New Coreil Campus administrator initiating ambitious outreach effort

The new campus administrator of South Louisiana Community College’s Coreil Campus, at the Evangeline Parish Industrial Park, says she is initiating an ambitious outreach effort to enhance programs offered to students at the facility.
Carleen Jones, who has been administrator about a month and a half, has visited officials at the Evangeline Parish School Board, chamber of commerce, Acadiana Works and local industry, seeking ways to work together to enhance or initiate new programs at Coreil Campus.
She also is recruiting students at high schools in the parish and on Tuesday, January 14, Jones will meet with Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine.
The facility offers technical programs in welding, automotive, business, and allied health. “We’re offering more classes that relate to the economy of the parish,” Jones said.
Jones said she is working with employers in the parish to develop new educational programs for their employees.
An example is a grant that will train 48 welders at an Evangeline Parish business over the next 12 months.
“We can be very fluid in terms of training and offerings,” Jones said, and that flexibility is necessary as industries need their employees to acquire new skills to operate new equipment. That capability also enhances the parish’s ability to attract new industry or expand existing industries.
The college is also revamping programs, which could result in pared down training time and get students into the workforce more quickly.
The college also hopes to offer general education courses to students pursuing an associate degree. Students can earn an associate degree and go on to four-year colleges or they can earn technical diplomas or certificates at South Louisiana Community College.
Coreil also offers the COMPASS placement test for students who want to enroll in class but haven’t taken the ACT test. The COMPASS test is offered Monday through Friday at the CB Coreil Campus.
Jones said she also is updating the facility’s library, particularly with online books and databases, as well as enhancing inter-library services through the State Library of Louisiana system. Another new resource is a research assistant who visits the campus about two days a week.
Some of the new developments at the Coreil Campus don’t directly involve academics. The college has contracted with a security company to provide a full-time security guard on the campus. A consulting firm is evaluating the safety needs on all of the college’s campuses.
Before becoming administrator, Jones was based in South Louisiana Community College offices in Opelousas and visited Coreil Campus for administrative and customer service business about twice a week.