DOTHAN, Ala. – The Enterprise Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors discussed its accreditation efforts at its April monthly board meeting and also heard Enterprise State Community College President Matt Rodgers talk about the college’s recent achievements and improvements.
Rodgers said that ESCC was one of two community colleges in Alabama that had an enrollment increase in the fall 2020 semester and the only one that had an increase for the spring 2021 semester.
“We’ve had a goal all along: not just to get through the pandemic, but we want to soar through it and come out bigger and better and we’ve done that. We’re doing that,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers said that the school’s new goal for enrollment this year is 2,021 students and that they are doing many different things in an effort to accomplish the goal, like focusing on increasing scholarship funding. He added that doing this is in the past has increased enrollment.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Rodgers said many students haven’t been able to tour the college in the past year. To help with this problem, a virtual tour option was created that is available on ESCC’s website.
“You can go to these different points on our campus and go click on a building. It will show you who’s in the building, what programs are there and everything you need to know,” Rodgers said.
He also discussed renovations and improvements at both the Enterprise and Ozark campuses; the courtyard on the Enterprise campus has been renovated and will be further improved next year, and three out of seven buildings on campus have also seen changes with lecture halls and labs now being more modern with updated technology and equipment.
The chamber board is also working on efforts to become nationally accredited.
According to Rob Rhoades, board vice chairman of public affairs, board members are hoping to finish the accreditation packet, which is comprised of nine different modules, by the end of August. To include the entire board in the process, members were given the opportunity to sign up to help contribute to the nine different sections. Rhoades said each group would be working on the process over the next few months.
The next board of director’s meeting will be Monday, May 17 at 11:30 a.m. at the Enterprise Farmers Market.
