DUBLIN — Trustees at Bladen Community College have approved the fee schedule for the coming year.
In preparing it, the college put forth an effort to make it more user-friendly and streamlined. The result was several fees have been combined, three were reworded for clarification, one is new and several had increases.
The document passed unanimously. Jay Stanley, vice president of finance and administration, credited first-year president Dr. Amanda Lee’s leadership for the planning and highlighted three points for trustees.
“The fee schedule reflects the fact that we continue to waive all fees for high school students; because of that, this fee schedule covers our cost,” he said. “We also combined a lot on the schedule, and clarified a lot. There are increases, but I will say this — it is very realistic.
“A regular full-time student, for basic classes, the cost increase based on 12 hours is $13. That’s slightly more than a dollar per credit hour. If you’re taking 15 hours, it’s less than a dollar. It’s very realistic.”
Lee said Stanley, Jeff Kornegay, Barry Priest, Sondra Guyton and Lacie Jacobs worked with their respective staffs to make the recommendations. Kornegay is executive vice president and chief academic officer, Priest is vice president for student services, Guyton is vice president for workforce and continuing education, and Jacobs is controller.
“Lacie shared the current expenses related to each fee as well as historical perspectives,” Lee said. “They also researched other colleges to benchmark against. We met several times and evaluated each recommendation individually and as a whole. It was a great team effort and an extremely effective process.”
Trustee Hayes Petteway noted the nursing program cost and asked if students have difficulty paying, or if the fee is preventing students from either taking exams or entering the curriculum.
Stanley confirmed the Bladen Community College Foundation has opportunities available to help students in need, and that those opportunities are shared and made known.
“There are more scholarships for nursing students than any on campus,” added Priest.
Kornegay said the college has made a choice for quality and is reaping the fruit of that decision. He said objective analysis of programs from outside the college remains attached to a school’s passing rate, but fast-moving on the attention barometer is a program’s retention rate.
“Our testing package, we have some of the best retention rates for any nursing program in the state,” Kornegay said. “Our students attribute that to the package we have.
“Some programs lose two-thirds of their students, and we were that way one time, but we’ve worked on it. We know its expensive, and we hate it, but we know its necessary.”
Evidence of the successful approach happened two weeks ago when the college celebrated its nurse pinning ceremony with the largest class in school history.
In other matters, Priest gave an update on the grant-funded position of NCWorks career coach. Rachel Byrd has held that position throughout the year, and Priest said she’s made valuable inroads with students at the high schools, learning more about what they seek after graduation. She’s also been involved with business and industry leaders.
The college is working toward having the position go full-time when the grant expires June 30.
Sharon Coe introduced Re Gena Gilliam to the board. Coe is the outgoing president of the Faculty Senate, and Gilliam the incoming. Gilliam is an English instructor.
Trustees were provided an update on construction projects that will yield the $6.5 million Continuing Education and Workforce Development Building and the $2 million STEM and Advanced Manufacturing Technology Training Facility. Each is expected to open later this year.
STEM is the acronym for science, technology, engineering and math, an emerging curriculum in schools at all age levels.
In a followup to an earlier meeting and the possible acquisition of land near the college, trustees took no action. They are expected to meet in closed session during the June meeting, with more information available and having been shared with the college attorney.
In the personnel committee report, Kornegay and Lee said the trustees would be getting more information on turnover. An initial offering was given Tuesday, but more detailed reports will be put forth in August and April as part of what is expected to become a twice-a-year practice.
In the president’s report, Lee said feedback from the change to have two graduations rather than one was positive. A team will convene soon to review and begin planning for 2020.
She told the board a meeting with a member of U.S. Rep. David Rouzer’s team and other leaders on the proposed $6.2 million driving pad facility at the Bladen County Emergency Training Center went well. She also reminded trustees of the college’s summer hours in June and July, when workdays are 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; offices are closed on Fridays.