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Odessa College - SACS Focused Report Home
Welcome to the SACS Focused Report Website for OC.
For over 60 years, Odessa College has served the needs of the West Texas city it calls home.
Recently, dramatic challenges and exciting successes have occurred for OC almost simultaneously. OC had record enrollments at the same time the institution received word of substantial State budget cutbacks. Odessa’s citizens overwhelmingly approved a $68 million bond issue for Odessa College although federal funding cutbacks are projected to impact financial aid funding.
The College has been challenged to find new ways to provide quality educational opportunities while facing these circumstances. In the process, OC has become a truly exciting place to study, to visit, and to work.
As we face these impactful issues, the accreditation process furnishes OC with the chance to look inward and to examine our processes in a deep, meaningful way. We have examined every strand of our operational fabric as part of our ongoing effort to achieve continuous improvement and to be the best community college in the nation. The Focused Report has allowed OC to look with a critical eye at every aspect of our activities, drilling down to examine our procedures and practices at every level.
The Odessa College Family – our faculty and staff – holds core values that strengthen our programs and allow us to best serve our constituents. Through ethical leadership, responsible fiscal policies, caring connection with our students, data-driven self-examination, and excellence in classrooms and programs, we provide access to successful futures and fulfilled educational aspirations. Our work has resulted in recognition from local, state, and, sometimes national sources. The accreditation principles we uphold are the heart of our commitment to educating students.
OC is proud to be a leader for our district’s residents, and as a result of their support in the November 2010 election, the $68 million bond package will change the face of Odessa College. Construction plans are being finalized. During the fall semester, we will break ground in the initial phase of that bold plan.
Also in fall of 2010, OC was awarded a $3.26 million DOE federal Title V grant that has helped create the OC Global Allied Health program, taking critically needed health care courses to rural and place-bound students in our district’s outlying communities. We continue to expand other workforce training programs in our service district, which is almost as large as the state of Maine. As the sixth President of Odessa College, I stand ready with my fellow OC employees to accomplish great things.
This coming September, we will be honored to receive a site visit from our SACS Accreditation Team. In the meantime, we welcome you to our college’s website, where we believe the process of improvement will begin. Thank you for the work that you do. Together, we can create a future for our students that will be unparalleled.
Gregory D. Williams, President |
