The positive buzz circling Crowder College these past few years is something everyone — administration, board members, professor, staff and students — should be proud of.
These are great times to be wearing Roughrider blue.
It was announced earlier this week that Crowder College set another enrollment record.
On the first day of the 2010 spring semester, Crowder College officials reported an enrollment of 3,745 students in 39,586 credit hours. Those figures represent a 20 percent increase in students over last spring’s figures, and a 24 percent increase in credit hours when comparing year to year. But that’s not all. During Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s State of the State address this week, Nixon talked about Crowder College and its involvement in the proposed “Training for Tomorrow” program, which touts job creation and the need to help Missouri residents further their education and training to become a stronger member of the job force.
Nixon’s comments about Crowder College and its programs came after the governor paid a visit to the campus twice in the past few months.
Folks, it’s easy to see from the outside looking in that Crowder College is doing something right. Crowder president Dr. Alan Marble had a great comment at the end of Amye Buckley’s report Thursday in the Daily News, when he was quoted as saying, “He (Gov. Nixon) likes the energy that he feels here (Crowder College) among the students and the faculty and the staff. He told me that personally.”
And Nixon is dead on. There is a positive vibe right now on the campus of Crowder College.
With the recent completion of the Farber Building, the Tatum Bell Tower and the current construction of another new building and planned construction of the MARET Center, Crowder College is busting at the seams with progress.
In a short time span of the past three years, Crowder College has evolved into a true college campus. It no longer as a feel of an old military base transformed into a community college.
Crowder College now has a look and feel of a growing community college.
I can’t boast that I attended Crowder College, but I can say that I spent my first year in higher education at a junior college and understand the role they play in providing an affordable start to a student’s desire to further his or her education.
Gov. Jay Nixon confirmed on Wednesday in Jefferson City what we in Neosho have known for some time — Crowder College is a great institution for the residents of Missouri.
Rick Rogers is the publisher of the Daily News.
