Board discusses CSC improvements and Chancellor search

The Board of Trustees, in a meeting Saturday at Chadron State College, assured the finalists for the next Nebraska State College System Chancellor will be announced soon.

Gary Bieganski, chair of the NSCS Search Committee said, “We are successfully on track for the time schedules we have set. The committee has interviewed a number of applicants and we’ve selected a small number for reference and background checks.”

The reference and background check process should be done within two weeks. The finalists will then be announced to the public and prepare for their interviews.

The agenda for the meeting revealed that from Spring 2017 to Spring 2018 full-time enrollment at CSC had a -7.77 percent change, going from 1,970 to 1,817 enrolled.

The NSCS as a whole saw a -3.36 percent change. Peru State saw a -5.22 percent change, and Wayne State saw a 1.23 percent change. Dr. Marysz Rames, president of WSC, credits this increase to a new integrated marketing plan and a great team.

The Board also approved the Chancellor’s signature for the purchase of the $140,000 video board to go in CSC’s Chicoine Center. The Chadron State Foundation currently has 95 percent of the total funds and will pay the remaining five percent in cash funds.

The creation of artwork for the Chicoine Center and the new Don Beebe Stadium was approved, costing $64,000 in cash funds.

Nebraska law allows one percent of state funds for construction costs to be used for the “acquisition of works of art.” The art will be featured west of the Chicoine Center and created by Karen Yank.

CSC currently has $639,037.95 in uncollectible debt. An account deemed “uncollectible” must be over two years old and must exhaust all other means of collection before turning accounts exceeding $100 over to collection agencies. Chadron State’s debt is considerably higher than PSC and WSC, respectively $39,051.40 and $52.919.61, because they “reflect several years of uncollectible debts as a result of adjusted procedure at the College for administrative withdrawals.”