Oklahoma City Community College Campus

[Plutonic Panda]

They added a new performing arts center and a few other improvements around the parking lots nearby.

The school is great, but the roads and parking lots need re-working. I took a few photos the other evening, but they weren't all that great. I will add more when I get better shots.









Here is a couple shots of the road that circles around the entire building





Here is the typical parking lot there. Large, boring, barren etc.

My Proposal

2. Construct a single 3 story parking garage attached to the school on one of the lots.
3. Reconstruct every lot in cement- add more landscaping, trees, pedestrian friendly features, and more beautification
4. Reconstruct the main roads in cement and add bike lanes
5. Reconstruct Faculty Dr. in cement, add a small median, and bike lanes. Also, Rename the street!
6. Add student housing on the campus
7. Create a few more retail and eating options
8. Create a large garden of some sorts in the campus
9. Create a master trail through-out the campus

Here are how I would build the streets here in a lumpsum.... I might try and create a rendering of how I think they should exactly be

Here is the layout of the campus



Here are how I would build the streets here in a lumpsum.... I might try and create a rendering of how I think they should exactly be

Faculty Circle


(that building on the edge would be student housing preferably along the SW Portion of the Drive)

Regents BLVD and J Lee Keels BLVD....



The other surrounding areas and neighborhood need a bit of sprucing up. May Ave. through here should be widened to six lanes. The neighborhoods need to be cleaned up as well as that apartment complex. I have a complex rendering of the I240/I44 rendering I made of what I would like to see, I'll post that on another thread. It would seem it might be the most popular thing I've posted here though ;P.

[bombermwc]

Can I ask why? That's a lot of money in concrete for not much back from it. It's a commuter school so no one needs to ride a bike there. There's no housing (or even near by). The idea behind the CC is that commuters come in for one or two classes on their way home from work and then move on to a university later. Or they're just taking a few classes just because they want to. My point there is, a bike lane wouldn't be used because no one would have a bike there. The parking garage sort of comes in the same way. The lots are positioned now so they are closer to certain buildings. Think of it like a strip mall. You drive up to the lot closest to your building and then leave. They could reduce the amount of parking for daily use by chopping it off, but having those large expanses of parking help when there are large events there (dance/swimming/arts/etc). I've seen those lots overflowing many times. It's also prime land to be taken up by new construction when it occurs (like the new auditorium).

I would like to see landscaping and the gardening done. The "plazas" near the library and Regents Dr. are a joke. And most any other "landscaping" involves grass.

As for housing, I'm sure places like OCCC are going to be watching Rose State to see how it goes. They are going to start construction of the first community college housing in the state. RSC's layout includes a central plaza between all the main buildings, but again its mostly trees and grass. They do have bike traffic, but there are plenty of apartments nearby that make it feasible. I don't know for sure, but I think RSC has a smaller student population...but they've got more wiggle room in how the campus is laid out for growth....or changes like this.

[Just the facts]

I am still not sold on the idea of retro-fitting suburbia. The enormity of urban sprawl almost makes it cost prohibitive in my estimation. I would rather take what funds this plan would require and a place a college campus in an existing urban place, or maybe even as part of the Wheeler Park site. You want to jump start the place-making process include a college campus that will put a couple of thousand students in the immediate vicinity 24/7.

[Plutonic Panda]

Can I ask why? That's a lot of money in concrete for not much back from it. It's a commuter school so no one needs to ride a bike there. There's no housing (or even near by). The idea behind the CC is that commuters come in for one or two classes on their way home from work and then move on to a university later. Or they're just taking a few classes just because they want to. My point there is, a bike lane wouldn't be used because no one would have a bike there. The parking garage sort of comes in the same way. The lots are positioned now so they are closer to certain buildings. Think of it like a strip mall. You drive up to the lot closest to your building and then leave. They could reduce the amount of parking for daily use by chopping it off, but having those large expanses of parking help when there are large events there (dance/swimming/arts/etc). I've seen those lots overflowing many times. It's also prime land to be taken up by new construction when it occurs (like the new auditorium).

I would like to see landscaping and the gardening done. The "plazas" near the library and Regents Dr. are a joke. And most any other "landscaping" involves grass.

As for housing, I'm sure places like OCCC are going to be watching Rose State to see how it goes. They are going to start construction of the first community college housing in the state. RSC's layout includes a central plaza between all the main buildings, but again its mostly trees and grass. They do have bike traffic, but there are plenty of apartments nearby that make it feasible. I don't know for sure, but I think RSC has a smaller student population...but they've got more wiggle room in how the campus is laid out for growth....or changes like this.

