The Collegian (Hurst, Tex.), Ed. 1 Tuesday, July 20, 1993 Page: 1 of 4
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Collegian
Tuesday, July 20, 1993
Tarrant County Junior College, Fort Worth, Texas
Bond Election Extra
The
•SOUTH*
•NORTHEAST*
•NORTHWEST*
Covering the
Tri-Campuses of
TCJC since 1988
Jodi Stewart/The Collegian
Looking, toward thejuture
Future students, (from left) Elizabeth Stewart, Eurose Ramirez
and Gareth Wilson, are representative of Tarrant County
residents who will benefit from the additions and renovations
to TCJC campuses if the $70 million bond package passes.
• Bond Election •
Saturday, Aug. 14
Bond proposal includes
renovations, new campus
Nancy Bartosek
Editor in Chief
Tarrant County Junior College
is on the grow again.
Enrollment is at an all-time high
and demand for classes and pro-
grams has pushed existing facilities
beyond their capacity.
To remedy this overload and
respond to the needs of Tarrant
County residents, the Board of Trust-
ees is asking voters approve a pro-
posed $70 million bond package to
pay for a new campus and major
improvements to existing campuses,
Chancellor C.A. Roberson said.
On Aug. 14, voters will be asked
to authorize the board to sell $70 in
bonds to finance expansions and
renovations on all three campuses
and build a new SE Campus in Ar-
lington,” he said.
In addition, a new computer
system to alleviate long lines and
frustration at registration will be in-
cluded in the package, a concern of
many students.
Nearly 30,000 students enroll
each semester in credit courses. In
addition, 40,000 students participate
each year in non-credit courses at
TCJC. These large enrollments have
resulted in many students' being
turned away from courses they need
to complete training programs and
academic two-year degrees.
The proposed bond, if passed,
will provide for the college’s needs
into the next century.
The largest addition to the col-
lege will be a new SE Campus in
Arlington at the intersection of 1-20
and Texas 360, Dr. Bill Lace, direc-
tor of college relations, said.
The campus will contain about
350,000 square feet and cost $41
million. It is located in Arlington,
the largest population center not ser-
viced by a campus, to relieve the
overcrowding at the South and NE
Campuses, Lace said.
Opening day, which is currently
planned for Fall 1995, will have a
projected enrollment of more than
5,000 students, Lace said.
In addition, the three existing
campuses will be expanded to allow
for increasing enrollments.
Taxpayers will have a small tax
increase to pay for the bond, but the
cost will be minimal and gradual,
Joe Ed Spencer, vice chancellor for
business affairs, said.
“TCJC has one of the lowest tax
rates in the state—currently 4.392
cents per $100 evaluation,” he said,
adding that TCJC is only one of two
junior college districts in the state
that has a tax rate under a nickle.
If the bond passes, the tax rate
would rise a maximum of 9.9 tenths
of one cent, which would raise the
tax rate to its peak at 5.39 cents per
$100. That would raise the taxes on
a $100,000 home by $10 a year,
Spencer said.
“We would not sell all the bonds
immediately; it will be done over a
four-year period,” he said. “ So the
tax rate might increase three-tenths
of one cent next year, then two-
tenths of one cent the following
year, but at its peak it would rise
only 9.9 tenths of one cent,” he said.
Lace explained the ramifica-
tions of that to the average taxpayer.
The $10 per year that taxes
would go up for a $100,000 home
would remain at $10 or less each
year; it is not cummulative,” he said.
“The rate will change each year but
never amount to more than just un-
der one cenrper $100 in any given
year, or $10 more than they are
paying right now. When the bond is
retired in 20 years, the average tax-
payer will still pay only less than
$10 a year than they would if the
bond did not pass.”
Students, faculty and staff will
have the opportunity to vote on all
three campuses beginning Mon-
day, July 26. Early voting locations
are listed below.
TCJC 2000 gives bond support
Jodi Stewart
NW Campus News Editor
Tarrant County as a community has gready
benefited from TCJC students, and progress
should continue as the community looks to-
ward the future, Herman Smith, campaign
chairperson and local businessman, said.
“I have followed this junior college sys-
tem since its inception and was, in fact, on the
initial bond campaign for the first campus in
Tarrant County. Since them, about 350,000
men and women have been through TCJC
programs, Smith said.
“If you look around and see the computer
knowledge, the nursing and police training,
you realize what a tremendous asset to the
community these students have become. They
have better served the future as well as the
present here in Tarrant County,” the former
Hurst mayor said.
The trustees of TCJC have made prudent
decisions and developed a junior college sys-
tem that is one of the best in the state, Smith
said.
“We should encourage their continued
good work,” he said.
Based on the current taxation rate, the
bohds to build a new campus in the SE area and
give expansion and renovation funds to the
other three campuses “is one of the best invest-
ments Tarrant County has ever made, he said.
“If you base the percentage on a medium
priced home of $80,000, we are looking at
about $8 a year or 75 cents a month—that cost
is so minimal to support higher education in the
community,” Smith said.
Jerry Conger, computer coordinator of the
senior education program, feels that TCJC has
given much to the senior citizens of Tarrant
County for 18 years.
“TCJC has a program that allows seniors
to take as many classes as desired for just $20
as part of a continuing education program. The
seniors and I think that TCJC has done a
wonderful thing for us, and we want to do
something in return. We back the bond issue
and are working hard to promote it,” Conger
said.
More than 1,000 seniors participated in
the senior education program last semester,
and hundreds of them are posting signs in
libraries, at AARP meetings, and in grocery
stores to publicize the positive effects of the
bond issue for TCJC, Conger said.
Faculty from TCJC are anticipating a fa-
vorable response to the bond issue from the
standpoint of personal feelings for the students,
Dr. Carolyn Robertson, professor of psychol-
ogy and biology on NE Campus and a commit-
tee chairperson, said.
“TCJC faculty is so student oriented, and
it really hurts us to turn students away from a
class because it is filled. We need more room
for expansion,” Robertson said.
“The project, TCJC 2000, is taking Tarrant
County Junior College into the next century,”
Smith said.
Early Voting
Locations
• Student Center Lobby
on South Campus
• Across from the bookstore
in the Northeast Campus
Student Center
• Inside the Administration
Building lobby Northwest
Campus
• May Owen Center
• Kooken Educational
♦Center in Arlington
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The Collegian (Hurst, Tex.), Ed. 1 Tuesday, July 20, 1993, newspaper, July 20, 1993; Hurst, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1183185/m1/1/: accessed July 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Tarrant County College NE, Heritage Room.