College Has Plans to Grow But Coastal Georgia’s Big Dreams Need Regent OKs

By TERRY DICKSON

BRUNSWICK – Jessica Mills, a recent graduate of Brantley County High School, is emblematic of coming changes at the College of Coastal Georgia. Mills said she plans to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a teacher. During the college’s fall convocation on Monday, Mills was announced as the winner of a regents scholarship that will cover her education for four years.

And she can use it without leaving town.

The announcement was among many as the former Coastal Georgia Community College makes the transition from a two-year to a four- year institution.

The direction was laid out by interim President Valerie Hepburn, who used the state of the college address to lay out the future state of the school.

With it came a promise to Brunswick.

“We plan to open this campus up and make it a true community resource,” she said. “I want to warn you, the hedges are coming down.”

But there are challenges in expanding the faculty and campus at the same time the University System of Georgia is planning for budget cuts of at least 5 percent and possibly 10 percent. That all hangs on whether Gov. Sonny Perdue can talk legislators into forgoing state-funded property tax relief, Hepburn said.

“It’s fair to say we haven’t seen the worst of the downturn,” she said.

To meet the constraints, the college will eliminate vacant non- academic positions and reduce costs through efficient scheduling and operations, she said.

“Class sizes may get a little bigger,” Hepburn said. “We may be using less part-time faculty.”

And students will likely see higher fees; one that is certain is increased parking fees.

At the same time, however, there will be 11 new faculty positions, “if resources hold,” to ensure the campus will begin offering new bachelor’s degrees in nursing, business administration and in early childhood, middle grades and special education.

All of that, however, depends on meeting some time lines. The college will have four degree programs before the Board of Regents by Sept. 1 so they can be voted on at the regents’ October meeting. Then the college must submit a comprehensive program to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Commission of Colleges by Oct. 1 to begin the accreditation process.

Without accreditation, Coastal Georgia can’t say more than “we have the promise of, but not the guarantee of … offering those degrees,” Hepburn said.

The college is in a building program now – especially in the infrastructure to serve a growing student body – and there will be more, including dorms, food services and reshaping the library to make it a learning hub for everybody, Hepburn said.

The appearance of the campus will change not only with new buildings but by renovating the facades of existing structures at the 26-year-old campus.

Hepburn made it clear there is room for improvement when she remarked the existing “buildings may not be attractive, but they are solid.”

Also, technical programs will be run by the college’s partners: Okefenokee Tech in Waycross; Altamaha Tech in Jesup; Glynn County’s Golden Isles Career Academy, a planned charter technical school; and the business community. The college’s technical program may share facilities with the Career Academy early in the transition.

But before Hepburn got down to the nuts and bolts, Regent James Bishop delivered a keynote address that spoke of vision and hard work.

He spoke of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the Board of Regents had given the college to start over.

“The opportunities here are limited only by the restrictions we put on ourselves,” he said. “Let us set our sights high. Let us dream dreams we have never dreamed.”

For all the lofty goals and soaring language, Hepburn ended her talk with a simple call to action.

“Let’s have at it,” she said.terry.dickson@jacksonville.com, (912) 264-0405

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