Steve Fast News Today

Former Normal Mayor and initiator of uptowns revitalization plan Kent Karraker has died at the age of 87.

Enrollment statistics at Heartland Community College have returned to pre-pandemic levels as programs have grown and student services have expanded.

Heartland Community College has proposed a nearly 5% tuition increase for the next school year. The school's Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on the plan Tuesday night. Heartland staff cite several factors in seeking the increase, including uncertainty in tax revenue and state funding.

Heres what some Illinois university and community college leaders had to say about Gov. J.B. Pritzkers budget proposal.

Heartland Community College has approved construction of a $17.5 million building for manufacturing classes. President Keith Cornille says the new Advanced Manufacturing and Training Center on campus will house HCC's electric vehicle and energy storage programs.

Heartland Community College plans to mandate indoor mask use starting Aug. 2. Heartland Community College has announced it will now require everyone to wear face masks indoors this fall, including people who are fully vaccinated. The college in Normal changed its guidelines after the Centers for Disease Control and the Illinois Department of Public Health issued new guidance to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus, in particular the highly-contagious Delta variant. Heartland’s publi...

Emily Bamforth, EdScoop Following a ransomware attack last October that disrupted the operations of Illinois’ Heartland Community College, leaders approved a budget this month designed to rebuild defenses, but also to position systems to quickly adjust to future threats. “We were looking at our back-end data management,” said Steve Fast, public information director of the central Illinois college. “When we had to take everything down and revert to backups, the thought was, do you want t...

Emily Bamforth, EdScoop Following a ransomware attack last October that disrupted the operations of Illinois’ Heartland Community College, leaders approved a budget this month designed to rebuild defenses, but also to position systems to quickly adjust to future threats. “We were looking at our back-end data management,” said Steve Fast, public information director of the central Illinois college. “When we had to take everything down and revert to backups, the thought was, do you want t...