Cape's community college center up for evaluation

Three Rivers College is reporting an all-time high in enrollment numbers but may soon evaluate how to best serve Cape Girardeau students despite a partnership with Southeast Missouri State University and Mineral Area College.

The Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff, Mo., reported Three Rivers' president Devin Stephenson said he is troubled by the college's spring credit hour enrollment at the Cape Girardeau Partnership for Higher Education, which according to the report grew only 6 percent from the previous year.

"This has been a good partnership, but our board is going to have to evaluate whether or not this is what is best for the future of the area," Stephenson told the newspaper following a board of trustees meeting Wednesday.

Stephenson said he believes the Partnership should have an enrollment exceeding 500 students. According to figures released by Southeast, 229 students are enrolled in the Partnership so far this spring semester. Of those students, 180 are registered in Three Rivers courses through the Partnership for a total of 1,000 credit hours, the Daily American Republic reported. The Southeast Missourian was unable to verify those numbers late Thursday..

Through the Partnership, the university and the two colleges offer general education instruction that allows students to earn credits for transfer to a four-year college, associate of arts degrees administered through Three Rivers and associate of applied science degrees issued through Mineral Area. Courses are offered at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center. The schools are two years into a three-year agreement.

Steve Kurtz, president of Mineral Area College, said the college is committed to fulfilling the agreement for all three years, and when it ends the college will evaluate where to go from there.

The college does not yet have enrollment numbers available for its courses in the partnership.

Southeast Missouri State University president Dr. Ken Dobbins said the partnership will exist for a minimum of three years.

"When you look at it, it needs to run for several years to see if it is a viable option," he said.

In December, the Partnership was already being evaluated. The future of the collaboration between the three schools was still largely uncertain, officials said at the time, but enrollment in programs and course offerings was said to be growing steadily since the partnership began in 2010, and that growth was anticipated to continue.

Dobbins pointed to only having one fall semester, 2011, where the schools actively recruited students, and said the university believes growing the partnership is working.

Early enrollment statistics are tough to gauge, he said, but the growth from last spring to this spring shows already. At the start of the spring semester last year, the partnership had 196 students.

"As long as you have fall-to-fall growth and spring-to-spring growth, then you have reason to believe you haven't reached the extent of the market," said Dr. Gerald McDougall, Southeast's associate provost of extended and online learning.

"We believe this is working," Dobbins said. "When you think about spring-to-spring, we are up 17 percent." Dobbins said the Partnership was formed to help students, and that is what it is doing.

Eighty percent of the students are from Cape Girardeau County. The Partnership's service region also includes the Career and Technology Center's service area.

Both Mineral Area and Southeast recently proposed changing the name of the Partnership to the Great River College Center, but Three Rivers didn't go for the idea, Dobbins said.

eragan@semissourian.com

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