On Tuesday the Barton Community College trustees gave their official approval to starting men’s and women’s swim teams next fall, providing that the national athletic conference agrees.
Athletics Director Trevor Rolfs presented the feasibility study early this month at a board of trustees study session. Since then board members and administrators said they had received nothing but positive comments from the community.
“A lot of the high school swimmers are really thrilled,” trustee Don Learned said. I think it’s a great move forward for our college.” He noted that Great Bend High School swimmers have won the Western Athletic Conference for the last 13 years. “The excitement is there.”
Rolfs said the National Junior College Athletic Association only considers requests for new programs ever other year, but agreed to hear the college’s request this year. If things go as they did when the college asked to add a wrestling program, BCC could have approval by the end of the year and perhaps have a coach in place by February.
“We got a pretty in-depth report on this at the study session,” board chairman Mike Johnson said.
Trustee Gary Burke recapped some of the benefits mentioned during the study session.
• The revenue from a successful swim program will help pay some of the $60,000 a year it costs to maintain the pool. Combined with $15,000 a year in cost-sharing from Great Bend USD 428 and the Golden Belt Swim Team, that cost could be mostly covered.
• It opens opportunities for more area high school graduates to continue swimming and continue their education at Barton.
“That seems to be a no-brainer,” Burke said.
It creates more scholarship opportunities, Rolfs said.
Barton will have to travel to other states for swim meets, but the feasibility study found the cost wouldn’t be excessive. Rolfs said there could be Kansas competitors eventually, as all colleges are looking at ways to boost enrollment. “I can see other colleges in our conference following suit.”

New employees
In other business, the board approved three new employees: Campus Security Officers Jacob Davis and Mark Knowles, and Public Relations & Social Media Specialist Micah Oelze. All three will be on the Barton campus and were hired to fill vacant positions.
Trustees learned that Dean of Administration Mark Dean and two of the security people will travel to New Orleans next week to attend a national summit on campus security.