LUMBERTON — The establishment of a Veterans Center at Robeson Community College was one of the divisional modifications revealed Monday during a Zoom meeting of RCC’s board of trustees.

The center will be housed in the former Boost room in Building 13, near the Admission Office, said Patrena Elliot, vice president of Instruction and Student Support Services.

“We feel that that’s going to be very fitting to outfit it for a Veterans Center,” Elliott said of the space.

The Center will include a work station for students, a desk for a coordinator that will be staffed at the center as well and a sitting area.

The Center will partner with various veterans’ programs and organizations throughout Robeson County to offer services to veteran students, RCC President Melissa Singler said.

“This is a long time coming and we’re just so excited that it’s gotten off the ground and has gained some momentum,” Singler said.

No timeline for opening the Center was given during the trustees meeting.

Elliott said the Cultural Events Committee is working on events to be held in the spring in conjunction with the Veterans Center that will include the addition of a Gulf War Exhibit, a parachute jump by the Golden Nights, and an Elephant Exhibit sponsored by the Paly Foundation, which focuses on efforts that highlight the importance of conserving and protecting diverse natural habitats and wildlife populations.

Also during her report, Elliot told the trustees that the college will be expanding its Learning Center, and renaming it the Academic Success Center. In a addition to tutoring services, which is what the previous center offered, the Success Center will provide advising, registration and success coaching and will include full-time academic advising coaches.

“We feel certain that this will help increase retention and really help increase completion rates, and be an effective tool for student success here at RCC,” Elliott said.

This week the college will release information about a new incentive that includes giving out $100 checks to faculty, staff and students who are fully vaccinated, said Tami George, RCC vice president of Finance and chief financial officer.

Those checks will be dispersed on the fifth and the 20th of each month from October through December, and the final check will be dispersed Jan. 10. To be eligible, faculty, staff and students must have obtained their final shot by Dec. 31.

“This is an incentive to help our campus community get our (vaccination) numbers up, and also for us to be able to get data on those who have been vaccinated,” George said.

In other business, the trustees voted to pursue the idea of establishing an athletics program at RCC. Shirley Stockton, the board’s chair, told trustees the college is looking to begin with a baseball team.

There was no further discussion of the sports topic.

Also Tuesday, Steven Hunt, vice president of Workforce Development, Continuing Education and Institutional Services, told trustees that the full-time enrollment for Continuing Education has surpassed projected numbers for the summer semester, but the fall enrollment is slightly behind so far.

Hunt projected 174.31 FTEs for the summer but the number exceeded the projection, with 219.52 FTEs accumulated. For the fall semester period running Aug. 15-31, FTEs trail projections by about 8 FTEs, but it’s “still early in the semester,” Hunt said.