Flint Hills Technical College is getting ready for a major anniversary celebration over the next six weeks.
President Caron Daugherty had details on KVOE’s monthly Tech Talk program during Tuesday’s Morning Show. The diamond jubilee, marking the college’s 60th anniversary, opens with a Wrangler Friends and Family event on Sept. 27 — but a huge event at the college’s main campus Oct. 18 when the college’s main facilities get renamed in honor of past college presidents who served at least a decade in that role: Richard Metcalf, Keith Stover and Dean Hollenbeck.
The renaming ceremony will be followed by The Cut, the college’s annual cooking competition, on Oct. 19. The Alumni and Friends cornhole tournament is Oct. 21.
While the college gets ready for these events, it’s also continuing master plan work. Daugherty says the board is approved an effort to engage with an architecture design build firm to continue this process. Initially, the board had started a process to work towards a new advanced manufacturing facility. That’s still on the table, but Daugherty says the college also needs to take a broad look at all its facility needs — both current and future.
The college has also sent out a Request for Proposal involving a maintenance facility for an expanded industrial technology program. That’s also currently “on pause.”
This comes as the college continues studying how best to meet the education needs of a major semiconductor production facility in Burlington as well as similar future projects. It also comes after the college began an early childhood education program — and it comes with the college eyeing an agriculture education program down the road.
