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photo by Hannah Reel
Copiah-Lincoln Community College students walk past a dark technology room not being used during their classes Tuesday morning.
Co-Lin cuts school week to four days
Published Wednesday, June 3, 2009
NATCHEZ — It’s a cool summer for Co-Lin students this year all because administrators want to turn the air conditioning off, or at least up a little.
In an energy-saving, cost-cutting, student-friendly move, Copiah-Lincoln Community College has gone to a four-and-a-half day week at all of its campuses.
Students only attend classes Monday through Thursday, and administrative and office staff leave at 12:30 p.m. on Fridays.
Photo by Hannah Reel
Co-Lin algebra instructor Joan Jones leads her class Tuesday morning at the college. Co-Lin has reduced their summer hours in an effort to save on energy costs.
“We are on a trial run this summer,” President Ronnie Nettles said. “Energy savings can be significant.”
Nettles doesn’t yet have any money estimate on what the college may save by turning off lights and using less air conditioning on Friday afternoons.
Several other factors went into the decision to cut Friday classes as well, Natchez campus Vice President Teresa Busby said, including making life convenient for the students.
Last summer’s high gas prices were hard on students driving from neighboring counties, and cutting out a day of travel can make a big difference, Busby said.
To compensate for the missed class time, the Monday through Thursday classes last a bit longer this summer.
And employees are coming to work 30 minutes earlier.
The summer hours are 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Fridays. The schedule will be in place until July 24.
The Natchez campus is offering night classes from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.
“We did this (at the) Simpson County (campus) year round,” Nettles said. “And it was tremendously successful. Students could get a weekend job.”
Co-Lin, like all other state schools, is anticipating further cuts in state funding, Nettles said. But so far, the college has successfully managed a tighter budget, he said.
“We are doing far better than others,” Nettles said. “We’ve been a little bit more conservative in our approach to budgeting in the last year.”
The college has frozen several open positions, but has not laid off any workers, he said. And no layoffs are expected.
“We are going to proceed forward and continue to reduce spending,” Nettles said. “We think if we have any enrollment increase at all, we’ll be able to cover our costs.”
Community colleges statewide are predicting enrollment increases, though Nettles isn’t predicting a large increase locally.
Comments
Posted by natashakubelikov (anonymous) on June 3, 2009 at 12:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Most of the students aren,t gonna work,besides where can they find a job in America?
Posted by veroniss (anonymous) on June 3, 2009 at 6:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
WHAT A GREAT IDEA IT WILL WORK.THERE ARE JOBS OUT THERE JUST GO GET ONE.I DID,PUT A ADD IN THE OLD RIVER PEDDLER FOR SIX DOLLARS A WEEK AND SIT BACK AND LISTEN FOR YOUR PHONE TO START RINGING OFF THE WALL.WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY.MAKE IT HAPPEN.GOD WILL BLESS YOU.
Posted by crawgator (anonymous) on June 3, 2009 at 6:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The jobs are out there. The problem is wanting to work. Oh and the welfare system. I hear people say all the time, "Why work for minimum wage when welfare pays more" It's called RESPECT, HONOR, PRIDE to know that everything I have I earned and nothing was given to me. I do give students some slack tho, an education does come first in my book. then go to work.
Posted by Krogers (anonymous) on June 3, 2009 at 7:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
a bit pessimistic aren't we nastybelikov?....
do you work nasty? I know many Co-Lin students, and they are eager to work, and do. There are jobs out there for those that want to WORK. But I know I'm not hiring anyone that I have to train, pay that high minimum wage, and then they're gone in two months, before I can get them halfway trained. But I would hire a good C0-Lin student, (right now we have a full staff though) cause I know they can hit the floor running and understand instructions. Most other kids stand around and you have to lead them by the hand to do any little thing and are afraid of getting dirty, etc. I had one kid working last summer, we have to pack the trash can to get all the cardboard in there, he was really shocked that we would actually climb in the trash can and jump up and down on the cardboard to pack in there. He would NOT do that, and he also backed the van into the building, so he had to go, .........hey you gotta do what you gotta do.
veroniss- the minimum wage is like $6.85 or so isn't it? But way to go on using your head to get the word out you want to work.
Thanks Crawgator, you know it's true, some folks set their sights pretty low and are ok with just getting by on welfare, it's sad.
and soon it will go to $7.50? like next month? I need to check, but I'm close on those figures, maybe off slightly
raising the minimum wage during recession is NOT smart for the economy in my opinion. That move actually hurts student employment.
Sounds like Co-Lin has good management.
Posted by AwesomeWoman (anonymous) on June 3, 2009 at 9:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)
yo, nasty you were one of those students because your grammer is terrible. Students attend college to better them and their community. You should try going Iknow excellent English teachers
Posted by rebel_lawyer (anonymous) on June 3, 2009 at 11:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I am not sure how any of this relates to Co-Lin cutting hours.
(Note - when criticizing others on poor English skills - you may want to review before hitting the "post" button. It is "grammar" not "grammer", and it is "to better themselves" not "to better them"
Posted by natashakubelikov (anonymous) on June 4, 2009 at 12:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I ain,t worried bout english much,never did like it anywoo, what i say gets said and from all the comments in hear,folks understand it.even ifen they don,t like it,
Posted by elvisss (anonymous) on June 4, 2009 at 11:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What's the difference between a comma and an apostrophe? Anyone?
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