13-02-2025
OC board talks land, equipment purchase
Feb. 12—The Odessa College Board of Trustees in a Wednesday workshop agreed to bring the purchase of a small piece of land and of a Festo 3-Phase Separator.
The land is at 2809 Halley Ave. and covers .5799 of an acre, Vice President for Administrative Services Ken Zartner said.
It will be used for future growth.
The Property Committee also approved the purchase of a $196,716 Festo 3-Phase Separator. Gene White, dean of the School of Business and Industry, said the 3-Phase Separator includes all the components and three days of training.
It will be funded by funds given to the college by Chevron.
White said OC has other Festo equipment on campus and they are always in support with their Festo partners and they provide great support.
The separator will be used in three classes — process instrumentation 1, process instrumentation 2 and also in the capstone class at the end where they get a chance to use it.
The equipment will be housed in the Electronics Technology Building near the networking lab.
They had a separator previously but didn't have all the components, White said.
Vice President for Academic Partnerships Jason Meldrum said they have about 400 students in the Wrangler Promise Program from the high school class of 2024.
Meldrum said they started off with about 450 in the fall. He added that the total financial investment in that group is just under $600,000.
"A lot of them were already reciting other scholarships or receiving the Pell grant," Meldrum said.
The Wrangler Promise is "a last-dollar-in scholarship opportunity that will cover the cost of tuition and fees," the OC website said.
Meldrum said they are at well over 700 pledges for the class of 2025. The goal is is around 1,700 pledges.
"The pledge is simply that students are ... making a commitment to do something with their education beyond high school," Meldrum said.
One of the differences between this year and last is that schools are reaching out to them, Meldrum said.
On a separate item, at noon Feb. 14, the Odessa College Board of Trustees will meet in Room 202 of the Wood Health Sciences Building to consider and take action on calling a bond election for May 3.
Voters defeated a $355 million bond in November which would have raised taxes.
Unofficial totals had the proposition getting 20,542 against and 19,137 for.
The proposed bond was designed to fund essential projects, including new facilities for programs in welding, automation, technology, and safety, aimed at strengthening the local workforce.
