Western Oklahoma State College is a public

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior se ...

Altus, Oklahoma Altus () is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 19,813 at the 2010 census, a loss of 7.7 percent compared to 21,454 in 2000. Altus is home to Altus Air Force Base, the United States Air ...

History

Western Oklahoma State College was founded in 1926 under the name Altus Junior College. In 1974 state legislature changed its name to the present Western Oklahoma State College. In 2012, the ''

Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to r ...

'' reported that

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

athletes had allegedly been taking 10-day online courses from Western Oklahoma when they don't meet academic standards at their own institutions. Western Oklahoma former president Phil Birdine defended the program, saying the school was "not a course mill." The college ceased offering the courses in early 2013 after the

Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education is the agency of the government of Oklahoma that serves as the governing body of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education, which is the largest provider of higher education in the state of Ok ...

recommended the courses be immediately discontinued. Nevertheless, the college's regional accreditor placed the college on probation in April after they "found the college's 10-day accelerated online courses don't meet quality and rigor standards required of compressed-format courses."

Athletics

WOSC is involved in intercollegiate sports such as men's basketball, women's basketball, softball, baseball, rodeo, and cheerleading. Under coach Kurt Russell, WOSC has recently built a highly successful baseball program. The school is especially noted for its success in recruiting

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

players from northeastern cities such as

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and

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, and from

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n countries. The team has made it to the national junior college Division II World Series in each of the last four seasons, and in 2011 WOSC defeated Mississippi's

Jones County Junior College Jones College is a public community college in Ellisville, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and serves its eight-county district consisting of Clarke, Covington, Gre ...

to win the national championship. Notably, multiple alumni have gone on to play professionally in

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

, including Andrelton Simmons,

Josh James Josh James is an American entrepreneur, founder and former CEO of Domo, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company. He also previously co-founded and served as CEO of Omniture, a web analytics company. Career James attended Brigham Young Univers ...

, Juan Perez,

Casey Sadler Casey Scott Sadler (born July 13, 1990) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Seattle Mariners organization. He has previously played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Mariners. Caree ...

, and Angel Castro.

References

External links

Official website
Buildings and structures in Jackson County, Oklahoma Education in Jackson County, Oklahoma Educational institutions established in 1926 OK Cooperative Alliance Community colleges in Oklahoma NJCAA athletics 1926 establishments in Oklahoma {{Oklahoma-university-stub