(05-18-2018 04:58 PM)johnintx Wrote:  

(05-17-2018 04:09 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Bacone College To Shut Down


Well, just lost a second Oklahoma school in closing down. The Muskogee school is in debt. Seems the online summer classes would be the last. I do think the state should step in, and make it a UCO-Muskogee campus or something like that. It said it is a school that serves the Native Americans.

Bacone, like St. Gregory's before it, was historically a junior college. Bacone was a four-year institution from 1880 to 1920, then only offered two-year degrees until 1999. I presume the lack of alumni with bachelor's degrees from both schools impacted their fund-raising ability, as their alums ended up with degrees from other schools. In Bacone's case, they were also serving an economically challenged population, further impacting their finances.

https://newsok.com/article/2640136/bacon...ear-school

As there became less of a market for private junior colleges, both schools decided to offer four-year degrees. This kept both schools going for another 20 years or so, but they have now both shut down within six months of each other. Bacone had a niche as a historically Native American school.

Connors State College is a junior college in Warner, 20 minutes away. They also offer classes in Muskogee, IIRC. Northeastern State University is in Tahlequah, only 40 minutes away.

There is a precedent: When Phillips University in Enid shut down, Northern Oklahoma College (junior college) in Tonkawa opened a campus on the former Phillips property, owned by the city of Enid. However, with the state of Oklahoma's ongoing budget crisis, I'm not sure if either school can expand their offerings in Muskogee right now.

Comanche Nation College In Lawton Closed July 2017

It is the third school in Oklahoma that shut it's doors in the last year. Bacone wound up getting some of their students to help them get their degrees. Now, some of the students at Bacone got hit twice in lest than an year.