There's housing all around OCCC, just not student housing. The concrete would good for these reasons- (a) save down the road because concrete last longer and is more durable (b) stays cooler in summer (c) looks better than blacktops do.

I have seen plenty of people bike there. If you go by the bike racks, they are usually full, just depending on the time of day and weather. You have to start somewhere, right?

I agree with you it might be smart to watch Rose State. I wish them the best of luck and hope it turns out great.

As for the parking garage- it could open up more space to develop new academic buildings in the future(if needed), it would encourage people to walk further which would be a healthier lifestyle, and it would improve the overall appeal of the campus, imo.

[Plutonic Panda]

I am still not sold on the idea of retro-fitting suburbia. The enormity of urban sprawl almost makes it cost prohibitive in my estimation. I would rather take what funds this plan would require and a place a college campus in an existing urban place, or maybe even as part of the Wheeler Park site. You want to jump start the place-making process include a college campus that will put a couple of thousand students in the immediate vicinity 24/7.

I'm just talking about taking certain areas and making them something great. This campus is really beautiful, but it could be a thousand times better.

[SoonerDave]

Can I ask why? That's a lot of money in concrete for not much back from it. It's a commuter school so no one needs to ride a bike there. There's no housing (or even near by). The idea behind the CC is that commuters come in for one or two classes on their way home from work and then move on to a university later. Or they're just taking a few classes just because they want to.

No disrespect, but I think you're waaay out of touch with how OCCC is used these days. To be sure, the kind of student you describe is certainly a player, but a great many other young folks are finding tremendous value in OCCC and in their two-year program in the vein of eventually transferring to a four-year school like OU or OSU. In this era of back-breaking student loan debt, a fiscally cautious student and/or parent can send their kiddo for two years of "basics" at OCCC or even a transfer-targeted Associates degree and get right at half the hours toward a Bachelor's for close to one-third the cost of an OU - hourly tuition/fees adding up to ~$100/hr rather than ~$300/hr. And that doesn't even add in vehicle and/or dorm residence expenses if you live near the campus. Lots of savvy investor/consultant types are starting to tell some of their customers the same thing as they get sticker shock at the hourly in-state costs of the four-year schools...and they have all manner of scholarships available, too (just happen to know someone who picked up a scholly that covers all tuition and partial books for the full two years).

Not trying to just be a shill for OCCC, but just saying there are a great many kids coming right out of HS and going to OCCC with a plan to transfer to a four-year school once they're done. So the idea that OCCC is just a commuter student school, while once largely true, just isn't a complete picture anymore. I think its a really smart looking campus, and some of the "treatments" discussed here wouldn't be a bad thing, although I'm not sure about the viability of campus housing. Might work, might not. Not sure.

[Plutonic Panda]

No disrespect, but I think you're waaay out of touch with how OCCC is used these days. To be sure, the kind of student you describe is certainly a player, but a great many other young folks are finding tremendous value in OCCC and in their two-year program in the vein of eventually transferring to a four-year school like OU or OSU. In this era of back-breaking student loan debt, a fiscally cautious student and/or parent can send their kiddo for two years of "basics" at OCCC or even a transfer-targeted Associates degree and get right at half the hours toward a Bachelor's for close to one-third the cost of an OU - hourly tuition/fees adding up to ~$100/hr rather than ~$300/hr. And that doesn't even add in vehicle and/or dorm residence expenses if you live near the campus. Lots of savvy investor/consultant types are starting to tell some of their customers the same thing as they get sticker shock at the hourly in-state costs of the four-year schools...and they have all manner of scholarships available, too (just happen to know someone who picked up a scholly that covers all tuition and partial books for the full two years).

Not trying to just be a shill for OCCC, but just saying there are a great many kids coming right out of HS and going to OCCC with a plan to transfer to a four-year school once they're done. So the idea that OCCC is just a commuter student school, while once largely true, just isn't a complete picture anymore. I think its a really smart looking campus, and some of the "treatments" discussed here wouldn't be a bad thing, although I'm not sure about the viability of campus housing. Might work, might not. Not sure.

+1... that is exactly what I have been doing.

[ljbab728]

I am still not sold on the idea of retro-fitting suburbia. The enormity of urban sprawl almost makes it cost prohibitive in my estimation. I would rather take what funds this plan would require and a place a college campus in an existing urban place, or maybe even as part of the Wheeler Park site. You want to jump start the place-making process include a college campus that will put a couple of thousand students in the immediate vicinity 24/7.

