Some changes could be on the way for Bossier Parish Community College and Northwest Louisiana Technical College.

The two local campuses are not directly impacted by the planned consolidation of community colleges in the state, but both schools could see enrollment numbers changing.

The governing board is consolidating some of its campuses after years of shrinking state spending on higher education.

The system's governing board has approved the mergers along with other restructuring plans.

System President Monty Sullivan says the goal is to maintain access in rural areas. Hs says this will also help with coordinating with workforce needs around the state and responding to financial changes that have the campuses relying more on student tuition and fees than state money.

Eight campuses will be shifted to control of other colleges on July 1. For example, the Reserve campus of South Central Louisiana Technical College will become part of River Parishes Community College.

No campuses would close, but reassigning to which colleges eight satellite campuses would report would save about $10 million a year, Sullivan said. That’s about 5 percent of the $195.4 million annual budget for the dozen public community colleges and technical schools scattered around the state.

From Northwest Louisiana, here are the schools that will be impacted the most:

The Northwest Louisiana Technical College Natchitoches campus will be realigned with the Central Louisiana Technical College in Alexandria. Also, the Sabine Valley campus is also being realigned with the Alexandria campus.

Last year, the community and technical colleges enrolled about 131,000 students, transferred about 15,000 students to four-year universities, and graduated 28,853 students.

This will mean the loss of some jobs. Sullivan says there will be some administrative job losses, but no major layoffs are expected.

 

 

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