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Late-night classes are helping to alleviate space constraints at Ozarks Technical Community College's Springfield campus. President Hal Higdon says enrollment will likely continue to grow.
Late-night classes are helping to alleviate space constraints at Ozarks Technical Community College's Springfield campus. President Hal Higdon says enrollment will likely continue to grow.

OTC revenues jump 24 percent in three years

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Ozarks Technical Community College was a 2010 honoree at Springfield Business Journal's 2010 Dynamic Dozen awards. Information was accurate at the time of the honor. Click here for information about this year's event.

Ozarks Technical Community College is bursting at its brick-and-mortar seams. Enrollment has increased every semester since the school opened in 1991, and the growth is unlikely to slow down.

“People are becoming more and more aware that the community college is a good value and quality education,” said Hal Higdon, OTC’s president since 2006 and a 20-year veteran of community college education.

Enrollment is up at both of OTC’s main campuses in Greene and Christian counties and at its education centers in Lebanon, Branson and Waynesville. OTC’s total enrollment of 12,383 students for the spring 2010 semester is up nearly 17 percent from spring 2009. Enrollment at the Springfield campus is up 11.5 percent.

There’s only so much space to accommodate growing enrollment, Higdon said, noting that the school already is limiting classes.

“We’d already be bigger than we are if it weren’t for the fact that we’re the lowest funded (school) per (full-time equivalent student) in the state – two-year or four-year, and local and state funding,” Higdon said.

With that enrollment growth comes more revenues, with OTC posting 2009 revenues of $61.4 million, up 24 percent for a three-year period. The bulk of that increase comes from tuition, but none of it is tied to an increase in state funding.

“Missouri has no sensitivity to change for either four-year or two-year” schools, Higdon said.

Beginning with the 2011 state fiscal year that begins in July, OTC will lose 5.2 percent, or $600,000, of the $11 million the school receives in state funding,” Higdon said.

In return for not losing more, OTC will not raise tuition for the next school year.

But state budget shortfalls are already projected for fiscal 2012, so tuition will again be a target.

Ideally, state, local and tuition sources would each contribute one-third to funding, Higdon said. But right now, local and state funding contribute about 19 percent and 13 percent, respectively, with the remainder coming from tuition, fees, grants and the OTC Foundation.

And while the foundation continues to grow – it has received $7 million in pledges and donations during the current capital campaign – it contributed only $140,000 in scholarship money last year, Higdon said. The foundation’s cash assets sit at $1.5 million.

Despite challenges, OTC keeps growing. The school purchased 31 properties to the north of the Springfield campus and is working with the city to rezone them. The college is in final negotiations with Drury University to purchase the Tindle Mills property on Chestnut Expressway, Higdon said.

And the recent $2.6 million gift – the largest in school history – from California couple Reuben and Mary Lou Casey, will allow OTC to establish a full campus in Lebanon, where space also is a pressing issue.

To deal with dwindling space, OTC recently began late-night classes, starting at 10 p.m. or later. The utilization of classroom space at OTC’s Springfield campus is at 90 percent, which is almost unheard of, said Randy Humphrey, vice president of academic affairs.

“We’re not able to provide expanded opportunities for students to take classes during the day … because we just don’t have the classrooms to put them in,” he said. “We sat around and said, ‘You know, one of the times we might try is late at night.’”

Night-owl classes run until 12:30 a.m. Utilizing unusual times is a big help to the many OTC students who work during the day, Humphrey said.

“It has filled a niche. We’re already looking forward to fall,” he said. “We’ve just grown ourselves into a space crunch.”[[In-content Ad]]

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