OKC does not need any more college campuses for any reason, period.

[Just the facts]

OKC does not need any more college campuses for any reason, period.

You need to make sure you put the "[/sarc]" identifier at the end lest someone thinks you are serious. . However, in case you were serious, how about selling of the OCCC campus to a company wanting a 'campus' and using the proceeds to move OCCC to an urban district?

[bombermwc]

Hang on, because i wasn't downing OCCC in any way. I'm totally a supporter of the idea of a community college. Heck, even while i went to OCU, i took a few classes at Rose because they fit into my schedule better than then ones OCU had. I made use of their tutoring program because OCU didn't really have one (and i paid for the tutoring because i wasn't a RSC student). I had some professional course training through my office at OCCC at one time as well. It was a helpful course, although it did show me that the library is a ridiculously poorly designed building in its use of space.

In Mid-Del (and i dont know if it's all of EOC), all high school graduates get to go to RSC for free....Ticket to Rose or something like that. It's great that the kids have that opportunity, unfortunately so many of them dont take it seriously that the average GPA of the students in that program slipped to 2.3 or something like that. WAAAAY lower than it previously was. But maybe in 20 years we'll see an influx of adult students that get a degree after they got a taste of it as a young adult?

Anyway, so in no way am i saying CCs dont serve a great purpose. They don't get nearly the funding of a full university, so it is more difficult to get things done. And in OKC, much like with high schools, we like to split large populations up, which can make it more difficult from a funding perspective. Compare that to places like TCC which is really the only game in town (following the Tulsa schools model of one large school and never split up).

[Plutonic Panda]

You need to make sure you put the "[/sarc]" identifier at the end lest someone thinks you are serious. . However, in case you were serious, how about selling of the OCCC campus to a company wanting a 'campus' and using the proceeds to move OCCC to an urban district?

no sir I don't like that idea not even a little bit. OCCC is completely fine where it is and serves a huge Southside population. There is no reason to urbanize everything. I don't want this campus urbanized fully, just some student housing being the closest thing to urbanization of the campus. I like the large set backs..... It really makes the campus look nice and peaceful.

[ljbab728]

You need to make sure you put the "[/sarc]" identifier at the end lest someone thinks you are serious. . However, in case you were serious, how about selling of the OCCC campus to a company wanting a 'campus' and using the proceeds to move OCCC to an urban district?

I was absolutely serious. OKC does not need ANY more college campuses. And selling the OCCC campus to move it is hardly a "serious" idea to be considered.

[Plutonic Panda]

I was absolutely serious. OKC does not need ANY more college campuses. And selling the OCCC campus to move it is hardly a "serious" idea to be considered.

Out of curiosity, does OKC have a fair amount of college campuses for a city our size? I honesty don't know.

[bombermwc]

Well you can take a comparison to Tulsa for a close-by regional example.

Tulsa - University of Tulsa, Oral Roberts, Tulsa Community College, Rogers State (Claremore), then a few extensions with NSU-BA, OSU-Tulsa, OU-Tulsa (i might be missing some).
OKC - University of Oklahoma, University of Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma City University, Southern Nazarene University, St. Gregory's (Shawnee), Oklahoma Baptist (Shawnee), Mid-American Chrisitian, Mid-America Bible, OCCC, Rose State, Redlands CC, OSU-OKC, Langston (Langston...if you count Guthrie in the metro), (fill in if I missed any here too).

I dont know if the student populations of the two cities (not counting OU) balances out though. Like I said before, Tulsa tends to have more consolidated campuses and OKC seems to split up more. You can throw OCU and SNU and maybe one small fry in there and make TU. But comparing OKC to say, Dallas ( i understand it's not a fair comparison but go with me here), even one of the largest metros in the country doesnt just have universities coming out it's ears like OKC does (compared to the metro population). But like Tulsa, they have quite a few larger ones like TCU, SMU, UNT, etc.

Not sure if that was the answer you were really looking for or not....

[Plutonic Panda]

News | Moore Monthly

[bombermwc]

I wonder how the Ticket to Rose and similar OCPS program at OCCC has impacted the schools financially. The overall GPA of the campus at Rose dropped a LOT when that started, and I'm sure it's the same at OCCC. At least from the Spanish program's perspective, the students come out of OCCC in a terrible and downright awful state when they move on to OU <- that's out of OU Spanish prof's mouths. With Rose, I was told by an admin employee, that the average GPA was in the 2.0 range now because of that program and was similar at OCCC. Since those students aren't paying tuition, I just wonder how that's playing out for them financially. That's a LOT of students that wouldn't have been there otherwise, but fees can't seem to make up for all of that. I have a feeling that's why OCCC implemented some of the changes listed in the article (like orientation) because so many of the students were coming in totally unprepared for the experience. I just hope both schools are able to work this issue out for the betterment of the students.

