Southeast Community College Provides Covid Figures, Reports Preliminary Enrollment Decline

BEATRICE – Southeast Community College says it has 41 reported cases of Covid-19 over three weeks, with seven reported, though not confirmed cases in the past week.

SCC President Dr. Paul Illich provided the information to the school’s Board of Governors on Tuesday. He says the college has been able to pivot quickly, if there is a need to provide online learning on an individualized basis.
"Every faculty member ought to be able to create a virtual environment or experience. We're seeing a lot of that. It's real fluid, because often the person doesn't really know if they have to quarantine because they are waiting on the test result. So, we bought every full-time faculty member a laptop with a good camera and a good mic so they could pivot".

Campus response teams are monitoring virus exposures, including contact tracing and case management. Illich says SCC has been flexible in staffing, with some employees working on site, while others working remotely on a staggered basis.
Illich says the Covid numbers are presumed positive cases.

"So, a person may not get tested if they're living with someone who is positive. Now, to date, I don't think we've had, that we're aware of... evidence that these cases are coming from a spread on campus. They are typically coming from an outside source, and they're reporting it."

Illich said Tuesday that preliminary figures indicate that fall semester enrollment is down about 9.3% at the Beatrice Campus, compared to the fall term last year. At the Lincoln Campus, the decline is 7.9%....but at the Milford Campus, the preliminary figure shows enrollment up about 17.9%.

"We observed about a five percent decline in headcount across the three campuses for fall of twenty. Now, it's my belief that this is actually a very strong result. There are many colleges that are down quite a bit more than that. I believe that being down five percent with all the uncertainties and other things, is very positive."

Southeast Community College Board members and officials conducted a partly in-person, partly virtual monthly meeting on Tuesday. It was announced that tentative ribbon cutting events are planned for new additions on the Lincoln and Beatrice Campuses.
A ceremony at the new Health Sciences Facility on the Lincoln Campus is planned for November 10th…while a ribbon cutting for the new Academic Excellence Center on the Beatrice Campus is scheduled for November 17th. One of the next planned major projects for the Beatrice Campus is an Agriculture Career Complex, next to the former Beatrice Business Campus building.

 

Tuesday, the SCC Board selected Boyd Jones Construction as the construction manager for a planned Student and Academic Support project on the SCC Lincoln Campus.

Southeast Community College has finalized its budget for 2020-2021. The Board of Governors passed a budget resolution Tuesday, approving the $281.63 million plan.

Overall property valuation in SCC’s 15-county service area increased 1.5%, to $61.9 billion. College Vice-President of Finance, Amy Jorgens says the overall budget represents about a point-7-5 percent hike in the general fund.  SCC will receive $28.5 million in state aid.

Southeast Community College will operate with a total tax rate of 9.37 cents, unchanged from the prior year. That includes a two-cent capital improvement levy.