ACC enrollment up a smidgen

Overall headcount of students in Allen Community College’s three areas — on campus, outreach and online — increased by 4.1 percent for the spring semester compared to a year ago.
Fulltime equivalent (FTE), which determines state aid and is the academic measure of enrollment, didn’t increase quite as much, trustees were told Thursday evening. FTE rose just .7 percent, with a large measure of the reason being outreach FTE was static.
“We have more high school students,” which increases headcount, “but they’re not taking as many hours this semester,” said Cynthia Jacobson, vice president for academic affairs.
Headcount overall went from 2,795 to 2,909, while FTE increased from 1,675.1 to 1,687.6. On campus are 520 students, while 1,300 are enrolled in outreach classes and 1,089 are furthering their education through online courses.
Jacobson said some things were planned to enhance enrollment.
“We’re making financial aid applications available this month,” rather in June as has been past practice, she said. “That should help (high school) students make a college decision earlier — hopefully for ACC.”
The college also is making changes in its online approach for enrollment. Jacobson said key words were being added to the search engine that will cause ACC to be the near the top when prospective students searched for a community college.
Regena Ayes, dean for online learning, said the division had 85 part-time instructors, 20 full-time.
“We’re tweaking the program,” to make it more user-friendly, she said, and noted that she was “working on the summer schedule.”
Trustees approved the 2013-14 schedule for the Iola campus, which will have classes starting a week later in fall (Aug. 19) and spring (Jan. 21) semesters so they mesh better with other colleges.
Trustees were told that even with more students enrolled online, occupancy of on-campus housing in Iola remained at a premium. With 274 beds available, 252 were spoken for this spring, 92 percent. Last spring with 24 fewer beds, occupancy was 86 percent.

TRUSTEES agreed to participate in a property tax arrangement that will give Toby Shaughnessy and his father, Bob, advantage in building a new restaurant on North State Street, just south of the entrance to Wal-Mart.
ACC is the third of four governing bodies — Iola and USD 257 did previously — to sign on to give the Shaughnessys a 95 percent rebate on property taxes for five years. The tax then will be added in 20 percent increments over the next five years.
The Shaughnessys next will ask Allen County to complete the abatement circle.
Sam and Louie’s New York Pizzeria will be “a full service, sit-down restaurant,” Toby Shaughnessy said.
He expects to have 12 to 15 employees and anticipates some part-time workers will be ACC students.
“I worked at a Papa John’s while attending Pittsburg State (he graduated there in 2010) and then spent a year managing it,” which he thinks gives him a leg up with the restaurant here.
Sam and Louie’s is based in Omaha and has 22 outlets in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. Iola will be the company’s first venture into Kansas.

PRESIDENT JOHN Masterson reviewed several proposed hirings, one of which was met with some opposition.
Trustee Larry Manes said he thought hiring a director of human resources was superfluous, suggesting that, as he did when an instructor, determining things to do with KPERS (retirement) and insurance was not a difficult chore for those affected.
“I know there’s some validity to it, but we keep hearing about budget problems,” from state revenue cuts being considered by the Legislature, “and I wouldn’t want to approve an HR person and then have to make cuts elsewhere,” said Trustee Ken McGuffin.
A salary of $50,000 was mentioned at one point.
Jon Marshall, vice president for academic affairs, made an impassioned plea for the hiring, saying that he spent time helping with individuals’ problems that would be better spent developing academic programs.
Masterson said he would develop a job description for later discussion.
He also mentioned hirings in computer science, criminal justice, allied health, visual media, biology (at the Burlingame campus), maintenance and coaching.
 
OTHER GLEANINGS:
— Trustees approved purchase ($30,842) of a Polaris circulation system for the library, which will make it compatible with other academic and public library and ease transfer of materials among them.
— On Feb. 4 49 donors, from 61 who offered, gave blood during a drawing on campus. The goal was 39 units; 34 were drawn in 2012.
— Marshall said an aim of the college was to ramp up support of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. Two productions will be at staged at the Bowlus next academic year and students will continue to use it as a venue to display art and perform recitals.
— Agreed to pay Dibble Construction $4,000 to complete, in the college’s estimation, work to drain and dredge a pond and reform its dam on property shared with several private owners. Manes said the work started with an $8,000 price tag, with the college to pay half, and then escalated when others asked more of Dibble. “It’s been going on for 43 months (hyperbole) and this settles it,” Manes said.
— Trustees congratulated four students named to the Kansas All-Academic Team. They are Faith May, Quenemo, and Debra Young, Overbrook, on the Burlingame campus; and Kaden Roush, Smith Center, and Jennifer Walters, Pomona, on the Iola campus.