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Later this month, Ozarks Technical Community College will break ground to begin construction on a new campus in Hollister. While some universities, including MSU, are reporting a drop in student enrollment this year, community colleges like OTC report record breaking numbers. KSMU’s Theresa Bettmann talked with a spokesperson for OTC to find out more.
Hollister was chosen for the new Table Rock Campus after local residents voted to join the OTC taxing district in April of 2010. The new campus will replace the current Branson campus, and is expected to open for the fall semester of 2013. Joel Doepker is director of communications at OTC. He says Hollister is the first community to join the OTC taxing district since the college was founded.
“When OTC was started back in 1990, there were 14 school districts in the area that voted themselves into the taxing district to basically start the community college. And when someone joins the OTC taxing district, anyone who lives in that district pays in-district tuition. Which is $30 per credit hour less than someone who lives out of district,” Doepker says.
Doepker says the new Hollister location will be more convenient, much larger, and have more to offer than the Branson location. He says in addition to traditional associate degree programs, the campus will house the L.P.N. program currently offered at the Reed Springs location. Doepker says that OTC is also working with local businesses to design additional programs best suited for the needs of the surrounding community.
“The Hollister community, those people who live in the school district, have shown that they would like to be a part of the district. And they’re making a substantial investment. So we look at Hollister as being the one who stepped forward,” says Doepker.
Doepker says that OTC experienced a record breaking student enrollment this fall. He says numbers are up nine percent from last year with a total of 15,179 students for their five campuses and online classes.
“Traditionally, when an economy has gone soft, community college enrollment goes up. People are laid off, businesses shift. And community colleges have been those institutions that provide that quick re-training, for people to grow their skills to get back out into the work force,” says Doepker.
Even after the economy recovers, Doepker says the investments OTC has made into the local economy will help sustain the college in the future.
The new campus will be located on nine acres overlooking the Table Rock Dam, between highways 65 and 165. The new three-story building will span 60,000 square feet and is expected to facilitate as many as 3,000 students. For KSMU News, I’m Theresa Bettmann.
Theresa received her undergraduate degree in sociology at MSU, and will begin graduate studies in MSU's Master of Social Work program this fall. She enjoys writing, drawing, reading, music...and working at KSMU.
