Head of STLCC presents new initiatives and responds to comments
By: KATIE HAYES
News Editor
Chancellor Pittman hosted an open forum on March 22. This was his third forum at Meramec since taking office in summer 2015.
The forum focused on four initiatives the chancellor plans to implement — expanding marketing to drive enrollment, redesigning the STLCC website, updating campus facilities and increasing employee giving.
The focus of the STLCC marketing will be on increasing enrollment. Programs which currently have low enrollment will be advertised first. These programs include Health, STEM, Information Systems, Hospitality and General Transfer Studies.
“We’re going to advertise for programs we want to get students in now,” Pittman said.
The STLCC website is currently going through a redesign as well. It is set to be published by the end of 2016.
“It will be much cleaner, simpler, not as many buttons,” Pittman said. “Geared toward drawing students to the college.”
Administration will accept input for the website from faculty and staff in several weeks.
The chancellor also spoke about updating facilities. In addition to updating classrooms and offices, study nooks will be created in common areas.
The chancellor said that since Meramec has large locker rooms, they will shrink and be updated.
The renovations are set to cost a little over $25 million for Meramec’s campus and a little over $82 million for all STLCC campuses combined.
Several questions were asked about the necesity of renovations and if STLCC would need all buildings set to be renovated since enrollment was down.
“When I look at a service area of 2.8 million and our enrollment, it’s not making a whole lot of sense,” Pittman said. “The community wants a community college.”
The chancellor discussed three ways to fund the renovations — self fund over a period of 10-15 years, launch a major capital project campaign or to discuss an additional tax levy.
The chancellor said the next step is to present these ideas to the Board of Trustees.
