South Plains Colleges’ first day of school at new Lubbock location

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - South Plains College has been working hard for nearly two years to get its newest downtown Lubbock campus location ready for students before today.

The new downtown campus is located in the heart of Lubbock in the old Lubbock City Hall building. Supply shortages set construction back multiple times but the Dean of South Plains Downtown Lubbock campus says it has been worth the wait and the staff are excited to see students enter the campus that they worked so hard on.

South Plains College opened this location in hopes to make it more convenient for students who may be attending classes at both Texas Tech and South Plains College.

Anisa Trevino is a freshman, she attended her first day of classes at South Plains College today.

“I do like it because I did not want to drive to Levelland that’s no,” Trevino said.

Dane Dewbre is the Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at South Plains College. He said students like Trevino were the inspiration behind the new location.

“Yeah, that’s what’s really kind of cool. We’re seven blocks away from Texas Tech University,” Dewbre said. “So we’re hoping to see an increase in some dual enrollments, but also easy access for other citizens of Lubbock as well.”

The renovated location is now home to many Arts and Sciences courses. These courses are intended to help students easily transfer credits to whatever university they plan on attending after South Plains.

As of this morning, the new location had nearly 1,600 students enrolled. One of those students is Adrian Oropeza. He is a sophomore psychology major at South Plains College. Oropeza said he was a bit nervous on his first day.

“Well, there’s definitely a lot of emotions going around here. Of course, it’s a gorgeous building. I mean, it’s really, really nice. I really like being able to charge my phone on the tables,” Oropeza said. “That’s really fun. Other than that, I mean, it’s just, you know, another day new school, you know, I mean, it’s pretty, it’s a little I’m a little nervous, not gonna lie, but other than that, it’s pretty exciting.”

This is Oropeza’s second year at South Plains. He spent last year commuting from Lubbock to the Levelland location.

“Oh man, I used to drive a 99 Yukon and I used half a tank of gas to get to Levelland and back every day. So I would do like $80 a week on gas,” Oropeza said, “Actually, it was $160 a week because then I had to go to work. But you know, it’s a lot less now. So I really, really appreciate the convenience of having just right down here.”

Oropeza said overall, he is excited for the new building and new school year.

“What I like actually is I’ve seen a lot of my old professors from the last year so it still kind of has that like that homey vibe to it. So you know I like it,” Oropeza said.

Fall enrollment for classes at the new location and other South Plains College locations closes next Thursday.

“So there’s still time to register. This week, next week, we have late registration going on,” Dewbre said, “So if you didn’t realize this facility was here, we have late registration going on at all of our campuses. So there’s still time to take a class or two if you’d like.”

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