Coahoma Community College students will be able to handle all of their business with the financial aid office without coming on campus.
The CCC board approved paying $80,000 to campusM to give students the opportunity to get the necessary paperwork to the financial office online at a recent meeting. CARES Act and Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) dollars are funding the program.
The program will last five years and a portion of the $80,000 will be paid each year.
CCC president Dr. Valmadge Towner said the COVID pandemic led to the school getting the app, but the plan is to keep it in the post-pandemic era.
“It’s safe, convenient and efficient,” Towners said. “Everything is digitized.”
Towner said paper copies with important information could be lost, but everything that is digitalized will be saved.
“It will increase the capacity to not have face-to-face interchanges between prospective students, current students and the financial aid office,” Towner said. “Students will be able to upload or send in materials to the financial aid office without ever having to come to the campus. As well as the financial aid office will be able to process those papers and communicate with prospective students and current students without having to actually meet with those students.
“So because of the obvious pandemic that we’re in, software like this are allowed to be paid for through funds that we have been given. It’s a costly item, but it’s well, well worth it.
“This is something we’ve been working out, at least talking about since the early part of the spring.”
Towner said Holmes Community College is using the same system and Northwest and East Mississippi community colleges looking into having that type of system.
“Pretty much all of our sister schools are using some type of software or system where students can remotely engage with financial aid offices without having to come to campus,” Towner said.
Towner said CCC is trying to do something similar for the admissions office.
“I feel that one of the enrollment issues we had at 116 students is that we had students that we were not able to respond to,” Towner said.
CECHS
Although Coahoma Early College High School closed in July, there is still business to take care of.
Chief financial officer Deborah Valentine said there is a possibility CCC will retain the money that would have gone to CECHS.
“I am hoping they will say it’s ours since they merged us and put us together,” Valentine said.
The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) still has to make decisions with inventory.
“We have identified those items that were over $5,000 that were purchased with federal funds,” Valentine said. “They are coming to look at those.”
Mental health issues
Towner said CARES and HEERF dollars are paying for additional mental health professionals on campus who specialize in certain areas. That will only be for a limited time.
“The pandemic has exacerbated mental illness,” Towner said. “A lot of times because we’ve been forced to be alone, we can’t do the normal things that we do whether it’s a birthday party or family reunion. We can’t have funerals like we want to have them.”
Towner is glad the issues are being addressed.
“That’s a good deal,” he said. “We’re grateful.”
New vans
The board approved the purchase of two 15-passenger vans from Rogers-Dabbs Chevrolet out of Brandon for a total of $54,000.
“We’re getting them primarily so just about any of our faculty and staff can drive them and transport their own club,” said Jerone Shaw, chief of staff and chair of physical plant.
