By CSC College Relations
LINCOLN – The Nebraska State College System Board of Trustees convened for its regular business meeting Thursday via videoconferencing systems at the three state colleges and the System Office’s location in Lincoln.
The meeting was originally scheduled to be hosted by Wayne State College, but due to rising cases of COVID-19 in Nebraska, the meeting occurred virtually.
The Board approved several items that directly impact Chadron State College, including the approval of a new comprehensive major in the English department. Chadron State College will now offer a Bachelor of Arts in Advanced English Studies in response to the growing number of students who minor in Creative Writing.
“We are obviously pleased that the Board approved our proposed new comprehensive major. This is the culmination of a variety of changes we have made to our program starting about six or seven years ago when we hired our first full-time Writing Specialist with an emphasis on growing the Creative Writing portion of our program,” said Department Chair and Professor Dr. Matt Evertson. “Whereas we formerly offered just one creative writing course, in 2015 we adopted a new introduction to creative writing course, and upper-division courses in Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry. Two years later, our Writing Minor became a Creative Writing Minor, with the addition of a final creative project or capstone. In the few years since these changes, we have seen our ranks of creative writing students grow from just a couple each year to over 30.”
The Board also approved an amendment to the college’s agreement with the City of Chadron’s pool for college use, a revenue bond audit report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, and waiving ACT/SAT scores for Board of Trustees’ scholarships, among other items.
Near the close of the meeting, Chancellor Paul Turman provided updates on the NSCS 2025 Strategic Plan and selecting Student Trustees.
Finally, Chadron State College reported it received six grants, including major funding for its TRiO and Upward Bound programs.