By Emilee Kuschel
News Editor
Due to Budget cuts and low enrollment, Crowder’s Monett campus will cease all operations by May 31 2018.
The satellite campus currently only has one full-time employee, secretary Kathi Skaggs. While other teachers and faculty at the Monett campus will be transferring to other campuses or teaching online courses through Crowder, Skaggs’ future within the college remains uncertain.
While news of the campus closing was quite sudden, it was not unexpected by the Monett campus faculty. “I found out in mid February. I was disappointed, but I can’t say that I was surprised because there were cuts made last year and the Mt. Vernon and Carthage campuses had closed and they were projecting further budget cuts. It was kind of an unfortunate consequence of that,” says Skaggs.
Just last year, Crowder’s Mt. Vernon and Carthage campuses shut down for the same reasons. Andy Wood, Board President, said of the campus closing, “ When we started these sites years ago, it was with the intent that they would run in the black while they never have. Although we like being there, with further reductions in state revenue, it is not possible to continue operating in the red, and the additional 10% revenue reductions being discussed by the state will not be covered by the closing of Monett.”
“I wish there were other options but I think as dr methvin said there are only so much funds available across several locations. You have to make do with what you have. I wish there were other options,but unless money falls out of the sky I don’t know that there are any,” says Skaggs.
Tammy Click, a student at Monett, says of the closing, “ For Monett, Cassville is not that far, and neither is the main Neosho campus. Since the Mt. Vernon campus has already closed, anyone east of Aurora would be traveling about the same distance to Springfield as they would to the Cassville campus and Neosho is even farther.”
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