CASC regents give ‘blessing’ to move forward

CASC regents

By DAVID SEELEY

The Poteau Daily News

The Carl Albert State College Board of Regents gave its “blessing” for CASC Plant Manager Chuck Lewis to follow through with plans for several upcoming projects during Tuesday afternoon’s regents meeting inside the Regents’ Room at the F.L. Holton Business Center.

During his report, Lewis was joined by local architect Michael Riley, who showed a slideshow presentation showing the rough plans for the future projects, such as building a hitting facility for both the Vikings baseball team and the Lady Vikings softball team and giving a facelift of sorts to the Costner-Balentine Student Center, in which the kitchen space would be expanded.

Also, Lewis shared with the Regents that there is enough in-house funds to build a temporary shared hitting facility for both the Vikings and Lady Vikings at a cost of around $100,000 that could be finished by August. Then, after such time as the actual hitting facilities for the CASC diamond teams were built, the temporary hitting facility then could be turned into a storage facility or even classrooms.

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Regent Belva Barber shared the concern with getting more concrete drawings for such facilities than just abstract ones so that it can help both the student-athlete to want to come to CASC but also get local individuals and businesses to donate to the cause, such as paying to get their names on bricks — similar to the backstop at Town Creek Park, the home of the Poteau Pirates baseball team.

Lewis also shared the fact that the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) in both the F.L. Holton Business Center and the Costner-Balentine Student Center have been replaced with new HVAC units.

The board did approve a bid of $749,400 to Metal Roof Contractors to replace the current roof over the Joe E. White Library with a metal one, which was prompted due to the facility suffering leaks with the current roof. The other bid was from A-Lert Roofing Construction for $993,425, but was turned down.

Through the upcoming potential project presentation, Barber shared her concerns with the need for all the buildings on campus to have a similar outside appearance.

During his report, CASC President Jay Falkner announced the Cherokee Nation, during the Christmas break, gave $100,000 to CASC with “no strings attached.” Falkner mentioned the Cherokee Nation gave a $100,000 last year to start the first-ever child development virtual app.

CASC Chief Financial Officer Brian Roberts told the board that the land south of CASC’s property belongs to Ronny Blake, who mentioned to Roberts the need for an easement to tie his property to the City of Poteau water and sewer lines. So, the regents gave their “blessing” to Roberts to pursue that task, but it was strongly recommended by both Barber and Board of Regents Chairman Ron Lawson that all surveying costs by paid for by Blake. Barber added that the survey’s findings need to be reported to the board.

In his report, CASC Vice-President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Bill Nowlin shared with the regents his spring semester enrollment report. Nowlin showed the graphic that the headcount was 1,621 this spring semester from 1,646 in the 2022 spring semester, the credit hours went from 16,349 last spring to 16,500 this spring and the number of concurrent students went from 450 last spring to 427 this spring. However, Nowlin pointed out Tuesday was the last day to enroll, and the numbers were based as of Monday.

Nowlin expressed strong concerns with the board that CASC needs to be “aggressive” and “progressive” to keep the numbers like they are due to the competitive nature of trying to lure students to their respective institutions.

In her report, CASC Development Foundation Senior Executive Director Mandy Roberts shared with the Regents that last month’s Gold Dust Gala raised $112,000 for student scholarships, the highest total ever. Since the first Gold Dust Gala took place in 1998, the event has raised more than $985,000 to benefit CASC and its students. She said the 2023 Gold Dust Gala will take place Dec. 8.

After a 91-minute executive session, the board approved all but one personnel matter. The Regents approved the retirements of CASC Nursing Instructor Maurica Anderson effective June 1 and CASC Director of Nursing Marcia Cullum effective July 1.

The board approved the resignations of CASC janitor Brittney Couch effective New Year’s Eve, CASC assistant baseball coach Austin Jarvis effective New Year’s Day, CASC Educational Oopportunity Center Academic Advisor Theresa Orwig effective New Year’s Eve and food service cashier/attendant Jackie Rake effective New Year’s Eve.

The Regents approved the new hires of Lynette Odom as food service cashier/attendant, Stephanie Qualls as the director of the R-VEEP Grant Program and Justin Tacket as a social science instructor.

The board approved the changes of status of Chad Brown as a criminal justice instructor, Devin Covey as a student account manager, Michael Jackson as the director of CASC campus police/CASC campus police officer, Tawni Morgan in accounts payable and Micky Solomon as the director of grants.

The only personnel matter not approved was that of the change of status for Hunter Sisemore as a recruiter/diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator as the regents wanted to allow staff to conduct additional research on the program’s requirements.

Falkner gave two financial reports, one for November and one for December. He said that CASC ended the month of November at $9,646,907, which was $1,570,979 better than at the end of November 2021.

For December, CASC ended the month at $9,430,825, which was $1,751,920 better than at the end of December 2021.

Just before the meeting ended, the decision was made to close both CASC campuses, both in Poteau and Sallisaw, due to the wintry weather which came on Tuesday afternoon and night.