College enrollment jumps

By Gale Rose of the Tribune Staff


The enrollment numbers are up, way up, for the spring semester at Pratt Community College.

The total credit hours were by 8.2 percent while the actual head count has increased 13.9 percent above the spring 2005 numbers.

The Outreach program has 1,826 students which was up from 1,379 students in spring 2005. The numbers were presented to the PCC Board of Trustees at their monthly meeting Monday night.

The increase in students has the residence halls at 90 percent of total occupancy which is the amount the halls need to be able to pay off their debt service without drawing money from other sources.

The increase is due to the success of a couple of areas including the concurrent enrollment program which allows high school students to take college courses for college credit and for high school graduation credit, said PCC President William Wojciechowski.


"It (concurrent enrollment) has grown considerably over the last year," Wojciechowski said.

Along side concurrent enrollments addition to enrollment is the satellite nursing program at Winfield. It also continues to add students to the allied health program and add to the total credit hours.

The enrollment numbers for the spring of 2006 are better than they have been for several years and that is good news for PCC.

"This is one of the best enrollments we've had in the last 10 years," Wojciechowski said.

As the year progresses, enrollment will likely fall off as some students decide to leave college for a variety of reasons. If the final enrollment increase is higher than the average for Kansas community colleges, PCC will receive additional funds for the amount above the average.



PCC will not qualify for extra funds if the increase is below the state average, Wojciechowski said.

Having additional funds will be vital for PCC and other community colleges if the governor's proposed budget is passed as is by the Legislature.

The governor's budget allows $96.6 million for community colleges and just under $2.3 million of that would go to PCC. That number is about $8,000 less than what PCC got from the state last year, but it doesn't include the out district tuition that community colleges got in fiscal 2005-2006.

Out-district tuition is $6 and is the amount that PCC students from outside the district have to pay per credit hour to attend PCC and the governor's budget has no provision for out-district tuition. The governor's original budget for the last fiscal year didn't include out district either but pressure was applied to the legislature and they added the $6 to the final education budget last year, Wojciechowski said.

Whether or not it will be added this year is unknown but Wojciechowski is hopeful the legislature will add it again.

"We're optimistic we'll get the same support this year," Wojciechowski said.

If the out-district money doesn't come through it would mean a loss of $100,000 to $150,000 from last year and that would have a negative impact when PCC works on its fiscal budget for 2006-2007.

The Legislature could also throw higher education a curve if they decide to shift money from higher education and shift it to the USDs. It that happens PCC could lose more than the worst case scenario of $150,000, Wojciechowski said.

The increased enrollment is expected to continue with the addition of the sports medicine program scheduled to start in the fall of 2006. The trustees got a look at the proposed renovation planned for the training rooms in the lower level of the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena. The rooms are located just off the east staircase in the lower level.

A floor plan and materials were presented by Paul Cavanaugh, president of Places Architects of Wichita. The proposed renovation would cost about $71,000, take about two months to complete and would cover about 750 square feet, Cavanaugh said.


The new sports medicine program is expected to have 12 students the first year with a goal of 18 students. The remodeled room is rather small but not all the students would be in the area at the same time, Wojciechowski said.

The next step is to send out bids for the proposed project. Cavanaugh said he would use as many local contractors as possible for the project.

In other action by the trustees, PCC Foundation was given permission to raise an additional $23,000 for scholarships to cover the new programs added to PCC including nursing, sports medicine and wrestling.

The trustees voted to extend Wojciechowski's contract to 2009.

Has the new Coach been named yet! Or who is the contact guy about the wrestling program? I would think that they would be moving rather quickly towards this with the High school season coming to an end soon and recruiting needs. Also where do I get my “Beaver Wrestling” apparel?

So no one know if Pratt has got a coach yet??

I know they have had some interviews. I haven't heard any new hire though.
I heard James Morgan and Chas Thompson were interviewed.

Oklahoma City just announced a new program less than a month ago and just in the last 48 hours has named a head coach. What is the hold up?

No hold up no more--- can't say who it is but he has accepted the position and will become official on Monday. I can only say that we will have the best facilities and support in the state, and that the abilities of the new coach is up to that level. Quite a surprise, and quite exciting for our community. I believe a lot of people will be surprised. The feedback here has been astounding--- calls from all over the country, including a letter of encouragement from Dan Gable, wow.

Joe Renfro from Labette also interviewed along with Morgan and Thompson. I would think Renfro would not leave Labette so his intentions are unknown. Morgan could not take it due to salary negotiations so unless somebody else interviewed Chas Thompson is the new PCC Head Wrestling Coach.

What exactly were the problems with Morgan? And if it s Chas that is awesome! I am jsut excited for my home town to have a program!
Can not wait for my PCC Wrestling t shirt and to send some Blue Jays to my old home town!
Coach Brown

Morgan works in Oak Grove, Mo. and makes quite a bit more than what was offered at PCC. My source said that Morgan financially could not make the move. I believe Thompson will have his hands full with the program being brand new. With all the hype around the program being started Chas will be in for a long year. Good luck to him or whomever and I also want a Beaver shirt.

I wouldn't count Renfro out... he made several visits here concerning the position, and there are some local sources of funds that may become a factor, the fact that he applied was quite a boost to the local fans here and with the committment to provide top notch facilities and support to the program, it was apparently at least a moderate enticement to mr. Renfro. Mr. Hackerott, the AD here, was absolutely blown away by the amount of out of state calls that have come to the college since the addition of the sport was announced, and the letter from Mr. Gable was very impressive to him-- as he related to me:Michael Jordan has never sent us a letter about our basketball program, and that is the relative importance to the sport that Dan Gable is to wrestling. (I would enclose that in quotatiions but it is a paraphrase of what he said.) At any rate, the lid is on the announcement until Monday, but I would not jump to any conclusions yet..... suffice it to say that either coach would be exciting, and each one brings a lot of credibility to our fledgling program. As a parent of a prospective college frosh next year, especially exciting for me...

I would like to say an early congrats too on the new coach. Great great choice.

I too would like to congratulate the new coach whoever it maybe.

It was officially announced today (Monday) that the new coach at PCC is Chas Thompson. I met him this morning and was quite impressed with his youth and enthusiasm, I am optimistic that the program is off to a great start! Since no Tshirts will be available for awhile, maybe some blue Beaver Wrestling shirts from Scott
city hs would be in order?

Congrats to Chas!

Congrats Chas!

Great Choice! Congrats Chas!

The Edison's

Congrats Chas..Best of luck to you!

Congrats finally to Chas. I wonder if any other Juco will jump the bandwagon and start programs. Kansas is getting more attention in the wrestling world.

Will Chas finish the season as a FHSU assistant while trying to recruit for Pratt, or is he already moving and ready to focus soley on that job?

Good luck to Chas. He will be a great coach. I had him for a year in high school and he made me better in that year than I thought possible. Those who wrestle for him next year will definetly have a great coach.