State Board Approves Creation of New Community College

GASTONIA:  The State Board of Community Colleges has approved a recommendation to create a new community college to serve Anson and Union Counties.  The recommendation is the result of a report presented to the State Board by a three-member panel hired to study the needs and concerns of both Anson and Union Counties.  The vote is a major step in resolving a longstanding dispute between the two counties.

Union County officials had pushed for a separate community college to serve its residents. At present Union is served by Anson CC and Stanly CC.  The three-member team of education experts visited the area, held public hearings, and studied demographic information to create the report that was unveiled for the first time on Thursday, April 15 at a Policy Meeting of the State Board of Community Colleges.

The recommendations were then presented to the full State Board of Community College on Friday, April 16 and received unanimous approval.  They now go to the North Carolina General Assembly. The legislators may accept the recommendations, reject or amend them.

The panel was led by Edgar Boone, professor emeritus of NC State University’s Department of Adult and Community College Education, who also presented the report on Thursday and Friday.  The 15 recommendations are "based upon considerable study and reflections of current and projected educational needs of people in the two counties."

Officials from both counties were on hand to hear the report, several offered comments.  Union County Commission Chair, Paul Standridge, thanked the panel for considering the growing needs of his county, but expressed some concern about the time factor set for the effective date of the recommendations, July 1, 1999. E. Lynn Raye, Anson Community College Board Chairman, who resides in Union County, pointed to funds already appropriated by the legislature to address capital needs.  Raye informed the committee that an architect has already been selected to being work on a new building for the new college.

The recommendations call for a single college with two campuses, one in Anson County and one in Union County.  Effective July, 1999, the new college would be established and the present Anson Community College would be abolished.  The new college would have a single president, whose office location would be determined by the board of the new college.  The board would have 13 voting members, six from Anson County and seven from the larger Union county.  The president of the student government associate would be a nonvoting, ex officio member.

A full list of the recommendations follow:

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