That magnificant land in Wilksmoor!

So now we want to locate a college near Wallyworld? It seems that those scrub acres in that area really attract railroads, railroad storage, big boxes, and developers.
Who owns it?
From where do such ideas as a college come?
Build it in the middle of that mess of government homes, lack of access, and police patrols?
What lovely neighbors such a college will make for the homeowners.

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I'm wondering if this particular college is a good fit
sniffles5's picture
Submitted by sniffles5 on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 11:54am.

According to the Newnan Times-Herald, ACC has received 7 relocation proposals, 4 of them from the "Newnan area".

While I don't oppose the idea of having a college of some sort in Peachtree City, I wonder if ACC is a good fit.

The Times-Herald pointed out that the city of Newnan asked to see the college's books, to see if they had the financial ability to acheive their dream. The college declined to provide any information as to their financial solvency, stating only the "two finalists" would be privy to this info.

The college's president was remarkably candid about his college's failure to execute. Despite the biggest run-up in college enrollment in Georgia history over the past 15 years (due in large part to the HOPE scholarship), ACC has had a "stagnant" (his word) enrollment of 400 or so students, year in, year out.

He also mentioned that the college only offers seven majors (bible studies, early childhood education, business administration, etc) and that they were "stale" offerings.

The college has some very ambitious plans to grow: they want to balloon from 400 students to 1200 students on their new campus. Tripling in size would likely to entail some severe growing pains, especially when you consider this college is regarded as a "residence college" (as opposed to a "commuter college" where most students live at home).

Can the Wilksmoor site handle a resident student population of 1200? I don't know.

Plus, I recently read (can't find link yet) that college enrollment in general will level off in the year 2010 and actually decline a bit after that. 2010 is reasonably the timeframe when this colleges new buildings can expect to go 'on-line'....meaning that there is the potential for excess capacity chasing increasingly scarce resources.

I'm wondering if the powers-that-be in Peachtree City have thought this proposal all the way through. There seem to be a number of well-meaning ACC alumni here who are smitten with the idea of moving their alma mater to their hometown, but I wonder if any potential adverse impacts have been discussed and measured.

We shall see, I suppose!!
___________
Diagnosing Denise


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College would be a wonderful thing for you..
Submitted by Spyglass on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 8:27am.

You may even be able to learn to communicate in English.

As far as a College being good neighbors, the folks in Clayton County will tell you that Clayton State is a breath of fresh air in the midst of confusion.

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Spyglass: Breathing Smog
Spear Road Guy's picture
Submitted by Spear Road Guy on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 10:13am.

Clayton State University is a two-bit prep school but I will agree about the confusion in Clayton County.

I'm worrying about a small but growing college consuming our city services and they don't pay taxes. Has anybody weighed the costs of this thing in the years to come?

Vote Republican


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Two points Spear...
Submitted by Spyglass on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 10:17am.

I have friends with degrees from Clayton State that had doors open for them that otherwise would have been shut.

As far as the the benefits/negatives, I guess one would have to study that further. On the surface, it would seem to be a good thing for the Community in my eyes. I'm not familiar with hearing of many Colleges/Universities being a drain on the local economy. I'm sure cases are out there, but I would be almost positive the positives would far outweight the negatives. We aren't exactly talking about a HUGE school here.

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