Nov. 17
November 17, 2009
Mr. Heath Adam Perkins
November 19, 2009
Though operating with smaller budgets for 2009, Houma-Thibodaux higher education officials say they continued to focus on producing quality students for Louisiana’s workforce.
“We’ve had great success in preparing competent students to go out in the region and work,” said Dr. Stephen Hulbert, president at Nicholls State University.
Fall statistics show that Nicholls has a large number of nursing professionals and educators working in the Bayou Region.
Hulbert said Nicholls graduates make up 84 percent of the working nurses in Terrebonne/ Lafourche, and 54 percent in St. Mary Parish. He also said 4-out-of-5 educators in the Tri-parish area come from Nicholls.
Fletcher Technical Community College continues to supply graduates to meet the demand for laborers – machinists, welders, diesel mechanics, mariners and electricians.
“Our job is first to educate,” said William Tulak, vice chancellor at Fletcher. “Students come to Fletcher to learn the skills they will need to be competitive in today’s market.”
Fletcher and Nicholls are also enrolling more students.
Hulbert said Nicholls’ selective enrollment process is working wonders for the caliber students the university is attracting. The average ACT score for incoming freshmen was 21.52 this fall.
“That’s considerably above the state average, and slightly above the national average,” he said. “Each year, the students are getting better and they are progressing to a degree.”
The graduation rate at Nicholls is currently 34.9, up from 25.6 in 2006. Hulbert said those figures are based on open enrollment.
However, when the 2012 figures are released, Hulbert expects the university to be at 50 percent because of selective enrollment bringing in academically-oriented students.
Lavigne said 2009 was a year of great achievement for Fletcher. The two-year institution received its Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation.
“This is certainly a milestone since we were made into a community technical college in 2003,” he said. “We have been working toward this for six years. It’s a culmination of our hard work.
“The accreditation is an affirmation of the commitment that our faculty, staff and administration have to providing quality education to our students and ultimately to the workforce in our community, ” he added.
It took Fletcher a while to receive accreditation. However, it was well worth the wait, Lavigne said.
This fall, Fletcher’s enrollment increased by 20 percent to 1,823 students.
“That means there was an unmet need and the community was aware of that need,” Lavigne said. “Fletcher is measured by certain standards and the institution has demonstrated that it can meet those standards.”
With an influx of students, officials are turning their attention to housing.
Hulbert said Nicholls got a complete facelift in 2008, bring residential life on campus into the 21st century.
“With the new residential halls, the demand for housing has increased,” Hulbert said, “and that demand says that we will be able to defend the need to build more residential halls in the future.”
Nicholls is presently working on $14 million worth of deferred maintenance projects that were approved two years ago.
“It’s all part of our plan to create an environment that is conducive to learning,” Hulbert said.
Revenue for the majority of Nicholls’ renovations has been self-generated. The street paving projects were paid with monies collected from student decal fees.
The residential hall and cafeteria renovations were paid with student fees, board fees and residential hall fees.
The university is renovating Beauregard Hall. Hulbert said the project is six months ahead of schedule. Beauregard Hall will be used as the science department. Nicholls also hopes to renovate the façade of the library, and replace the HVAC system in Gouaux Hall.
Fletcher has two major projects ongoing in 2010. The Louisiana Marine and Petroleum Institute campus expansion on Dixon Road in Houma is the first project off the line.
Lavigne said Cheramie & Bruce have been hired as the architects for the $5.1 million expansion.
The target is to have the construction documents and architect plans ready for bid by April, with construction beginning in the summer.
The two-year institution also hopes to be in the planning stages of a 70-acre campus on La. Highway 311 between the new Weatherford building and the BP Houma Operation Learning Center.
Lavigne will close on the first 32 acres in December, with the remaining 38 acres to follow in early spring.
He said Fletcher could begin construction on the new campus by the end of 2010.
Fletcher is in a position to take over 2-year associate degree programs currently available only at 4-year institutions.
“We are working closely with Nicholls to assume those programs,” Lavigne said.
The two institutions have cross-enrollment agreements where Fletcher students can take up to 6 hours on the Nicholls campus, and vice versa.
“It’s an attempt to build a hassle-free transition in pursing their degree,” Hulbert said.
“Everything we do is designed to provide opportunities for students,” Lavigne added.
Nicholls State University graduates make up 84 percent of the working nurses in the Terrebonne/Lafourche area and 54 percent in St. Mary parish. Meanwhile, 4-out-of-5 educators in the Tri-parish area come from Nicholls. * Photo courtesy of NICHOLLS STATE UNVIERSITY
