Nettles and the other 14 community and junior college leaders statewide are digesting Gov. Haley Barbour's budget recommendations for the approaching cash-strapped fiscal year, which include drastic changes for their institutions. The governor is suggesting controversial courses of action from eliminating athletic programs to shuttering entire colleges to save $715 million needed by the state.

"You're talking about the oldest system in the U.S. It's been recognized nationally as being one of the most efficient systems in the U.S.," Nettles said. "I would argue we don't need to be changing that, we need to be funding it."

Nettles pointed out that reducing the number of a community college's campuses doesn't reduce its capacity, and reducing campuses goes against the very mission of the colleges in the first place. The whole point of a community college, he said, is to provide educational opportunities in a local setting.

"Many students enrolled in campuses like ours, they don't have other options. They can't travel 60-80 miles; they're single parents; they've got jobs," Nettles said. "That's why you have community colleges in communities."

Furthermore, if the 900 students at the Natchez campus or the 600 students at the Simpson County campus were forced to attend the Wesson campus for class, there would be no classrooms to use. The 2,000 students on the Wesson campus are using all the academic and dormitory space available, Nettles said, and no additional appropriations for construction will be forthcoming.

"If every student on a satellite campus came to Co-Lin, we couldn't handle them," he said.

Eliminating community colleges' local governing boards would kill the very strength of the institutions, said Tommy Sasser, secretary of Co-Lin's board of trustees.

"The local board is the backbone of the community college system," the Lincoln County resident said. "By having local members there, you have your finger on the pulse of the community. It's better than having a central government somewhere in Jackson."

Even if a new, central governing board for the state's community colleges was created, Sasser said it still would not be able to accurately represent the communities that contribute to the institutions.

"You're talking about a five- or six-member board - they're not going to be able to represent all their communities," he said. "When you put your governance a distance from where it's going to be active, they don't know the needs and desires of those local communities."

And the main thrust for the governor's proposal - saving money - would not be achieved by eliminating boards of trustees. Sasser shared his compensation as a trustee.

"It's $40 per month, $480 per year. No, he's not going to save anything by doing away with those boards," he said.



Both Sasser and Nettles agreed the state would save money through the governor's other proposal - cutting community college funding by 12 percent, a scenario much more likely than campus closure. A 12 percent cut to Co-Lin's funding would result in a loss of more than $1.4 million.

Nettles said the school would consider saving the money by not replacing retired teachers, hiring freezes, cutting programs and, possibly, tuition increases.

"I think what we would have to evaluate, for us, would be on the revenue side," he said. "That requires a lot of soul searching. We don't want a tuition increase, but they're all things we have to consider as we move forward."