BLINN LOOKS TO ADD BRYAN OFFICE SPACE

  

Dealing with growing pains, particularly with the Bryan campus, was the issue behind many of the items discussed by the Blinn Board of Trustees at last night’s meeting.   The Board approved a letter of intent to sign a five-year lease for additional office space with Tejas Center, Ltd.  The lease approximately would give the College and additional 22,430 square feet of administrative space at 3125 South Texas Ave. in Bryan. That space was formerly occupied by Skyfiber, and Blinn anticipates occupying the facility during the Spring semester.

Kelli Shomaker small
Blinn College CFO Kelli Shomaker

Blinn plans to move Bryan campus student support services such as enrollment services, admissions and records, financial aid and testing to the new location. The move would free space on the Bryan campus, which last week announced an enrollment of 13,587 students – a 6.4 percent increase over last Fall.  Blinn’s master planning efforts with various consultants project that its Brazos County campuses could see enrollment exceed 15,000 by 2017 and approach 20,000 by 2025. The board continues to consider long-term Brazos County property options.

The board also approved an additional $250,000 to an existing construction contract for parking spaces on the Bryan campus.  The change order will add 100 more spaces adjacent to the modular classrooms on that campus.

The board approved increases in some student fees, the largest being for parking registration which will go from $75 per year to $200 per year.  Blinn Chief Financial Officer Kelli Shomaker explains;

 

The Board also voted to increase student fees for sending out student transcripts.  Last year the college received 69 thousand transcript requests.  That service will now be outsourced and will cost the student $7.50 to send a paper copy or $5 to send an electronic copy.  The advantage of the outsourcing is that the service will be available 24/7 and the transcripts will be sent without delay.

The board approved a $55,000 expenditure to allow the City of Bryan to dispatch the Blinn College police units on the Bryan campus.  Currently, 911 calls from that campus are routed to the Brenham Communications center.  Blinn Chief of Police Craig Wiesepape noted that this was the number one security issue with the Bryan campus.

In other action, the board approved the purchase of a 15 passenger bus for the Agriculture Sciences Division for their travel to competitions.  The new bus will reduce the number of drivers needed as currently two Suburbans are used for travel.

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