BLINN OFFICIALS TO MEET WITH REP. RANEY

  

Three representatives from Blinn College will meet with Rep. John Raney regarding House Bill 1903.

Trustee Carolyn D. Miller, CPA; Dr. Ana M. “Cha” Guzmán, interim district president; and Sylvia McMullen, president of Brazos County campuses, will request a meeting with Raney to establish a timeline for Blinn to develop a detailed financial action plan.

House Bill 1903 would require Blinn to allocate funds from tuition and fees and state appropriations based upon campus contact hours, effective in September.

Miller has served on the Blinn board since 2011. She has worked with big-four accounting firm KPMG for more than 25 years and the city of Brenham for almost 10 years, including the past six as CFO.

Guzmán began serving as Blinn’s interim district president in January after serving 15 years as president of Palo Alto and Santa Fe community colleges. A member of the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame, Guzmán served as chair of the White House Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans from 1993-2000 and served on the Board of Trustees for the College Board.

McMullen has served as president of Brazos County campuses since 2013 and has more than 30 years’ experience in educational leadership. Prior to coming to Blinn, she served on numerous state organizations, including the Texas Education Reform Foundation, the Texas Business Education Coalition and the Closing the Gap Initiative with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

During Wednesday’s special Board of Trustees meeting, the board modified its tuition rates for the 2015-16 academic year. Under the new structure, Blinn will offer four distinct rates based upon the student’s permanent residence:

• An in-district rate of $48 per credit hour for students from Washington County.
• A service area rate of $102 for students residing in the remainder of Blinn’s service area.
• An out-of-service area rate of $117 for Texas students residing outside Blinn’s service area.
• An out-of-state/international student rate of $200.

“With these rates, our tuition remains competitive with community colleges throughout the state while keeping our rates low for students throughout the Brazos Valley and fueling our continued growth,” Guzman said.

The additional $7.8 million in tuition revenue will be used to fund future enrollment growth. Blinn has experienced an historic 37.5 percent enrollment increase since 2006, with much of that growth taking place on the Bryan campus. Blinn registered 19,317 students for the recent Fall semester, an increase of 4.9 percent over last year and the highest total in the College’s 131-year history.

To accommodate that growth, Blinn is in the midst of a $10 million renovation project on its Bryan campus and recently announced the $3.8 million purchase of 95 acres at F.M. 2818 and Leonard Road in Bryan. The new campus will be developed into a 10,000–15,000 student campus and will allow Blinn to develop additional science, technology, engineering and mathematics offerings and expand its workforce, technical, research and health-related education programs.

Blinn anticipates breaking ground on the property this year with the goal of hosting classes as early as 2017.

Blinn is unique among community colleges in attracting students from across the state and nation. Blinn students came from 1,533 zip codes in Fall 2013, drawn by Blinn’s academic transfer rate – more than 20 percent higher than the state average – and the College’s unique partnerships with Texas A&M University, which include the Texas A&M Blinn TEAM (Transfer Enrollment at A&M) Program and the Texas A&M Engineering Academy at Blinn.  Story courtesy of Blinn College.