Amazingly, Georgia’s second-largest two-year college has seen a 78 percent enrollment increase just since the year 2000.
Given those numbers, it should come as no surprise that the Darton College Foundation is preparing to kick off an initiative that will bring sorely needed on-campus student housing to the college.
“Darton is at a crossroads right now,” said Joe Powell, the chairman of major and planned giving for the Darton Foundation. “This initiative is easily the most meaningful thing the Foundation has ever undertaken. Housing is an element of college life that folk from past generations believe our young people are really missing out on.”
The Darton Foundation’s student housing initiative, which kicks off this week, is an effort to add that missing element for a growing number of students from across the country now making their way to Southwest Georgia for post-secondary education. The Foundation must raise $1.5 million to obtain preferred financing for the $7.25 million first phase of the initiative, which will bring 210 beds to the campus.
But Darton President Peter Sireno said he fully expects school alumni, the Albany community and supporters from around the globe to fund the housing efforts.
“Once we raise the entire amount to retire the debt for this project, the net revenue we then generate will be used for student scholarships and faculty development,” Sireno said. “Not only will the contributions to the housing drive provide on-campus living, they will still be serving students at the college five, 10, 15, 20 years down the road.
“It’s like giving to a perpetual scholarship fund.”
Doubters have questioned the wisdon of undertaking a major fundraising project in such an awful economic climate, but Darton officials say many factors make this a good time for such an initiative.
“When you look at the losses many people have suffered with their portfolios, obviously the timing is not great,” Darton Foundation Chairman Will Sims said. “But it’s a great time from a construction standpoint. When we were talking about this project nine months ago, the prices we were getting were over $100 a (square) foot. Now, it’s around $70.
“If the economy recovers like we all hope it will, I don’t think we’ll ever have an opportunity to build at this price again.”
LRA Constructors of Albany has already been granted the contract to build the first 210-bed housing unit on property purchased by the Foundation. LRA principle Ben Barrow, who once served as chair of the Darton Foundation, confirmed that the time was right for the project.
“This is something the college has needed for a long time, but it was always hard to make the numbers work,” Barrow said. “Some construction costs have come down, and you definitely have some hungry contractors and vendors out there who need work.
“All-in-all, when you consider all factors, now is an ideal time to build.”
Barrow said crews have already poured footings for the housing unit, while Sireno said he expects construction to start in earnest in early January.
Two of the areas pushing the enrollment boom at Darton are the college’s 14 health sciences programs and its increasingly successful athletic program. The Cavalier golf team won three consecutive national junior college championships, while the college’s womens soccer team is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation and is set to compete in the NJCAA finals.
While Darton offers 84 degree programs — including 26 online — and 49 certificate programs, fully 40 percent of its students are involved in health sciences fields. Of those 2,000-plus students, 1,500 of them come from outside the 14 Southwest Georgia counties that make up Darton’s typical drawing region.
That impact is being felt locally, as fully 70 percent of all Registered Nurses in Albany and 32 percent of RNs in a surrounding 32-county area are Darton graduates.
“With the aging of the baby boomer population, health sciences is a recession-proof growth area,” Sireno, who will celebrate 20 years as president of Darton in January, said. “And no other college or university in the state of Georgia has as many programs in that area as we do at Darton, not even the Medical College of Georgia.
“It’s not really hard to understand. Who wouldn’t want to graduate with an associate’s degree and start making $40,000 to $75,000 a year right away? If an RN is willing to work weekends and nontypical hours that others don’t want to work, that person can make $60,000 to $70,000 a year right away.”
And while such programs are important in luring students to Southwest Georgia, Sireno says the community will get as much as it gives in helping provide on-campus housing for Darton students.
“According to (renowned economist) Donald Ratajczak’s numbers, commuter students have an $8,000-a-year economic impact on a community,” Sireno said. “In that same study, he said the impact of a residential student jumps to $12,000.
“Right now, with our 5,000 students, that’s a $40 million impact. When you factor in our payroll of $20 million and use the 1.5 multiplier, that’s a $90 million impact. Add residential students to the equation, that increases to a $120 million impact. That’s kids in our community shopping at our businesses, eating at our restaurants and their parents staying at our hotels when they come to visit.”
Others say the impact goes beyond mere dollars.
“What you get with student housing is much more of an impact than just increased numbers,” Darton Vice President of Student Affairs Gary Barnette said. “You get more student involvement; the whole climate on campus changes. Studies show that students have a greater opportunity for success if they have comfortable on-campus housing.
“Of all the things that have been done over the years to improve Darton, the residential housing component has the potential to have the most exponential positive effect on the college.”
Current Darton students, most of whom will not have an opportunity to utilize the campus housing, say they would love to see such a component added at Darton.
“It would certainly be easier for students like me,” Shayla Brown, a freshman Criminal Justice major from Tuscaloosa, Ala., said. “I’m living with my grandmother at her house now, and it would make getting to classes much easier if I was on campus.”
Freshman Kristy Watson of Newton said she has to make a 30-plus-mile drive to and from Darton for classes.
“That’s one of the main reasons Darton needs housing on campus,” she said. “There are a lot of students having to drive back and forth to campus. That can get expensive.”
Freshman Pre-veterinary Medicine major Chris Browning of Atlanta, who is part of Darton’s newly formed wrestling team, said the housing would make life easier for residential students.
“I live in an apartment complex on Westover (Road), so it’s costing me more money than on-campus housing would,” Browning said. “I think most students would love a chance to stay on campus; I know I would.”
Marilyn Nobles, a freelance marketing professional from Albany, has designed a brochure that outlines the Darton Foundation’s housing initiative. She is in the process of putting together video presentations that will also be used to solicit support from potential donors.
“The whole marketing plan has not been fully developed yet, but this certainly will be a commutywide campaign with an opportunity to get everyone involved,” Nobles said. “The idea is that this is our school, and we all should be proud of it.”
Nobles said all local television stations, including cable, have agreed to broadcast Public Service Announcements touting the campaign.
Much of the responsibility for getting the word out about the initiative, though, will fall on the Darton Foundation’s Board of Trustees. One such Trustee says it’s a job they’re looking forward to taking on.
“The Trustees are the footsoldiers,” Tina Harden said. “We’re the ones who will be called on to rally the troops. We’ll start taking names of individuals we are to personally contact Wednesday and Thursday, and then we’ll expand to include businesses, foundations, alumni ... just everyone.
“But when you’ve got someone like Joe Powell, who’s 80 years old, showing so much enthusiasm for this project, it’s contageous.”
That enthusiasm runs through the campus, from the newest freshman to the 20-year president.
“This housing element has the capacity to change the whole dynamic not just of Darton College, but of Albany and Southwest Georgia,” Sireno said. “You’re going to see retail growth near the college in the near future, and you’re going to see more and more students coming here to live in our community.
“We will become more of an economic engine, one that reflects the diverse population of this area of the state. An education leader that will impact the future of Albany and Southwest Georgia ... That’s what Darton is.”
