An influx of students is forcing Allen Community College to look for more housing opportunities for the 2019-20 school year. Thats a good problem, ACC Board of Trustee members said at their meeting Tuesday night.
Student housing is 18 students shy of capacity for the upcoming fall semester. A number of students have yet to decide if they want to live on campus.
Housing in Iola isnt easy to come by because of out-of-town workers associated with current construction of the Prairie Queen windfarm.
Vice President of Student Affairs Cynthia Jacobson said last year the school started out the school year at 95 percent capacity and they are currently at 94 percent.
We are 18 students shy of being completely full. After talking to recruiters and coaches we are anticipating having anywhere from 40 to 60 more students for the fall, Jacobson said. We are looking at the possibility of renting more property. We are going to be completely full, but it is a good problem to have.
Jacobson noted that the school continues to boost its numbers of international students.
If you remember, you as the board voted to change the rate for international students and make it the same as our in-state tuition, she said. Two years ago we had five international students. We had 22 students in the spring last year. For the start of next year we have 44, with around 25 set to finish up.
BOB REAVIS, dean at the Burlingame Campus, announced plans to retire over the summer. Reavis began his career at ACC in 1990 and took on in Burlingame in 1995.
I offered a request to John (Masterson) for my early retirement. I have been very privileged to have been here for a long time. I thank you for your support, I have always felt supported. I have been fortunate and you have a lot of good people working on that campus.
Reavis said for the first time in its history, his school is offering a hybrid public speaking class this summer to high school students at Hayden High School in Topeka.
It is our first outreach class and I hope we can use it as a stepping stone to offer other classes there, as well as at other public schools in the region, Reavis said.
Tosca Harris reported the school will be offering a commercial drivers license course on the Iola campus from June 24 through Aug. 1 through Washburn Tech.
It is mainly because of Monarch (Cement, out of Humboldt). They have been very, very good to us, so we decided to work with them, Harris said. Monarch has donated one cement truck, they will have two trucks here on campus. They will do some of the driving here and some at the park. But it will all work out very well and we will have some students with CDLs.
Harris noted that Communications Instructor Terri Piazza had an article published by the League of Innovation of Two-Year Colleges. She said that the article is about the need for teaching soft skills in communication courses.
It is always good to have one of your faculty members names on the national stage, which is where she is right now, Harris said.
