LSCO tower creates beacon in downtown Orange

The tower is already lit at night with the letters LSCO beaming across downtown and providing a new landmark, plus a beacon for higher education.

For more than 110 years, the dome of First Presbyterian Church, and a few years later, the dome of First Baptist Church have been the eye-catchers of Orange. LSCO's new Academic Building with its tower is now the focus.

LSCO President Dr. Tom Johnson will host a grand opening of the new Academic Building on Wednesday, November 6, at 2 p.m. The event is being coordinated with the school's anniversary as "55 Years of Success in 55,000 Square Feet," the amount of room in the new building.

And the tower isn't the only landmark of the college in downtown. LSCO is adding on to, and renovating the historic red brick First Baptist Church after it was abandoned by the congregation in 2008 for a new building. The old church was donated to the college by the Stark Foundation, which preserved the building for future use.

The latest additions add to the LSCO campus expansions, turning the old downtown area into a center of higher education, culture, and government.

During the past year, the school has expanded to open a satellite campus in Lumberton. Also, LSCO is working with other schools in the Texas State University System for an education center in Livingston in Polk County.

It's a long and amazing evolution of a college created in a vacant World War II elementary school as a branch of the old Lamar Tech, now Lamar University.

The new Academic Center has been built with $58 million allocated by the Texas Legislature to help accommodate the growth of the school.

The school offers two-year degrees plus a number of professional certificates in studies involving local industries and health care. The college also works with local high schools to give college courses to select students so they can earn higher education credits before graduating from high school.

According to information from LSCO, the school awarded 906 total degrees to 677 different students during commencement ceremonies in the fall of 2023 and the summer of 2024. The graduates had an average GPA of 3.18, with 67 percent of them from Orange County. The youngest graduate was age 16. Seventy-five percent of those graduates are the first in their families to get college degrees.

During the past five years, the Texas Legislature has allowed the college to cut tuition plus provided money for expansion. Donations from local industries have helped in subjects to educate students to work on a variety of instruments and equipment used in the region. Some of the industrial jobs may have beginning pay in six figures.

The college had an enrollment of 2,395 in the fall of 2029 and went up to 3,154 in 2023 for a growth of 32 percent. Fifty-two percent of students are enrolled in technical programs while 48 percent are in academic programs, with the academic classes being able to transfer to a four-year university.

The enrollment grew 32 percent in those five years with a 64 percent increase in technical studies students, up from 1,014 to 1,655.

Of the students in the fall of 2023, 557 percent were from Orange County, 16 percent from Hardin County, 7 percent from Jasper County, 6 percent from Louisiana Parishes, 1 percent from Newton County, 1 percent from Polk County, and 5 percent from other places.

LSCO has added 17 new programs of study during the past five years and has graduated 2,164 students. The total degrees and certificates award in that time period total 3,601.

The new Academic Building faces Green Avenue and is built on the block between Fourth and Fifth streets. The block once housed the old Orange National Bank, including a 1970s multi-storied mirrored building that was demolished for the new construction.

The previous academic building faced Front Street at Fourth. Through decades, it had been a retail-warehouse building and then a bowling alley. Lamar-Orange acquired it after the original campus in the old school burned.

That remodeled building at first housed classrooms, offices, and a recreation-lounge area. Some halls still had slopes from the bowling alley. As the campus grew into other buildings, the one on Front ended up with only academic classrooms.

But damages after hurricanes in the past 19 years became too many to repair. The new building on Green Avenue is its shiny, lit successor.

In remembrance of LSCO's modest roots, this past year the student recreation center was named in honor of the late Dr. Joe Ben Welch. He began as one of the first teachers at the original campus in 1969 and soon became campus president. In that position, he led the college into downtown and eventual expansion.

LSCO President Dr. Michael Shahan guided the campus through the addition of more construction and programs. Dr. Johnson, the current president, took the position after Shahan retired.

In those past six years, Dr. Johnson has helped stimulate more growth for academics and training skills. But it hasn't all been educational. Student activities have increased and the students are more involved in community projects. The fall and spring festivals on campus draw lots of kids and families in addition to the students.

Dr. Johnson also originated a campus mascot by giving people a chance to vote. Gator was the big winner. The first competitive team was the LSCO Gator Bass team, which drew national attention by leading some of the major universities in bass fishing competition.