Nathan Straus
Jacksonville Daily Progress
JACKSONVILLE —
Lon Morris College officials have marked 2010 in their history books as the year the college reached and passed 1,000 students.
LMC President Dr. Miles McCall said it is one of the first of many long term goals for the two-year school.
“It looks like another banner year,” McCall said.
Director of Public Relations Afton Barber said as of Tuesday the student population reached 1,006.
“We feel great,” Barber said. She also stated the college has 896 beds available, including beds at a residency hall scheduled to be completed in September.
McCall said there are procedures Lon Morris College has done to prepare for so many students.
“There are a lot of things the community doesn’t see,” McCall said. “We have had to increase the number of faculty. We have 16 or 17 Ph.D.s on campus. Five years ago we only had two.”
He said the current goal for the college is consistent improvement in as many places as possible.
“We can’t be 100 percent better, but we can be 1 percent better at 100 things,” he said.
To this effect, McCall said if the college’s enrollment exceeds the 1,100-1,200 range it will need to tweak its admission standards to keep the population near 1,000. He also said the school is investing in infrastructure and has a high on-campus live-in rate of roughly 80 percent.
“If we’re going to be a 1,000-person school, we will need about 850 beds,” McCall said. “That’s OK for a 1,000-person school and we will continue to improve the facilities.”
He said college officials will aim for more housing with a style similar to Cooper House, one of the newer residency buildings on campus.
In addition, McCall said small academic programs will be added in 2011. One possible example he gave was a speech and debate program.
“Our goal is to get every student we have to a four-year institution,” McCall said.
Lon Morris College’s previous record was 830 students in the 2009-2010 school year. The campus recently added programs in fields such as agriculture, performance dance and hospitality administration to attract more students.
Jacksonville College officials could not be reached for comment on Jacksonville College’s enrollment data after multiple attempts over the course of a week.
JC President Dr. Edwin Crank said the college is up in full-time students over last year with fewer part-time students.
He also said the dormitory population is up over last year.
“We’re thrilled with what we have,” Crank said. “I think the quality of our students is good. We want to bring good citizens to Jacksonville.”
He also said Jacksonville College will begin an honors program in the near future.
