It was a busy Thursday for South Plains College as the Judy Bryant Boulevard street sign was unveiled at the main campus in Levelland, as well as a board of regents meeting held in the afternoon.
The SPC Street Sign Naming has been one of the items featured in the live auction during the 25th Annual South Plains College Scholarship Gala that was held in February. The item was donated by the SPC Board of Regents, and it grants the winner naming rights to the sign until next year’s gala.
This year’s winner was Scott Bryant who announced at the event and he wished to name the street after his mother. Friends, family and members of the community were invited to attend the unveiling which was also a tribute to Mrs. Bryant who was a SPC faculty member for 43 years.
During her time with SPC, Bryant became a chairperson of the physical education department in 1994, which is now the kinesiology department. She was made a full professor by 1995. She was awarded the status of “master teacher” when she received the 1995 Faculty Excellence Award from her peers.
In 2014, Bryant and her husband, Butch, were recognized by the SPC Foundation as the recipients of the Pacesetter Award.
After the unveiling of Judy Bryant Boulevard, the SPC Regents held their monthly regular meeting. To kick off the agenda, SPC President Robin Satterwhite read a resolution that honored the success of the men’s and women’s indoor track teams this year.
In attendance were Head Track Coach Eric Vance and Assistant Coaches Frank Barker and Wesley Miller.
The resolution commended the men’s program as they were crowned 2023 NJCAA Division I Men’s Indoor Track and Field Champions on March 4, in Topeka. The Texans scored 107 team points with 16 individual national championships to win the indoor team championship for the third consecutive season.
In addition to highlighting the Texas achievements, the Lady Texans Track and Field Team scored 83.5 points with six individual national champions to finish the 2023 NJCAA Division I Women’s Championship in third place.
In regard to the coaching staff, Coach Miller was named Men’s National Assistant Coach of the year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association.
Combined, the Texans and Lady Texans finished the indoor season with 44 All-American Performances, and Kudakwa Chadenga was named the Men’s National Field Athlete of the Year with a national championship in the high jump.
Moving forward, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Ryan Gibbs spoke to the board in regard to bringing an ALERRT Regional Training Center.
ALERRT or Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, is a program that was created and practiced at Texas State University in San Marcos.
The alert center at Texas State University was created in 2002, and is a partnership between Texas State University, San Marcus Texas Police Department and Hays County Sheriff’s Office to address the need for active shooter response training for first responders. In 2013, ALERRT Texas State was named the national standard in active shooter response training by the FBI.
Since 2002, they have received $126 million in state and federal grant aid. The program has trained 248,000 law enforcement, fire, EMS, and emergency management officials nationwide.
Gibbs explained that SPC is poised to become the first community college as well as the first recognized regional training facility in the state of Texas for alert training.
“This designation will allow SPC to play an integral role in the ongoing and soon to be legislatively required training of the 86,000 peace officers throughout the state of Texas in active shooter response training,” said Gibbs.
Currently, there is legislation making its way through to where the initial training for active shooter response will be required for all law enforcement in the state. Gibbs explained that they are in the process of setting up the entire process to where the entire gamut of active shooter response training will be able to be held at building three of the Reese Center.
President Satterwhite offered more explanation as to why the building on the Reese Campus was an ideal location for the training program.
“The reason why the building is so ideal is because it is very similar a school building,” said Satterwhite. “They can go in and they’re not going to be damaging anything and everything. It will be teaching them how to clear building, how to protect the building and secure a building. Since it is identical to a school building that’s why they love it.”
Gibbs added that the idea is to have a groundbreaking ceremony before hand and shared his excitement with the board as he feels there is a lot of potential that is possible.
“We think this is going to be a very big deal and we are very proud to partner with alerrt center because we think this is vitally important in today’s society that our law enforcement have the best training possible in order to avoid another Uvalde situation unfortunately,” explained Gibbs. “The courses will be taught by the alerrt staff, and we will act as the hosting institution.”
The college will set the courses up and will host the courses and be able to receive funding. In addition to that planning, the college anticipates several hundred police officers being trained every year with the possibility of that number going up more than expected.
Gibbs added that this is something new for them in regards to partnering with a community college which makes it all more exciting for SPC. He also thanked the law enforcement training faculty as they approached the college initially with the idea.
“They’re the ones that brought this to us and they’re the ones that have a good relationship with our law enforcement training faculty and the ALERRT Training staff,” said Gibbs. “That relationship allowed them to feel that SPC was the standard bearer for this this type of training facility.”
After discussion was had, the board unanimously voted to approve the partnership. Board Member Richard Ellis was absent from the meeting leaving his vote out.
With funding at both state and national levels, growth and expansion are real possibilities in the future. Gibbs explained that if the facility needs work that could be handled or talks of a breaching facility could be taken further if funding is available.
As the 65th May Commencement Ceremony’s near, the board was presented a schedule set for May 12. Currently, the college has received 1,823 applications with 1,555 total students graduating. The numbers are different from each other due to overlap with students earning more than one degree. There will be 240 students walking the stage that finished in the fall and 639 students from the spring and summer. The college expects a total of 879 participants.
The morning ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m. and 472 participants are expected. The afternoon ceremony will kick off at 1 p.m. and will have 407 participants.