The Plainsman Press - South Plains College

With its outreach expanding every year, South Plains College has opened a new campus in the region to continue to assist students with their education.

Classes began at the Plainview campus located at 1920 W. 24^th St. on Aug. 29 with approximately 180 students enrolled for classes.

“The reason for the creating the Plainview center was to expand our outreach to the students in the northern part of our college’s services,” said Kimbra Quinn, director of enrollment management at SPC. “This center makes education more accessible for those in that area.”

SPC offers technical programs in cosmetology, vocational nursing and associate degree nursing at the campus in Plainview. College-level general education courses are also offered.

The new center houses interactive two-way video classrooms, computer labs and student services offices. Also provided are college admissions, financial aid, career counseling, and testing, skills assessment services and dual credit ITV courses offered to high school students.

“The physical location of the new center makes the community more aware of the classes being offered,” said Gracie Quinonez, director of the Plainview Center. “We are kept very busy with questions from the many prospective students who are interested in attending classes.”

The Plainview campus is offering classes during the day as well as for those who are only able to attend night classes. The daytime courses consist of those classes that are part of the cosmetology and nursing programs. The night classes are the general education courses such as college algebra, English, government, history, psychology, computer courses, developmental courses and other classes that fit into the general education category.

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Regents ponder restoration of paintings

by Amanda Hurt, staff writer

The restoration of the college’s art collection was among the main topics of discussion at the September meeting of the South Plains College Board of Regents.

For almost 40 years, the college has had nine unique paintings scatted across its campus.

“These paintings were given to the college from the personal collection of Majorie Merriweather Post,” said Stephen John, vice president for Institutional Advancement.

Post had a vast collection of paintings that are now on display at the Smithsonian Institute, the Hillwood Estate in Virginia and at SPC. The dates of the nine paintings that are on display at SPC range from a 17^th century pastel drawing to a 20^th century oil canvas piece.

Post donated these pieces to the college from 1966 through 1968. She wanted the convenience of a classical art gallery at the college. Post desired to give the South Plains region access to classical art. Other than for student and faculty use, the gallery is completely open to the community.

The college started out with 14 pieces from her collection, including a piece from the artwork of Peter Paul Reubens. Five of the original pieces were on loan from the Smithsonian Museum of Art, and were collected shortly after Post’s death.The Board began to watch the condition of the paintings during a period of 18 months. They noticed the deterioration of the quality of color in the paintings, the condition of the collection and its need the attention also were brought to light in the February 23,2004 issue of The Plainsman Press.