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Dec. 6, 2002

ULM's Aviation Department honored as a "Program of Excellence"

The Aviation Department at the University of Louisiana at Monroe was honored at the annual CenturyTel Accent on Excellence Breakfast, held earlier this week, at the Monroe Civic Center. Accent on Excellence is an annual event held to honor outstanding educators and educational programs at Monroe City and Ouachita Parish Schools and at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

The ULM Program of Excellence for this year was the Aviation Program. It was chosen for its involvement with the Monroe Airport. ULM's Aviation Program and the Monroe Air Center LLC have developed a partnership that benefits both parties. Paul Karlowitz, head of ULM's Aviation Department says this of the partnership, "The Aviation Program works with Monroe Airport businesses in a cooperative effort to train both pilots and aviation management personnel. Along with internship positions in the Monroe Airport Managers Office, other businesses provide part time employment that facilitates hands-on experience for the students. This is an advantage to both ULM and the airport. We are proud to be recognized in this way. This award proves that businesses and Universities can work can together for mutual benefit."

While ULM gives the students the grounding they need in aviation science, the Monroe Air Center will give them the flight experience they need. Instead of competing for the same students, both parties cooperate to give students the complete experience needed to obtain their flight certificates.

The Code of Federal Regulations title 14, part 141 for FAA certified flight schools provide guidelines that are very strict. There are approved structures for both classroom and air work to meet syllabus requirement for courses that certify students for flight. By a letter of agreement ULM provides ground and simulator instruction and then sends students to the Monroe Air Center for flight experience. The Monroe Air Center LLC is a FAA certified part 141 Flight School. By allowing the University to send its students for flight training, the Monroe Air Center helps ULM avoid the heavy expenses of equipment purchase, operation, maintenance and insurance. The Monroe Air Center, in return, gets students to train.

The community also stands to benefit from this program. ULM is in the process of developing flight training that will be available for the local community and businesses. This will be possible because the University has just received three state-of-the-art full motion flight simulators. These remarkable flight simulators were, until just recently, available only to the large flight training corporations due to the high cost of full motion flight simulators. In fact, these are the first affordable simulators to provide full motion simulation to general aviation aircraft. A developing proposal will allow Monroe companies that previously had to send employees away for expensive training to now go through ULM's Continuing Education Department to obtain the training locally, for a fraction of the cost. In addition pilots who don't log the hours required by the FAA in the air may lose their certification. ULM flight simulators will be able to meet FAA requirements, so there is no need to do expensive re-training or re-certification. Local pilots who are short on flight time can use this inexpensive way to stay certified.

In addition to recognizing the Program of the Year, Accent on Excellence also honors teachers. ULM Professors recognized at the event were: Dr. Michael K. Ramsey, Professor of Clinical Laboratory Science; Dr. Ron Berry, Entergy Endowed Professor and Head of CIS; Dr. Otis K. LoVette, Professor of Instructional Leadership and Counseling; Dr. Terry L. Jones, Professor of History and Government; Mrs. Linda Reid, Assistant Professor of Nursing; and Dr. W. Greg Leader, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Head of the Department of Clinical and Administrative Sciences (Pharmacy).

For this and other ULM News visit http://www.ulm.edu

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