By Brian Ruth
The Scene staff
The steady decline in enrollment at St. Louis Community College was a key topic at a recent Campus Chat, facilitated by Forest Park Interim President Rod Nunn.
Early in the meeting, faculty members expressed concern that lower enrollments – down by 8,000 to about 21,000 students districtwide since 2011 – could have a detrimental effect.
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Donna Dare said enrollment has dropped enough to trigger program reviews throughout the district and that less-popular programs will need to be scrutinized.
New students will need to look at where programs are offered across the four campuses because some will not available at all, she said.
“The question is, ‘How do we get the region to understand that?’” she said.
Social sciences coordinator Bill Hartmann said he was concerned about the upcoming reorganization of college programs because the enrollment decline means less money will be available to uphold academic standards.
Dare said the district’s Center for Teaching and Learning will continue to provide professional development for faculty and that meetings with faculty about reorganization will begin next semester.
The Campus Chat was open to students, faculty and staff, but no students attended. About 30 faculty and staff members gathered in Café West. The date of the next Campus Chat has yet not been announced.
Faculty at the meeting also asked about the status of discounted semester bus passes. This fall, Metro began prohibiting campus bookstores from selling them to students over the age of 23.
Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Kent Kay said the college is a vendor for Metro, whose guidelines allow sales of semester passes only to students 18 to 23. The college was out of compliance when it previously sold them to students 24 and over.
“We were told in no uncertain terms that we could not continue to allow this discount,” Kay said.
A faculty member mentioned the U-Pass, a different type of student transportation pass in use at other colleges in the region.
“We would have to factor that into the cost of tuition,” Kay said.
Hartmann noted that the University of Missouri-St. Louis student body voted to approve use of the U-Pass and asked if bringing the issue to students at STLCC would be a plausible solution.
CAMPUS BUILDINGS
Biology Professor Teresa Alvarez raised concerns about the condition of campus structures at the meeting.
“(Forest Park buildings are) in a state of really needing money spent on them,” she said.
Dare said money for campus improvements were removed from the budget nearly two years ago. Kay said replacing it would be difficult, citing lower state appropriations because of decreasing revenues from the Missouri Lottery.
Kay said he was hopeful that an upcoming bond issue will raise the $3.5 million needed to refurbish science labs at Forest Park.
Tommie Frison, also from the biology department, asked about the potential sale of the Cosand Center, 300 S. Broadway in St. Louis. The building houses several district departments, including the chancellor’s office.
Kay said the building has not been put on the market and that no broker has been hired.
Associate professor Brenda French asked how Forest Park will implement prevention training under Title IX of the Violence Against Women Act. Associate Vice Chancellor William Woodward said the strategy is to provide training on all four campuses.
“Any effort has to be continual and ongoing,” he said. “We have to prove that we are providing the training in order to be compliant.”
Nunn ended the talk by asking Woodward, “What keeps you up at night about this place?”
Woodward focused on the training strategy and reminded the group that an increased awareness of sex discrimination on campuses will lead to more reporting of incidents throughout the district.
“This means that we are doing a better job at increasing awareness,” he said.