Copiah-Lincoln Community College President Ronnie Nettles saidthere could be changes coming at the community college level ifremarks from Gov. Haley Barbour carry any clout, but his collegewill find a way through it.

Nettles told the Co-Lin board of trustees Thursday that thegovernor’s recommendation of a 12 percent budget cut for communitycolleges could cost the college more than a million dollars.

“The 5 percent cut we took in September came to around$607,000,” he said. “There are serious challenges ahead for all ofus.”

While Nettles said he does not know what to expect from thegovernor’s suggestions of combining community college “back roomoperations,” he said in many places he couldn’t see howcentralizing community college undertakings could be a positivemove.

“The whole mission of community colleges is to be communitybased,” Nettles said. “I strongly feel local autonomy is the way togo. We’ve been effective that way for years.”

The changes Nettles discussed were among those in Barbour’sexecutive budget recommendations that he released last month.

The school’s athletic programs could take a hit, however,Nettles said.

“That is likely to happen,” he said. “They won’t be eliminated,but they are looking at how to control costs and utilize athleticsas part of our mission.”

The deliberation process is far from over, Nettles told theboard. It is unclear what will happen to the state’s communitycolleges as the governor has discussed combining universitiesacross the state, as well as the Mississippi School of the Arts andthe Mississippi School for Math and Science.

“He did mention that it shouldn’t be taken off the table tocombine colleges and start closing satellite campuses,” hesaid.

Meanwhile, closer to home, the board discussed an evaluation onthe structural integrity of Ellzey Hall, a men’s dormitory oncampus, which may have outlived its years.

Nettles said about a year ago, the school did an assessment ofits dormitory buildings, and it was recommended that a new dorm bebuilt. At that point, structural experts were asked about thepossibility of using Ellzey Hall for another purpose.

“What do you expect from a building that’s 80 years old?” hesaid. “It’s deteriorating.”

Nettles said the existing structure doesn’t seem to offer anypossibility of changing the room sizes in order to rehabilitate thebuilding.

“It’s just not in the future of this building to rebuild it foranother purpose,” he said. “A building replacement project would bemore prudent.”

In coming years, Nettles said, the school may be forced toreduce residency in the dormitory to bring down the everyday damageto the building.

“The fewer people in and out of there, the less wear and tear onthe building,” he said. “But we may have a lot of kids that may notget into the dorm.”

Trustee Melton King said the structural report was just thebeginning of the evaluation, and that there will be an asbestosreport in the spring.

The board also voted to suspend their January board meetingbusiness to February’s meeting, saying that if pressing businessdoes occur over the Christmas holidays, a January meeting will becalled.