Iowa Valley Chancellor Kristi Fisher, all the Trustees, Provosts, CFO, and Liaison Cindy Schulte hosted Iowa Valley Day at the Capitol on Tuesday, meeting individually with their entire legislative delegation. Contract Lobbyists Jeff Smith and I were honored to be invited to the event along with Representative Mark Smith who has been a strong advocate for Community Colleges and had been minority leader in recent years; it was great to see his interaction with his local community college. MJ Dolan also shared that she appreciated the opportunity to join this group.
Iowa Lakes President Val Newhouse and Liaisons Julie Williams and Dan Lutat made their regular visit to the Capitol day on Wednesday, meeting with each of their Representatives and Senators. MJ Dolan also held our regular lobby meeting on Wednesday. In addition to the Iowa Lakes crew, Stephanie Bredman, Donna Orton, Cindy Schulte, Steve Warnstadt, and Martha Wick participated in the meeting with the Contract Lobbyists.
Legislators clearly appreciate our personal contacts by the colleges at the Capitol, which to me is an extension of that most critical relationship that we build at the local level. We have eight months every year when we are living with the fifty Senators and one hundred House members in our “merged areas.” It is easy to see that every one of our Community Colleges are doing their advocacy work locally.
On Thursday, Presidents Dan Kinney Sr., Dan Kinney Jr., Lori Sundberg, Kristi Fisher, and Don Doucette along with Jeff Kaufmann and Liaison Jim Kersten met with the Governor’s Chief of Staff on a number of our issues.
IACCT Legislative Consultant Dave Palmer : (515) 240-9155 or dlpalmer@iacct.com