BEATRICE – Southeast Community College hopes to develop new agriculture program facilities at its Beatrice campus, as part of the college’s overall modernization plan.


The concept for a new classroom and lab building, and competition arena was shown at a Beatrice Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored seminar this week.
Dean of the SCC Ag, Welding and Transportation Programs, Jon Kisby says the development would be at the south edge of the campus, near a building that’s already been converted to ag program instruction space. "We're building two halves....either education first, or arena first. We're looking forward to partnering with the community and making this a reality on the Beatrice Campus."


SCC President, Dr. Paul Illich says the agriculture expansion is part of the school’s Empower Campaign, where millions of dollars are being raised to help modernize SCC facilities on the three-campus system. But he says it goes beyond just the buildings.  "We're talking about the learning that happens inside the building and then the life-changing benefits of that learning. We have a lot of students here today...and that's what we're talking about. Changing the lives of those students and giving them the best possible spaces to have these successful careers."


Illich says modernizing campus facilities is part of the overall goal to meet the need for a skilled workforce in Nebraska. "We can go around the state and you hear that over, and over. As a community college, we just can't sit there on the sidelines and let that happen. We have an obligation to scale ourselves correctly, to address that need. That's what we've been doing. We modernized Beatrice, but we are also modernizing our Milford and our Lincoln Campus....all at the same time."


The Empower Campaign has raised about $22 million toward a goal of $50 million in private support. "This year, we're going to go public. We've been in what's called a silent phase, where we're out trying to locate what we call lead donors. We're getting close to being ready to launch this for everyone."


The college president says SCC is starting to see some of its best student enrollment growth in years. "We've grown over 50-percent on our Milford Campus where we have a lot of our heavy tech programs. We've also grown recently in Beatrice. This spring, we just grew 13-percent in our enrollment. It's preliminary, but we've added eleven hundred students....one of the largest enrollments we've seen in a decade."


Illich said he feels Southeast Community College is on track to be the premier community college in the Midwest.