Papp said he, Cobb Schools Superintendent Fred Sanderson and Chattahoochee Technical College President Dr. Sanford Chandler have discussed the idea over the last few months and are putting together a task force to study it more closely.
Papp said the proposal would help Pope students earn a two-year degree from Chattahoochee Tech's Mountain View campus, and transfer to KSU to earn a bachelor's in culinary arts and hospitality management. He said it remains up to the task force to determine whether dual enrollment courses would be taken at CTC while at Pope.
Papp made his remarks to Cobb's Legislative Delegation on Monday. Every year, before the legislative session, state senators and representatives from Cobb's 19-member delegation host a meeting that gives local officials the opportunity to pitch projects and programs they would like to receive funding for.
On Monday, Papp also asked for $1.3 million in design funds to expand the university's Bagwell College of Education, which graduates the second highest number of teachers in the state, about 2,600 teachers per year, he said.
"We are about seven or eight students behind the University of Georgia when it comes to the number of teachers that we graduate. But since last year's (state) Teacher of the Year was (Sawyer Road Elementary School teacher) Emily Jennette, I count her as nine students, so that gets us to be the largest. You know, you have to allow presidents a little bit of prerogatives like that," Papp said with a smile.
As the third largest university in the state, KSU continues to grow. The fall 2009 student population was about 22,500, which is roughly 1,000 more students than in fall '08. About 35 percent of KSU students come from Cobb County, Papp said.
He said the KSU WellStar College of Health and Human Services is the largest producer of nursing students in Georgia. The university is in the midst of building a new $60 million facility for the program.
"This will allow us, when that building opens next summer, to begin over the course of the next two years to expand the number of nursing graduates from approximately 180/190 nurses per year to about 250 nurses per year," he said.
Moreover, Papp said he looks to the Board of Regents to approve a doctorate program in international conflict management in the coming months.
Papp wasn't the only one asking the delegation for funding. Chandler is requesting $8.3 million to build a 36,050-square-foot transportation, logistics and manufacturing center in Cartersville.
Chandler said the technical college has a $3 million machine tool shop in Jasper, but there isn't enough industry there to support it.
"We can't put people to work with it," he said.
Chandler said he would use the new facility to relocate the truck driving program and heavy diesel equipment programs currently housed at the North Metro campus.
"We want to create jobs. We want to put people to work, and this is one way of doing that," he said.
Chattahoochee is the largest technical college in the state, expecting 11,500 students come January, a 30 percent increase over last winter's quarter, he said.
Chandler said he also looks to begin a new associate degree in nursing on the college's South Cobb campus due to the convenience of being within two to three miles of WellStar Hospital.
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