The Southern Union State Community College system may soon be gaining two sister campuses — and possibly a name change.
Pending approval in July, Southern Union will be merging with Central Alabama Community College in Alexander City and Chattahoochee Valley Community College in Phenix City.
The Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees, the governing body of the state's community colleges, voted in December to begin a process of streamlining and consolidation based on recommendations from the office of Mark Heinrich, the system's chancellor.
According to Al Thompson, vice president of the community college board of trustees, the consolidation is an attempt by the state community college system to save money on administrative costs.
"From a personal standpoint, my interest in this has been so that the system can become more effective and serve its citizens more effectively," Thompson said. "By eliminating redundancies and the duplication of services, I think we will be much more effective in serving the needs of the citizens."
The three community colleges would be merging together to form one regional community college system under the existing administration of Central Alabama Community College.
Susan Burrow, president of Central Alabama Community College, has been chosen as the new president of the combined system.
The board does not foresee many layoffs. All of the existing locations will remain open and existing faculty and administration will remain in their positions or shifted to another area, according to Thompson.
The system will hold public hearings to discuss the mergers with the communities that will be affected by the mergers.
"There's a good bit of screening and approval process," Thompson said. "Part of the process will require the system to hold public meetings in any community that's affected by this, with public input."
All of the branches would operate under the same name after the completion of the merger. A name has not yet been announced for the consolidated institution.
Southern Union is the largest community college in the proposed merger. Southern Union is also located in Opelika, the largest metropolitan area of the three colleges.
Southern Union maintains two satellite campuses in Wadley and Valley. Central Alabama operates two satellite campuses in Childersburg and Talladega. Phenix City-based Chattahoochee Valley is the smallest of the three existing institutions.
The Alabama Community College System serves more than 120,000 people in the state of Alabama and is one of the state's key economic drivers, according to Thompson.
"It's really involved with workforce development in the state, which is a real key proponent of this, and a lot of other things that will go into updating and reforming the community college system," Thompson said. "We serve such a large portion of the state that cannot afford to attend four-year institutions. They really have no need for anything but an associate's degree."
Control of the Alabama community college system was transferred from the Alabama Board of Education to the newly created Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees in May 2015. The board of trustees began consolidating community colleges into regional systems beginning in December 2015.
Alabama Southern Community College and Jefferson Davis Community College in southwestern Alabama will merge with Faulkner State Community College. According to Thompson, the board of trustees is unsure of the final number of consolidations.
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