The Three Rivers College Board of Trustees met Wednesday afternoon to address policy updates, including initial approval of a new "Academic Fresh Start" policy, weigh in on a future interstate project that would impact Southeast Missouri and receive an update of projects going on around the campus.
The Academic Fresh Start Program is an effort on the college's behalf to provide "students with a second chance at college success." The program has existed for a number of years, but was revamped and approved as a new policy in yesterday's session.
"The idea behind (Fresh Start) is if you came to college, did not succeed, and decided to go out in the world and try something different and then after a period came back, in this case three years and say 'I'd like to be considered for a fresh start,'" said TRC President Dr. Wesley Payne, then essentially a student could do that.
Payne said students qualifying for the Academic Fresh Start Program must fulfill the academic requirements listed in the policy to remain in the Fresh Start program. Upon successful completion of the requirements, Academic Fresh Start will be granted and any unsuccessful grades from the student's first attempt at college will be forgiven.
"The (procedure) we had before said you had to be out for five years, you lost the good (grades) with the bad, you had to actually perform higher than satisfactory academic progress, so in order to get a second chance, you actually had to come back and do better than any other student was required to do," Payne said.
According to Payne the faculty felt that the five year limit could be reduced, as well as supported a change to allow students to keep the classes they had successfully completed instead of "throwing out the baby with the bathwater."
Trustee Darren Garrison asked Payne if other colleges have similar policies, to which Payne responded yes. Garrison then motioned to accept the policy, which was unanimously approved.
"If it's based on what the faculty thinks is a good thing, I'll make that motion," Garrison said.
Trustees also approved the conflict of interest policy, which saw no changes and an updated minimum class size policy update.
Trustees then addressed a resolution requesting that highway corridors from the Arkansas-Missouri state line through Poplar Bluff and Dexter, Mo., to Sikeston, Mo., be designated as future interstate. Trustees voted to support the resolution.
"Northeast Arkansas is trying to connect Little Rock, Ark., to Sikeston, Mo.," TRC Board Chairman Eric Schalk said. "Currently there are 238 miles of roads that are not interstate on that stretch."
Schalk said the Highway 67 Corporation approved the resolution and then contacted TRC to ask for its support. Trustees voted to unanimously accept the resolution, with a motion by Trustee Gary Featherston.
Payne, during his president's address, celebrated the successful completion of the FEMA/SEMA building, which met the April 20 completion deadline.
He said that after meeting the deadline, a second FEMA/SEMA grant was applied for and awarded, providng TRC with an additional $192,000 that will be used to pave the parking lot of the new Libla Family Sports Complex, which will be completed this fall.
"At this moment, that constuction project is standing in a very, very good spot," Payne said.
He also mentioned that after many months of saying "next week," contractors are actually on-site working on the sidewalk and parking lot updates.
"By the time the fall starts, we will have an entirely renovated pathway and parking lot situation on campus. It's a big, big step forward," Payne said.
A few faculty members were recognized for their contributions to TRC, including math instructor Mark Eriksson, assistant network administrator Kevin Crafford, director of the ACHIEVE program Todd Allen, early childhood development coordinator Heather Cornman, and softball coach Jeff Null, who was awarded the MCCAC Softball Coach of the Year.
TRC's 2017 commencement ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. Friday at the Black River Coliseum and will feature keynote speaker Stan Berry, editor of the Daily American Republic.