[Rover]

Dp

[Rover]

Well you can take a comparison to Tulsa for a close-by regional example.

Tulsa - University of Tulsa, Oral Roberts, Tulsa Community College, Rogers State (Claremore), then a few extensions with NSU-BA, OSU-Tulsa, OU-Tulsa (i might be missing some).
OKC - University of Oklahoma, University of Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma City University, Southern Nazarene University, St. Gregory's (Shawnee), Oklahoma Baptist (Shawnee), Mid-American Chrisitian, Mid-America Bible, OCCC, Rose State, Redlands CC, OSU-OKC, Langston (Langston...if you count Guthrie in the metro), (fill in if I missed any here too).

I dont know if the student populations of the two cities (not counting OU) balances out though. Like I said before, Tulsa tends to have more consolidated campuses and OKC seems to split up more. You can throw OCU and SNU and maybe one small fry in there and make TU. But comparing OKC to say, Dallas ( i understand it's not a fair comparison but go with me here), even one of the largest metros in the country doesnt just have universities coming out it's ears like OKC does (compared to the metro population). But like Tulsa, they have quite a few larger ones like TCU, SMU, UNT, etc.

Not sure if that was the answer you were really looking for or not....

Dallas alone has 37 colleges and universities listed. Don't think that includes jr. Colleges and branches.

[Martin]

while it's not huge news, it looks as if occc is going to close its aquatic center. -M

Everyone:

I have approved a recommendation to suspend operations of the OCCC Aquatic Center following the Labor Day Weekend of this year. I assure you this decision was made following a careful review and with the full understanding of the significant contribution the Center has made to the College and Oklahoma City since it was built in 1989.
The rationale for the decision is as follows:

A highly respected and experienced consulting firm concluded that the Aquatic Center at OCCC, which is over 25 years old, is nearing “functional and physical obsolesce.” In order for OCCC to continue operations, the facility requires an investment of over $6 million in needed repairs, upgrades, and replacement of equipment and systems.
Without this significant investment, it is only a matter of time before the aging infrastructure experiences a catastrophic system/mechanical failure. OCCC does not have the funds needed to recover from a major system/mechanical failure, forcing the closure of the facility. This scenario would require our partners with scheduled activities in the Aquatic Center to either cancel the activity or scramble to find another venue.

The consultant also concluded that even with a significant investment in the infrastructure and mechanical systems, the Aquatic Center “does not have the ability to be a national caliber, state-of-the-art, long-course venue.” This conclusion is based on changed water depth requirements and wall inlet system differences that are now required for national/international competitive venues. In addition, the materials and finishes used at the Aquatic Center at OCCC are not consistent with newer, national/international level, long-course aquatic venues. Even with a significant investment in the current facility, the consultant concluded that the OCCC Aquatic Center would at best be a good training venue.

The costs to operate the Aquatic Center are an on-going concern. Although OCCC does charge for use of the Aquatic Center, the direct costs to operate the center far exceed the revenue resulting in an average annual operating loss of $280,000.

As a state-funded college, OCCC faces continued financial challenges to meet the increasing mandatory cost increases necessary to serve our college students. The operational financial losses of the Aquatic Center, coupled with the looming requirement to devote millions of dollars in the infrastructure and mechanical systems to maintain a training venue that is not core to the mission of the college, has in many ways, forced this decision.

There is no doubt that the Aquatic Center has played a significant role in the history of OCCC and Oklahoma City. For over 25 years, this center has hosted numerous swim teams, diving clubs, state events, and national tournaments. However, the present day functional, operational, financial, and mission realities are overwhelming and compelling, resulting in the decision to close the Aquatic Center.

The future plans for the Aquatic Center space have not yet been determined. The space is contiguous to the existing Wellness Center, Social Sciences Division, College/Student Union, and outdoor space that the College’s Master Site Plan has as a future site for other sports venues (baseball diamond, volleyball courts, and running track). Therefore, the Aquatic Center space will be evaluated and eventually repurposed for programs and services that take into consideration its location and that align with the College’s strategic plans, the Master Site Plan, and the needs of our students and the community.

Sincerely,
Paul Sechrist
President