Is College A Thing Of The Past? Amarillo College & WTAMU Struggle

I remember back when I was in high school, I was SO excited that it was almost over.

That's right, senior year hit and I was all about that last year of school. However, I kept hearing that I wasn't done just yet.

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You got it. College was right around the corner. That secondary education would hold the key to my future. Well, those people aren't necessarily wrong.

College is one of those things you just kind of assume you're going to do, and a lot of people do attend. I did, for a little bit at least.

However, COVID-19 hit and everything changed. The world shut down, everything closed, especially schools of all types. It forced them to start looking at online options and how to execute learning virtually.

Colleges and universities are no different. Now, they had some online offerings already available, but they weren't widespread, and not all secondary education places had them available. The pandemic forced everyone's hand.

With COVID settling down and everything back to normal (for the most part), Amarillo College and WTAMU are trying to bring people back to the classroom...or online classroom even.

Enrollment numbers are still down from the levels they were at pre-pandemic, and they're struggling to get people to enroll.

When you think about enrolling in secondary education, your brain typically goes to graduating high school students. Colleges and universities are thinking differently.

Mike Knox, the newly appointed vice president of student enrollment at WTAMU told NewsChannel 10, "these days we need to serve online markets, older students, transfer students, graduate students.”

On the other side of the fence, Amarillo College says their numbers are still down like WTAMU, but they expect their numbers to improve with the upcoming school year.

It's important to the area as these universities and colleges bring in money to the panhandle in various ways, so the more students here, the better off we are as a region.

Cool Off This Summer at Amarillo Pools and Splash Pads

Check Out The Original Names For These Amarillo Streets

It's hard to imagine these well-known Amarillo streets as any other name. Try to imagine giving directions to someone while using their original names. Gets tricky, doesn't it?

The new names (that we currently know them by) came mostly from associates of Henry Luckett, who drew the first map of the area. When this took place exactly, records do not show, but the street name revamp is covered extensively in 'Old Town Amarillo' by Judge John Crudgington, published in the Plains Historical Review in 1957.