OCtech invests in tech; college preparing for regular SACS review

Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College is set to improve the educational experience of students on campus and online with the update of its technological infrastructure.

OCtech President Dr. Walt Tobin reported during an OCtech Area Commission meeting on Aug. 10 that the college has made investments in technology at the school.

“We have just made a significant investment in our technology and technology infrastructure. So ultimately all of our classrooms and board rooms will have up-to-date technology that we think provides a good academic experience for our students whether or not they’re online or face-to-face,” Tobin said.

Tobin said the college is also preparing for its five-year review by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

“That report is due in September,” Tobin said “We’re slowly but surely putting that document together.”

“I think it’s important to mention again that our student success metric, which is a six-year completion rate, was the highest in the system. Horry-Georgetown (Technical College) was behind us, but we were only one point off of the national average. So kudos to the faculty and staff for their work,” the president said.

OCtech held its trio of summer graduation ceremonies July 29 at The Cinema in Orangeburg.

“We will continue with that fall, spring, summer graduation just because we’ve learned how valuable that experience is for our students and family members. We will be hopefully looking for bigger venues to host the graduation in the coming semesters,” he said.

The college also recently announced it is offering guaranteed free tuition this fall to South Carolina residents enrolled in at least six credit hours in an eligible career certificate, diploma or degree-seeking program.

“It is an opportunity for us to reduce the burden of going to college for our students,” Tobin said.

OCtech Vice President for Student Services Dr. Sandra Davis said federal Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund money was used to pay off balances students owed from the spring 2020 semester through the spring 2021 semester.

OCtech Vice President of Financial Affairs Kim Huff said, “We actually cleared 473 accounts for about $287,000.”

Also in his report, Tobin said the college would be restarting its Youth Apprenticeship initiative.

“We’ve identified some additional partners. OCtech took on some youth apprentices this spring and summer. We’ll continue that with the City of Orangeburg, the County of Orangeburg, Thermo King, Gibbes Ford. We’ve found some additional partners that will allow our students to get some back-to-work experience while they’re in school,” Tobin said.

He announced that the following faculty and staff members won peer-selected awards administered by the South Carolina Technical Education Association:

• Faculty of the Year – Dave Odom, engineering graphics instructor

• Staff of the Year – Youlanda Johnson, administrative assistant to the vice president of financial affairs

• Faculty Award for Teaching and Innovation Excellence – Billy Ethridge, dean of the college’s criminal justice department

• Faculty of the Year for Advising and Recruiting – Lynn Fralix, program coordinator for the college’s physical therapy assistant program

“In the summer I created four faculty/staff awards that are based on objective information,” Tobin said “Those folks get a monetary award, and we’re trying to figure out what kind of recognition we can provide to those folks.”

The president said the future of the college’s Fine Wines and Foods event, which is generally held in the fall, was also discussed at an OCtech Foundation board meeting on Aug. 9.

With the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant, he said the board is not sure whether the event will be held this fall.

“I think folks are eager to gather and have a good time, but at the same time, we are keenly aware we need to keep folks safe,” he said. “We may be in a situation where that event is held possibly in the spring, or not at all. I think we just need to decide what the best route to take is, but at the same time making sure folks are safe and feel safe coming on campus.”

Tobin welcomed Cindy Garrick as the new executive assistant to the president. She previously served as the administrative specialist for the college’s vice president of academic affairs.

Academic affairs

OCtech Vice President of Academic Affairs Williette Waring Berry said the college’s fall orientation on Aug. 10 went well.

“The individual program sessions and the Early College sessions were well attended. We had a lot of questions. So we’re looking forward to starting the new academic year,” she said.

Richard Murphy, the college’s former dean of engineering and advanced manufacturing technologies, has been hired as the college’s assistant VP of academics.

“We want to welcome Richard aboard in his new position,” she said.

Student affairs

OCtech Vice President for Student Services Dr. Sandra Davis said nearly 200 students arrived on campus Aug. 10 for fall semester orientation, which was also held virtually.

“It was very refreshing to see so many of them on campus. That’s our first in-person orientation since fall of ’19 because of spring of 2020,” she said.

Davis said student refunds will also be delivered faster and more efficiently beginning this fall.

“We typically have had to print a check and mail a check to students if there was an overage of any kind left on their student accounts, but beginning this fall those funds will be delivered to those students by an EFT (electronic funds transfer),” she said.

She said the flow of paper forms would also be more streamlined through the college’s partnership with Dynamic Forms.

“One of the things that we learned when we had to go virtual March of last year was that we very heavily dependent upon students completing certain forms for different things that we need in student services. While we were able to provide them with those forms electronically, we’re looking to streamline that now a little bit more. We’re working with Dynamic Forms so it allows students to not only complete a form online, but also be able to submit it online,” she said.

Davis continued, “We are beginning to plan for some semester activities. … both virtually with some in-person activities as well.”

Finance

OCtech Vice President of Financial Affairs Kim Huff delivered a June finance report. The college reported revenue of $20.1 million at the end of June, with expenses standing at $18.7 million.

“It is not the final numbers. We still have year-end entries that are happening. July is a heavy month to do journal entries for the year end, even into August where we are now. So we’re getting closer, but there’s still a few more entries to be made,” Huff said.

Expenses were down from a budgeted $19.5 million, he said.

“We were blessed to have funds help us with the revenue side, but we were down in expenses,” Huff said. “So financially for the operating account, it was a very good year.”

The college is working to address grading issues around the nursing building.

“We’re getting close to having a contractor over there to fix some of those grading issues. Hopefully that will be the last piece of what we need to do for that building,” Huff said.

As far the health science building, he said, “We are in the middle of working on phase 1 with the architects.” The commission will be presented with some estimates on the project cost.

“We have capital project funds that could cover that, and we also have received for this year from the state maybe $3.9 million in deferred maintenance and renovation money. So we’ve got that project. We’ve got other projects that we need to do. It might be some shuffling of the funds to know what’s going to be used for what,” Huff said.

He said the college is also going to have an architect study the area for a potential student learning commons area and “give us some ideas on flooring, acoustics and lighting.”

Huff said the college received an additional $2 million in state funds to help purchase equipment and move its machine tool department to from Building J to Building T.

“Once we have better cost estimates for these things is when I can come back to you for some kind of official approval to move forward,” Huff said.

Other business

The commission approved the transfer of $500,000 from the college’s operating fund to the plant fund. It also approved the revision and/or review of five policies.