Tragedy Befalls SPC Students Twice within One Week

by Monica Rose, sports editor

South Plains College is mourning two tragedies that happened in a one-week span.

A recent SPC graduate and another student who just started at SPC were killed in separate car accidents.

On Feb. 4,  Kelli Amanda Herd was heading back to the SPC campus when Allen Lockett of Levelland was heading east in the westbound lane on Texas Highway 114. The two vehicles collided head on, and both Lockett and Herd were killed instantly. The accident remains under investigation.

“Kelli was a very thoughtful, kind young woman,” said Leslie Downs, Herd’s English teacher at SPC. “Kelli is the kind of person who helps me remember why I started teaching in the first place.”  

Herd was nine days shy of her 19^th birthday. She graduated from Clear Creak High school in League City, where she was involved with her high school newspaper, debate team, theater, and student council. Herd was living at the North Sue Spencer residence hall and was a roommate and close friend of Keylle Burnett. She planned to transfer to Texas Tech University in the fall to continue the family legacy of being a member of the Pi Phi sorority, just like her mother and grandmother.

Herd’s funeral was held Feb 8.  A candlelight vigil was held in her memory at the Baker Center later that evening.

Regents Approve Fine Arts Renovation, Eye Campus Expansion

by Jacob Tucker, feature editor

Expansion and a drop in enrollment were among the many topics of discussion during the February meeting of the South Plains College Board of Regents.

David Jones, vice president for student affairs, informed the Regents that SPC lost a little more than 400 students between the fall and spring semesters.  This was a slight drop of 4.5 percent.

Jones also informed the Board that SPC was not the only college to suffer these kinds of losses.  Student retention in community colleges all around the state varied from losses of 1 percent to some as large as 20 percent.

According to Jones, the dip in SPC is enrollment was due to the college’s relationship with Texas Tech University and the Gateway Program.  TTU has now opened what they call the Pathway Program involving many other community colleges around the state.  This new program caused the university to drop a few of the classes that they offered through the Gateway Program with SPC.

Another reason for the decline in enrollment, according to Jones, is the rise in the unemployment rate in Hockley County.  The rate has climbed to 39 percent in the past year. Now students are finding it easier to get jobs that pay very well.  Jones feels confident that we will get some, if not all, of these working students back into our system.

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