost of doing business for the College has not remained constant. As our costs have increased and our funding has remained flat, the College has been unable to meet the demands of faculty for the latest in computer hardware and software, funds for in-state travel for professional conferences and committee work, and increasing demand for printing services and supplies to support classroom and lab activities.

Consequently, a certain amount of funding is always needed that is given to the College in an ‘unrestricted’ manner. These funds are overseen by the Dean and are placed where the need is greatest in a way that helps us complete our mission and helps us build a brighter future for our students and faculty.

Private Support Changes Lives

Natalie O’Neal has benefited from others’ generosity. "I am currently a junior majoring in Elementary Education at Pittsburg State. With the assistance of scholarships, I have had the opportunity to further my educational endeavors at Pitt State. It is a great comfort and honor to receive a scholarship from the College of Education. Not only is it monetary support, but it is a tremendous emotional boost to continue my education."

James Lumley knows why private gifts make a difference in his position as Graduate Assistant for the Center for Human Services. “I’ve seen first graders go from being the worst reader in their class to being one of the most accomplished. Perhaps more importantly, aside from merely gaining word knowledge and phonological processing awareness, I’ve seen attitudes shift towards reading. Children who once dreaded the very thought of reading out loud or silently become excited when reading a new mystery story or science fiction adventure.”

Amy Ibbetson has seen the impact of giving at the Center for Human Services also. “I have witnessed on a firsthand basis children entering into the program with reading difficulties and children leaving with a firm grasp of reading principles.”

Why People Give

Roberta McNay has a motto that she has used to guide her through life: “Giving is receiving, and receiving is giving; that’s what makes life worth living.” The former teacher has put that motto into practice by creating endowed scholarship funds at Pittsburg State University that currently provide assistance to five students.

Once we receive our education, I think it is necessary to support the next generation.  Education is something which can never be taken away, and what better way to ensure the future than to help educate the young.
Being a teacher, I know the hard work and lack of resources that are common to all teachers.  I have worked with student teachers for many years, and I know that most of them have a very difficult time financially.  I think, by setting up a scholarship for student teachers, it is one of the best things I can do to help them.   During that all important semester of student teaching, they can concentrate on their teaching, rather than earning the necessary money to pay the bills.
I loved my years at PSU!  I received a good education, and the education department was way ahead of so many other universities. I am grateful for my educational experience; therefore, I think it is only right to give back to such a fine educational institution.