State College Chancellor Pleased With Panhandle Visit

      Nebraska State College System Chancellor Paul Turman says he couldn’t be more pleased with his visit to the Panhandle last week, which included 2 days on the Chadron State College campus.

The trip was timed to coincide with the State College Board of Trustees annual meeting in Chadron, which this year was last Thursday, September 9th.

Turman drove himself while most of the rest of the central office administration drove out together or flew.

        Turman says he was able to meet with community leaders in Chadron, Alliance, and the Twin Cities as well as administrators and board members of Western Nebraska Community College.

Turman met with the CSC faculty and staff Friday morning and painted a much brighter picture for the current school year than had been feared at this time last year. 

      He says the prime reason is that Nebraska didn’t suffer the big economic declines from the pandemic that devastated many other states.

Because the economy was strong, the state took in a lot more tax revenue than expected and the legislature decided to send more of it to the state colleges.

Turman says the 3 state colleges and the system as a whole are also benefiting from million dollars in COVID relief and stimulus funds. Most of the relief money went to students while the stimulus funds will help the schools with infrastructure issues.

Turman became chancellor in January 2019, coming from South Dakota where he was the Vice President for Academic Affairs of the South Dakota Board of Regents.