Three Rivers gets $2 million in loan-sale funds

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Three Rivers Community College received $2.2 million this month for capital improvements as part of the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative that Gov. Matt Blunt secured to improve Missouri's higher education facilities.

The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority auctioned off a sizable portion of its student loan portfolio, and the payment to Three Rivers is just part of $335 million recently collected by the state. The profits of the sales that were given over to the state will be redistributed to college's throughout Missouri over the next five years, according to the governor's plan.

Nearly $23 million of the total was recently dispersed to Missouri's 12 community college districts. In addition to $2 million Three Rivers received for construction and renovation, the community college got $200,000 for maintenance and repair projects.

Three Rivers president Dr. John Cooper said the MOHELA money is the largest unrestricted investment the school has received in its 40 years.

"With these funds Three Rivers will be able to make much needed improvements to our academic and career programs for the people of Southeast Missouri," Cooper stated in a news release Tuesday. "Our largest project will be the major renovation of the facility that houses our library and nursing/allied health programs."

About half of the funds could go toward this major renovation if approved by the board of trustees, Three Rivers executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs Dr. Larry Kimbrow said yesterday.

"We're trying to get the biggest bang for our buck," Kimbrow said.

Kimbrow suggested that the remainder of the money could go toward equipment or infrastructure updates on Three Rivers' off-campus centers. Before that's decided, he said, administration will look at all potential areas in need of improvement.

The vice president said he's been considering adding physical and occupational therapy assistant programs to the school's offerings and, if approved, some of the money could make that a reality in the near future.

Blunt first outlined the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative in January 2006. Earlier this year he signed into law the measure ordering MOHELA to sell a portion of the loan money designated mostly for non-Missouri students. Profits from the sales had always gone back to the student loan agency since it was created by the legislature in 1981 to provide a secondary market for buying college loans from Missouri banks.

In exchange for giving some of the proceeds to the state, MOHELA gained a 15-year pledge of tax-exempt bonding authority from the state that allows the agency to underwrite more loans.

While supporters called the decision a bold move for Missouri and said it will make the state a leader in higher education, critics said it was a raid on MOHELA's trust fund of low-cost student loans and will prevent people from going to college.

Robbie Myers, Three Rivers vice president for administration and governmental affairs, referred to MOHELA's built up assets as "overfunding."

"There are a variety of places our students can get loans from," he said Tuesday.