Dr. Roy Silver Elected to serve on the Rural Community College Alliance Board

Dr. Silver elected to serve on RCCA Board

Dr. Roy Silver, a long-time faculty member at Southeast Kentucky Community amp; Technical College, has been elected to the board of the Rural Community College Alliance (RCCA) during the bodys recent assembly held in Oklahoma City.

A professor of sociology at Southeast since his arrival in 1989, Dr. Silver will serve on the RCCA board whose mission is to direct the organization as it works to help improve education and economic opportunities for rural communities across the United States. RCCA holds yearly conferences that focus on learning from each of the member colleges while visiting rural community college campuses and their communities while also providing opportunities for technical assistance. The organization, according to Dr. Sliver, serves as a national voice for the nations rural community colleges and the areas they serve.

Southeast Kentucky Community amp; Technical College has been affiliated with the organization since 2005 and was a charter member. Previously, SKCTC was a member of the Ford Foundations Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI). The college was invited to participate in RCCI by the former president of Hazard Community amp; Technical College Ed Hughes. It was a national demonstration program of 24 community and tribal colleges that helped transform the community development work implemented and carried out by Southeast.

As a member of the board of directors, Dr. Silvers duties will include helping provide direction for the organization, lobbying at the federal and state levels, and being a strong advocate for rural communities and rural community colleges.

It is certainly an honor to be the first faculty member elected to the board of RCCA, he said. I hope to give voice to the needs of faculty, students and rural communities. Every other board member has been a college president of a rural or tribal community college. Education is vital to creating a vibrant future for rural communities and for our country. We are at a critical period in the history of the rural community colleges and our communities. At Southeast , like other rural community colleges, we have experienced enrollment increases yet our budgets have not kept pace with these increases, and this poses many challenges for students, faculty and our colleges.

A native of New York City, Dr. Silver holds a bachelors degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Toledo, and he earned a masters degree from Queens College of the City University of New York.

He resides in Benham.