Clarendon College Regents green lighted two new programs and extended the contract of President Robert Riza during their regular meeting last Thursday, February 16.
The board met in closed session to evaluate the president before returning to open session to extend Dr. Riza’s contract through June 1, 2019.
“The board appreciates the direction the College has taken under the leadership of Dr. Riza,” Board Chairman Jerry Woodard said. “His ability to think outside of the box to place the college in a preferred position and to provide opportunities to students that wouldn’t otherwise be reached and benefit the College itself in its future progression.”
The board also approved plans by the Riza administration to implement two new programs this fall designed to help keep the college’s enrollment growth momentum going.
The first is the revival of the college’s equine judging program, which would be one of the few junior college program in Texas and would transfer into West Texas A&M University’s program. The program would require hiring an instructor but would otherwise have minimal startup costs.
The second program would be an Honors College offered to high school students taking dual credit classes from Clarendon College. The plan calls for CC to waive tuition and fees equal to the number of dual credit hours completed, providing that the student lives on the campus in Clarendon.
Details of both new programs are still being finalized and more information will be forthcoming.
In his president’s report, Dr. Riza reported on Clarendon’s continuing expansion of its offerings in area state prisons, where statistics shows a significant impact in preventing repeat offending by earning college credit or degrees. One unit has reported a 21 percent drop in recidivism since Clarendon College began offering classes.
Riza also said his office had been in Austin three out of four weeks in February to speak on behalf of Clarendon College, community colleges in general, and Donley County.
CC Chief of Staff Ashlee Estlack was one of seven professionals with the Texas Association of Community College Marketers (TACCM) who planned, prepared, and carried out the communications plan for the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC) that was launched on Community College Day in Austin two weeks ago.
During the meeting of the Texas community college trustees, Riza was called on to introduce Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) as the keynote speaker. Seliger is the chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee.
In addition to visiting with key legislators on behalf of the college, Riza said he also visited with DPS officials about the impact on Donley County of transferring local troopers to the border and the impact on CC and area school districts of closing the DPS Commercial Drivers License office in Childress.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.