Central Virginia Community College now has one less satellite location.
The college’s Brookneal Center officially closed Wednesday in the face of state budget cuts and a declining enrollment.
It was one of five CVCC satellite locations in the area. The others — in Bedford, Amherst, Appomattox and Altavista — do not have the same enrollment problems and are not in danger of closing.
“There were many people who were willing to work with us but the bottom line was we just couldn’t generate the students,” said Linda Rodriguez, director of the Brookneal and Altavista centers. “(With) the state cuts, we could no longer afford to subsidize the center.”
The center held its last day of classes on Dec. 19, and it officially closed as of Wednesday, she said.
The center opened to about 25 students in fall 2002, “and we had a lot of traffic” from residents who used the center for community meetings and high-speed Internet access, Rodriguez said.
Before opening, school officials used $200,000 from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission to renovate the center, which was in the bottom floor of the Patrick Henry Memorial Library.
The commission provides education grants in 41 tobacco-dependent localities in Southwest and Southside Virginia, including Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties.
“We were paying the utilities and got the furniture and were paying for staff,” Rodriguez said.
But enrollment dipped in the past few years, she said, with the closing of Brookneal Flooring and the Dan River finishing plant.
“It just impacted a lot of folks,” she said.
The Brookneal Center completed its final semester with only five students.
Those students may continue coursework at the CVCC main campus in Lynchburg or at the Altavista Center, she said.
The Brookneal Center also could reopen in the future “if things pick up again,” or if businesses seek special workforce training through the school, Rodriguez said.
“That option is always available,” she said. “I don’t want them (students) to feel like they’ve been deserted completely; we’ll be making visits to the (William Campbell) high school and to the library if they need advisement.”
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement