Chattahoochee Technical College has now merged with North Metro and Appalachian technical colleges and the combined colleges will be known as Chattahoochee Technical College.

Its president, Dr. Sanford Chandler, announced this week that the Committee on Compliance and Reports of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has approved the merger. The Technical College System of Georgia had decided to merge 13 technical colleges to save money, reducing Georgia’s technical colleges from 33 to 26.

Sanford was asked last November to serve as president of the three combined colleges, which will serve Paulding, Cherokee, Cobb, Bartow, Gilmer and Pickens counties. Appalachian Technical College is based in Jasper and North Metro Technical College in Acworth.

The combined college will have seven other campuses outside Dallas: Marietta, south Cobb, Mountain View in east Cobb, Acworth, Canton, Woodstock and Jasper.

Enrollment at the three combining colleges totaled 5,767 in summer quarter 2008 and 7,029 this summer, and school officials say fall enrollment could reach 15,000.

Jennifer Nelson, executive director of external affairs for the college, in a press release attributed the 22 percent summer enrollment growth to “the economic crisis hitting many students. Many people are returning to college because they have been laid off and are seeking retraining in order to obtain employment or keep employment.”

The combined college will offer more diverse study choices. “The students have the benefit of programs all three colleges offer,” said Ron Newcomb, college provost and executive vice president.

The Dallas campus offers two-year courses of study in: accounting, administrative office technology, business studies, early childhood care and education, environmental horticulture, management and supervisory development and marketing management and one-year programs in business and office technology, income tax preparation and payroll accounting. CTC marketing communications officer John Furman said the early childhood care and education and environmental horticulture “are signature programs” for the campus and said CTC hopes to offer a two-year associate degree in nursing (ADN) program in Paulding this fall.

The Dallas campus also offers specialist programs in computer application, early childhood administration, employee relations, environmental horticulture technology, juvenile justice, lawn maintenance, small business and supervisory management.

“When the [campus] new building is completed, we’ll look at what else we can offer,” Furman added.

Local CTC students can also access other programs on other campuses of the combined college. The Jasper campus will have automotive collision, automotive technician, interior design, drafting, medical assisting, health care assistant/phlebotomy, welding, home technology integration and business administrative. The Mountain View campus offers culinary arts and TV production, the Marietta campus has criminal justice, And and fire science, the South Cobb campus has drafting and the Acworth campus offers automotive, commercial truck driving, cosmetology, diesel equipment technology, physical therapy assistant, radiology and visual communication.

Chandler said it was challenging to bring the three colleges together under one name and credited faculty and staff, as well as Newcomb and former Appalachian acting president David Simmons. Chandler and his staff have revised organizational charts to streamline the new college’s administration.

“We look forward to the opening of our new classrooms and lab expansion of state-of-the-art facilities at our Paulding campus later this year,” said Chandler. “I would like to offer a welcome to students from Paulding County, the cities of Dallas and Hiram, west Cobb and south Cobb to join CTC students, faculty and staff as we introduce new programs and expand existing ones already in place in our new building.”

Chandler will have offices at all the campuses, and Assistant Provost Kary Porter, acting CTC provost following the retirement of Dr. Harlon Crimm, will work part time in Dallas.

Chattahoochee Technical College opened 48 years ago as Marietta Cobb Vocational Tech, became Chattahoochee Technical Institute and then became Chattahoochee Technical College. The Paulding campus opened in fall 1996.

Further information is available at the Admissions Office at 770-443-3605.