Courses Offered Under Standing Obligation

The courses below are offered pursuant to obligations of record. They are scheduled every year in which the obligation requires it and are staffed by assignment.

They are offered because the College is obligated to offer them. Students may enroll.

Enrollment in these courses is reported separately and is not included in the program tables published in the Fact Book.

HOR 118 — Ornamental Gourd Culture

1 credit · Spring · Greenhouse 2 · Enrollment 2026: 4

Cultivation, drying, and curing of ornamental Lagenaria and Cucurbita. Trellising, pollination, harvest timing, and finishing.

Authority: the Pethel bequest, admitted 1971. The instrument directs that the income of the fund be applied to an annual award to a student of the College, and conditions the gift on the College “offering instruction in the cultivation of ornamental gourds in each academic year.” The fund’s income in FY2026 was $412, of which $400 is awarded and $12 accrues.

The Office of the President obtained an opinion of counsel in 2004 as to whether the condition remains enforceable. The opinion is retained and the course continues to be offered.

FDY 105 — Sand Casting

2 credits · Fall · Shop Building, Bay 6 · Enrollment 2026: 7

Green sand molding, pattern draft, gating and risering, melting and pouring of non-ferrous alloys, shakeout, and finishing.

Authority: none. In 2016 the College purchased at public sale a lot comprising three welding machines it required and, as an undivided part of the same lot, a cupola furnace, a muller, flasks, and approximately 4,100 pounds of foundry sand. The equipment cannot be disposed of at a return exceeding the cost of removal.

The course has been offered each fall since 2017. There is no foundry industry in Tolliver County.

Approximately 2,900 pounds of the original sand remain.

CEM 100 — Care of Burial Grounds

Non-credit · Spring · No charge · Enrollment 2026: 6

Cleaning, resetting, and documentation of historic grave markers, for township trustees, cemetery associations, and members of the public.

Authority: the lease of the Cemetery Practicum Ground from Tolliver Township, executed 1998 and renewed 2018, which requires the College to “offer annually, at no charge, one course of public instruction in the care of burial grounds.”

The course is open to the public and is not restricted to enrolled students. It is the only course at the College with no charge of any kind.

CLK 110 — Tower Clock Maintenance

1 credit · Spring, alternate years · Enrollment 2026: 3

Weight-driven and electrically wound tower clock movements. Escapement adjustment, motion work, leading-off rods, dial and hand fitting, and regulation.

Authority: an agreement with the Village of Bellweather, 1992, under which the village purchased a tower clock movement and the College undertook to “provide instruction sufficient to maintain the movement and to make such instruction available to village personnel without charge.”

The village sold the movement in 2007. The agreement was not terminated.

Village personnel remain eligible to enroll without charge. None has enrolled since 2009.

SEP 120 — Small Engine Repair

3 credits · Fall and Spring · Enrollment 2026: 5

Two- and four-stroke small engine diagnosis and repair. Carburetion, ignition, valve service, and drive systems.

Authority: the articulation agreement with the Tolliver County Career Center, executed 2003 and automatically renewing, under which the Career Center’s completers are guaranteed articulated credit at the College in this subject. The College therefore maintains a course into which the credit articulates.

Small engine repair is not a program of the College and is not a component of any program. Articulated credit applies as an elective, and there is no award at the College in which this elective can be applied.

Between two and six students articulate credit each year.

MUS 101 — Handbell Ensemble

1 credit · Fall and Spring · Wing D · Enrollment 2026: 9

Ensemble ringing. Assigned bells, four-in-hand technique, damping, and reading from ensemble score.

Authority: not determined. The course appears in every catalog published by the College and by the Institute since 1981. The Registrar undertook a search of the record in 2015 and located no authorizing action of the Board, the Curriculum Committee, or any predecessor body, and no gift instrument, agreement, or covenant referring to it.

Three octaves of English handbells are carried on the College’s inventory. Their acquisition does not appear in the record. They are stored in Wing D and are maintained under the Division of Performance and Guest Services.

The course meets Tuesday evenings and has met Tuesday evenings for as long as the schedule archive extends.

AGM 101 — Agricultural Mechanics

1 credit · Fall · Enrollment 2026: 11

Shop practice for agricultural equipment: fasteners, hydraulics, electrical, welding repair, and preventive maintenance.

Authority: the 1988 district establishment agreement, which requires the College to “maintain capacity for instruction in agricultural mechanics.” The College satisfies the requirement with this course.

Whether “maintain capacity” requires that a course be offered, or only that the College be able to offer one, has not been determined. The course is offered.

Discontinued

MIL 100 — Civil Defense Shelter Management. Offered annually from 1968 to 2021. In 2021, in the course of preparing the records retention schedule, the Registrar established that the obligation under which the course was offered — a condition of a 1968 federal facilities grant to the Institute — had expired by its own terms in 1994.

The course was discontinued at the conclusion of the spring 2021 term. Students who had completed it were notified that no action on their part was required.

BRD 100 — Brooder Management. Discontinued 2009 upon dissolution of the sponsoring association.

Obligations under review

The Office of the President reviews the College’s standing obligations on a rolling basis. Two are presently under review as to whether they remain in force. The courses continue to be offered during review.