WESSON – This year there were 241 students at nine area highschools who were college students, too.

Copiah Lincoln Community College Associate Dean forInstructional Support Jill Logan said Thursday at the board oftrustees meeting at the Billy E. Thames Center the school’s dualenrollment program is helping not only prepare high school studentsfor college academically, it also gives them a leg up mentallygoing into the college environment.

“It increases their confidence and provides an incentive,” shesaid. “Sometimes because they’re taking these classes in their highschools, it doesn’t dawn on them that they’re also a Co-Linstudent. It makes for a more seamless transition between their highschool and college career.”

In January 2009, 12 high schools in Co-Lin’s district will beparticipating in the dual enrollment program, including BrookhavenHigh School, Brookhaven Academy, Enterprise and Wesson attendancecenters, Franklin and Lawrence county high schools and CopiahAcademy.

Logan said participating students must have a minimum of 14Carnegie high school units, a completed application for admissionto Co-Lin, a minimum ACT composite of 16 or the equivalent SATscore, a minimum 16 English sub score and a minimum math sub scoreof 19, an overall 3.0 grade point average and a recommendation fromhigh school officials.

“So the students that come to the dual enrollment program arethe cream of the academic crop, motivated and interested inpursuing their goals at a faster pace,” she said.

Logan said the program is also beneficial to Co-Lin’s recruitingand retention rates.

“This is a good way to work on retention, to bring them tocampus when they’re working on a course,” she said. “The studentpopulation is changing rapidly in the 21st century, and thesestudents prefer to be somewhere that helps them reach theireducational goals, and Co-Lin is proud to be a part of that.”

In addition, Logan told the board that the dual enrollment planhad brought in $40,477.50 in tuition, and generated 55 percentprofit.

Co-Lin College President Ronnie Nettles also briefed the boardon progress for updating the men’s dormitory situation on campus.There were over 100 students on the waiting list to live in thedorms this year, Nettles said.

Terri Williams of Architects South of Tupelo was selected toassess the needs of the dorms and find a feasible solution after 11proposals were submitted and three architecture firms met withschool officials.

“We felt really good about her,” Nettles said, adding thatWilliams has been a part of several other projects similar toCo-Lin’s dormitory project.

He said the decision on what to do with Ellzey Dormitory has notyet been made, but that it looks as though it may be renovated.

“We need to assess what we’ve got and what our students want andneed,” he said.

Nettles said the Bureau of Archives and History is involved withthe project as well, which is an indicator that the building willprobably be preserved for historic value.