The Northern Oklahoma College Board of Regents approved two policies and a number of academic fee requests at their December meeting Wednesday at NOC Tonkawa.
The two policies are both related to the NOC website, one is a privacy police and the other a policy regarding cookies. Vice President for Development & Community Relations Sheri Snyder said the policies were necessary updates for the current NOC website. NOC is in current development of a new website that will be unveiled in 2025.
Regarding the FY2026 Academic Service Fees request, Vice President for Financial Affairs Anita Simpson explained the 12 fees under consideration. Some were slight increases to current academic service fees in nursing and fine arts while others were dropped altogether.
Simpson also presented the financial report, approved by the regents. She also explained two purchases of more than $25,000.00. They included a Boiler System for the Foster-Piper Fieldhouse in Tonkawa at a cost of $26,540.00 and an Academic Research Data Base for all campuses at a cost of $28,764.19.
In administrator updates, Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Shelly Mencacci reported that NOC received a $94,000 NASA Grant that will provide funding for earth science research. She thanked Dr. Frankie Wood-Black, Division Chair for Engineering, Physical Science, and Process Technology, for her efforts to secure the grant.
Vice President Snyder reminded the regents of the investiture for president Diana Morris Watkins set for Tuesday, Jan. 14 at the Kinzer Performing Arts Center in Tonkawa. Formal invitations highlighting the event will go out next week.
Vice President for Enid Jeremy Hise reported that over 200 Enid students performed over 300 hours of community service at the Enid Day of Kindness. He said each athletic program as well as the science program participated in the event.
Dr. Rick Edgington, Vice President for Enrollment Management, reported that Fall Enrolment concluded with a 1% increase in student enrollment and a 5% increase in credit hour production. Over Fall 2023. He said the preliminary spring enrollment shows an increase of 12% in head count and 10% in credit hour production compared to Spring 2024.
Vice President Simpson reported that she met with NOC Division Chairs and compared NOC instructor wage and benefit packages to other like Oklahoma institutions. She said that NOC was in the top two of comparable schools for salaries and was at the top in fringe benefits.
In the president’s report, Watkins said there have been meetings with Oklahoma State University regarding NOC’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with OSU for the Gateway Program and that those discussions are moving along nicely.
The next meeting is Wednesday, Feb. 19, in the President’s Conference Room at NOC Tonkawa at 2 p.m.