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Comparing student body, heritage and fiscal operations at GCCC
Published 2/3/2010 in Classtime
Who makes up the student body at Garden City Community College? How does GCCC compare in size and age to the other community colleges across the state? What kind of fiscal operation does it take to maintain the education and services that GCCC provides?
You can find the answers to those questions and quite a few others in a PowerPoint presentation that the GCCC Board of Trustees has been sharing with groups and organizations recently in the community. Two weeks ago, I borrowed some of the information from that presentation to share with The Telegram's readers, and promised to provide more when space allowed.
In making good on that promise, today I would like to focus on some demographic information about the students we educate, as well as some comparative statistics on everything from our size and heritage to the revenues we receive and the expenditures we invest to carry out our mission.
Students attending GCCC
In a typical fall or spring semester, for example, GCCC will enroll about 2,300 students in our college credit programs. This compares with enrollment of just a few hundred at some of the smaller two-campus campuses in the state, to more than 25,000 at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park.
In looking at the GCCC student body, you also will find that:
* About 54.2 percent of GCCC students are women, and 45.8 percent are men.
* Students with minority ethnic backgrounds make up as much as 31.6 percent of the total.
* While our students range in age from 17 to 89, the average age is about 31.
* Students 25 and younger make up 67.8 percent of our credit registration, and those 26 and older make up 32.2 percent.
The housing that we provide on campus can accommodate up to 306 students, and we do this with three living options:
* A group of three modern apartment buildings that opened about seven years ago;
* our East Units, built in 1978, which also provide apartment-style housing;
* our West Residence Hall, part of the original campus construction project that began in 1968, offering traditional dorm-style housing.
GCCC history
Established in 1919, GCCC is one of the two original community colleges in Kansas. While we opened our doors earlier, Fort Scot Community College also began service in 1919. Two other two-year higher learning institutions were established the same year, in Marysville and Holton, but neither survives today.
Though the older term persisted in conversation and other references, our college stopped being a junior college and became a community college back in 1965, with passage of the Community College Act by the Kansas Legislature. The same legislation also gave community colleges the taxing authority necessary to operate and maintain campuses and programs, and established publicly elected board of trustees for governance.
Our first board played a leadership role in creating today's campus, which was approved by voters in 1966.
The campus:
* Includes 14 buildings on 65 acres;
* was completed between 1968 and 1971;
* went through significant expansion projects, including the John Collins Technical Building 1975 and the Penka Building of Practical Arts and Sciences in 1986;
* also included expansion in 1986 of the Pauline Joyce Fine Arts Building and Dennis Perryman Athletic Complex.
Since the mid 1990s, GCCC facilities have continued growing to meet changing needs and demands, and this has included completion of:
* The Gary E. Jarmer Technical Annex in 1996;
* the Residential Apartments in 2003;
* the Beth Tedrow Student Center in 2004;
* the Student and Community Services Center in 2006;
* the Southwest Kansas Fire Training Center, a cooperative project with the city of Garden City, in 2008;
* the Erdene Corley Lab at the Penka Building, opened as part of our 90th anniversary celebration in 2009 and made possible by a generous grant from the Erdene Corley Trust.
In addition, the campus includes the Tangeman Athletic Complex, located on 70 acres east of Campus Drive, and developed in partnership with the city of Garden City.
Revenues and expenditures
GCCC continues to operate with local governance, and the majority of the college's revenue is from local courses. Though proportions vary slightly from year to year, this outline shows the primary sources of college funding:
* Finney County property taxes, 60 percent;
* state Aid, 18 percent;
* student tuition, 17 percent;
* interest, 3 percent;
* miscellaneous/federal revenue, 2 percent.
The way we invest our resources also varies a little from year to year, but this outline gives a general picture:
* Instructional and Academic Support, 44 percent;
* Student Services, 17 percent;
* Operation and Maintenance, 17 percent;
* Institutional Support, 15 percent;
* Community Services and Transfers, 5 percent;
* Finney County Scholarships, 2 percent.
It's also important to note that, according to an independent study covering all 19 Kansas community colleges, GCCC exerts a positive impact worth about $40 million per year to the Finney County economy.
More to discover
These are just some of the facts you can discover by viewing the PowerPoint presentation available from the GCCC Board of Trustees. I'd like to invite you to consider scheduling the presentation for your community, professional, church, fraternal or other group by contacting us as follows:
Debbie Atkinson
administrative assistant to the president
276-9533
debbie.atkinson@gcccks.edu
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