Nov 14, 2019

Tarkio College emerges from bankruptcy as Tarkio Tech

Posted Nov 14, 2019 1:00 PM

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post


Tarkio College is rising out of the ashes of bankruptcy to once again offer courses, this time as a technical and career school.


Tarkio College, now Tarkio Technology Institute, will begin offering classes in January in plumbing, wind energy, and academic development.


Interim President John Davis credits Tarkio College alumni who have worked since the college closed in 1992 to give it new life.


And Davis says this is only the beginning.


“Eventually, we want to get to a position to where we can offer an associate of applied science degree, but we’re focusing primarily, even then, on the career and technical areas, because that’s where the needs are in business and industry,” Davis tells Barry Birr, host of the KFEQ Hotline.


Tarkio College initially applied to revive the 60-acre campus in extreme northwestern Missouri much as it was when it closed in 1992. State higher education officials suggested a different route: technical and career training.


Davis says Tarkio Tech has been careful in determining what to offer.


“These are not programs that somebody sits down in a conference room and reads some books and says here’s what we probably ought to be teaching,” according to Davis. “We have advisory committees for all these programs and we sit there and we ask them what is it that we should be teaching, because they are the ones that are out there in the field. They not only know what they’re doing now, but they know what the emerging trends are, also.”


Davis says Tarkio Tech would like to soon begin training students in welding as well as heating and cooling, which he says would be a natural outgrowth from plumbing. He says demand is high for skilled construction workers.


Classes begin January 6th on the Tarkio campus with a one-year basic course and a two-year advanced course offered. Programs are comprised of four components: classroom instruction, labs, working in the field, and instruction on entrepreneurship.


Davis says growth needs to be directed to areas of high demand.


“It shouldn’t be a novel concept in education that we are preparing our students for the industry and for the business world, but unfortunately, a lot of times it is.”


The college campus has 13 buildings and Davis says the alumni association hopes to save them all, though some have serious roof issues. He says supporters hope the classes which begin January 6th are only the start of a real resurrection of the college which was founded in 1883.