MCC's Quality Endowment Providing $12,000 in FundingSupport for the Frymire Family Award Series

Madisonville Community College’s (MCC) Quality Endowment, has reserved $12,000 in interest income to support employee professional development projects during the 2012-2013 academic year. Beginning in 2012, the awards have been renamed the Frymire Family Award Series in honor of Richard and Phyllis Frymire, long-time benefactors of both MCC and the Glema Mahr Center for the Arts. Judge Frymire was General Chairman of the Partners in Progress community gifts campaign, and at the conclusion of this five-year effort in 1999, the Quality Endowment was established. Endowment deposits that support the Frymire Family Awards have a current market value of just over $275,000 and have received generous gifts over the past decade from the Frymires, Autoliv North America, Bobby & Patty Dampier, Chester and Jennifer Thomas, and the late Brown Badgett, Sr. MCC officially renamed the award series honoring the Frymires during a December 1, 2011 luncheon.

The endowment is intended to provide flexible spending options for various academic endeavors, particularly activities associated with natural sciences, mathematics, humanities, student counseling and advising, and support of employees pursuing higher education degrees. The maximum annual award per employee is $1,200. Awards made for the upcoming year include support for: 

• Two Biology/Anatomy faculty members attending the annual Human Anatomy & Physiology (HAPS) Conference, a premier conference of this particular discipline in the entire country. 
• Assistant Professor of Spanish participating in the Kentucky World Language Association Conference. 
• Three staff members working towards their Masters of Science degrees from Murray State University. 
• Advancement Director attending a “generational giving” seminar; material will focus on changing methods of contact and solicitation between generations and differences in giving priorities. 
• Three Humanities Division faculty members presenting at the Popular Culture Association in the South Conference; specific presentations will include incorporation of material from “The Hunger Games” into gender communication practices and critical/radical thinking experiences in the local classroom.
  - Communications Professor presenting doctoral dissertation work at the Association for the Study of Higher Education Conference (ASHE); the general conference theme involves learning and assessment techniques in two-year college settings. 
• Four Advising and Transfer Center staff to attend the national conference for the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA); staff are heavily involved with the college’s First Semester Experience project. 
• Director of the Glema Mahr Center for the Arts to attend the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP). 
• Three administrative coordinators attending specific job-related computer/software training

The MCC Advancement Office hopes to secure additional cash and estate gifts for the Quality Endowment over the next 2-5 years and to have $1 million in total endowment principle by 2016, including $400,000 to permanently support professional development awards. Besides the Frymire Family Awards, the Endowment is also used to fund technology purchases for the Joe C. Davis Science & Technology Building and the Brown Badgett, Sr. Energy & Advanced Technology Center, to support Sadler Center tutorial staff wages at MCC’s Muhlenberg Campus, and to fund the college’s comprehensive Advising and Transfer Center.