Lamar Community College, a money drain on the state’s 13-college system, might have closed if Colorado hadn’t passed budget reform last fall that freed up money for higher education.
Instead, the college will stay open by sharing a president, other administrators and some business offices with Otero Junior College in La Junta, about 60 miles away.
Community-college system president Nancy McCallin announced the changes Monday in the southeastern Colorado town. The college, which is the state’s most expensive per student at $7,250, siphons money from larger community colleges as enrollment and state support have declined, McCallin said.
“The goal is to prevent more reductions,” she said.
The news for Lamar could have been much worse if Colorado voters hadn’t passed Referendum C, which lifted restrictions on tax spending.
“We would have been talking about closing community colleges,” McCallin said.
Community colleges in the Denver and Colorado Springs areas, including Front Range, Pikes Peak and Red Rocks, subsidize the state’s rural colleges. The state hands out $2,400 stipends to colleges for every Colorado student, and the community-college system redistributes the money as necessary.
Lamar receives $3,376 a student, while Front Range receives less than its share – $1,348. It costs about $4,200 to educate each student at large, city community colleges, compared with at least $6,000 at small, rural ones.
As the economy improves and students find jobs, enrollment at Lamar has dropped 8.5 percent from 2003 to 2005. The college has faced $830,100 in budget reductions since 2001 and ended last year with just $56,700 in reserve – less than five days of operating costs.
The crunch has meant no pay raises for some and positions left vacant for months, including executive vice president, a dean and an agriculture professor. The presidency was vacant for a year.
Several in the community feared the worst and were relieved to hear the college would stay open.
“I thought, ‘Oh, no, not something else that’s going to close,”‘ said Pat Robinette, a member of the college’s advisory council. The area is losing two major employers with the closing of the Bay Valley Foods pickle plant in La Junta and the Neoplan bus plant in Lamar.
Professors at Lamar were frustrated that the news came as a surprise.
“Faculty and students are the last to know,” said Susie Berardi-Rogers, faculty senate president.
Professors are concerned about how administrative consolidation will affect academic quality and want students to have person-to-person services and instruction on campus, she said.
The consolidation starts with the budget office, human resources and back-office financial-aid functions, although the Lamar campus will have financial-aid counselors for students.
The schools also could combine some low- enrollment courses, said David Smith, Lamar’s chief administrative officer. The colleges typically have a handful of students in calculus and physics courses and could join them through technology.
Most importantly, Smith said, Lamar retains its status as its own college and won’t become a branch campus of Otero.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
