State Representative Jeff Dial tours Eastern Arizona college

House Higher Ed chair tours EAC

By David Bell

THATCHER — State Rep. Jeff Dial said he was at Eastern Arizona College Oct. 9 to get a better understanding about the institutions his committee oversees.
"I want to understand the community colleges, and I’d never been to Graham County before,” Dial said."Seeing what they do makes making decisions a lot easier.”
Dial, R-Chandler, chairs the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee and toured the EAC campus, including a stop at the Nursing Education Center. There, Nursing Division Chair Carolyn McCormies showed Dial the Skills Lab — a series of hospital beds and mannequins that simulate a series of health-care scenarios — and the Sim Lab. That’s where a student will deal one-on-one with a patient (another lifelike mannequin that can mimic a number of health issues) while being video recorded and monitored by the teaching staff.
"It’s phenomenal what we can do in this room,” McCormies said.

Dial said he was impressed with what he saw during his tour.

"I went to a community college before going on to ASU. And it’s partnerships — like EAC’s partnership with ASU — that are the key to getting affordable education to as many people as possible,” Dial said."Like the JTEDs (Joint Technical Education Districts), where the high schools work with the community colleges . . . it’s working with limited resources to create opportunities.”
Dial said his committee is hearing from a number of community colleges across the state that the biggest concerns involving the Legislature are restoring capital funding for maintenance and new building construction, and restoration of the STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Math — funding levels.
Todd Haynie, director of marketing and public relations for EAC, said Dial is one of many elected officials at the state and federal level invited to tour the college.
"We’re trying to introduce the college to as many people as we can,” he said."We think we have something special here, and we want to showcase that.”
www.eacourier.com/news/house-higher-ed-chair-tours....html


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