SPC's Sharp joins area presidents to discuss 'Solutions for our Future'

by Jacob Tucker, associate editor

 

There is a major epidemic plaguing our nation today. 

It is not a virus that affects our bodies, but something worse.  It is the lack of higher education among our citizens.

The United States has fallen to ninth place in postsecondary enrollment in the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation.  ODEC is an organization that is made up of countries around the world that have a working educational program. This data indicates that America has begun to not to focus as much effort on higher education as it used to.

The American Council of Education has created a solution to help bring the nation back up.  It is a program called Solutions for Our Future.  This program was created to establish a connection between the public and colleges and universities.  This connection will answer any questions that the public may have about education, and create solutions to many of the problems.

On Oct. 2, the presidents of Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock Christian University, Wayland Baptist University, and South Plains College held a meeting at the Spirit Ranch in Lubbock to kick off the grassroots campaign.

“We were the first area in the nation to get the colleges together to answer any questions from the public,” said Dr. Kelvin Sharp, president of South Plains College.

Dr. Sharp said he hopes that this will spur a nationwide effort to address the problems facing higher-level education.

“We need to figure out how to get the students who stay home after high school into the classroom,” said Dr. Sharp.  “This means those barriers that are preventing these students from coming need to be dropped.”

Governmental funding is the biggest problem facing higher education in our nation today.  According to Dr. Sharp, the funding that colleges receive determines the amount of tuition and fees students have to pay.

“Funding is always a difficult obstacle to overcome,” said Dr. Sharp.  “What we are trying to do is take the classroom to the public.”

SPC has begun to offer ITV classes to people in Denver City, Muleshoe, Plainview, and possibly Post.  These classes give citizens of the community a chance to attend college without having to step foot on the Levelland campus.  SPC also offers Internet courses to students of any age.

SPC is also addressing our country’s shortage of nurses and other health care workers, which has reached 126,000 vacancies.  Community colleges train 83 percent of all first responders.  SPC has trained and graduated 450 of these responders, and more than 80 percent of these have stayed in the South Plains region. 

Dr. Sharp believes HeaHthat if people knew the funding problems facing colleges and universities in the country, more action will be taken to help benefit higher education.  He also feels that a student’s family life has a huge emphasis on whether he or she goes to college or not.

“Some students go through life without having the influence of higher education from their family,” said Dr. Sharp.  “If we could only get some of them to realize these benefits, that is why we formed the West Texas Campaign Coalition.”

According to the ACE, in order for the country to remain economically competitive in the world market, the investments in higher education need to be increased.  By funding higher education, it would quite possibly be the best investment made by our nation.

“We really have a good mixture of institutions in the area,” said Dr. Sharp.  “This helps broaden our efforts to better higher education.”

For more information on the benefits of higher education and how you can help the West Texas Campaign Coalition, visit www.solutionforourfuture.com.