Many state and local officials, along with representatives from the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, met at the Harlan Center on Wednesday to listen to KCTCS President Dr. Michael B. McCall announce a new statewide public advocacy campaign.

McCall said that this new aggressive advocacy campaign was needed to help KCTCS meet the needs of a growing student enrollment. The theme for the campaign is ‘Transforming Lives, Transforming Kentucky.”

“One of the reason I am here tonight is to talk about how I can engage you, how I can get your help and have you help us move forward as well. So we need your help,” McCall said.

Using a strong three-tiered system, McCall believes he can create advocates for KCTCS, not just supporters.

“I can look all around this room and see supporters, but we also need advocates to speak up during critical times,” said McCall.

The first way to build a strong advocacy program, McCall said, was to get a grassroots campaign of people signing an online petition on the KCTCS Web site. Once signed up, that person’s name is placed on a petition and then it is sent to their respective representative in Frankfort. McCall explained this lets the representative know that there is support for KCTCS and when voting on budget items they should keep the community college system in mind.

The second part is a huge media campaign featuring television commercials, Internet media and a large printed media blitz. McCall hopes that this new focus and slogan of transforming lives will be a tremendous success.

The final part is what McCall said was a legislative campaign toward representatives across the state.

“What we need to do is convince this state that it is an investment in our institution is an investment in higher education and will pull us through,” said McCall.

Starting in January of 2010, KCTCS will have representatives every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday all day long at the Capitol in Frankfort. Then on Feb. 25, a special rally at the Capitol Rotunda will be held in an effort to show state officials how many students are affected and rely on the budget KCTCS currently has.

McCall said that even though their enrollment rates has grown tremendously all across the state, the amount of financial support they receive has not increased to reflect the new student increases.

KCTCS operates 16 colleges with 38 campuses throughout the state, operating on a small capital budget of around $480,000,000. McCall explained this budget is used for the renovating and construction of new buildings and implementation of new programs. KCTCS expects to have nearly 110,000 students enrolled this next semester.