Only one student sat in the new Great Basin College annex watching a course by video conference Wednesday afternoon.

A caretaker in the next room looked bored, waiting for that student's class to finish so he could lock up the building.

The Great Basin College system is paying $12,000 per month to lease the two 5,000-square-foot buildings recently constructed at 1541 E. Basin Ave.

The empty classrooms at the annex are only one of the problems encountered by Great Basin College this fall; the other is a drop in enrollment because of a delay in funding the Dollars for Scholars program.

Interim Pahrump director Bill Verbeck said the distance education classroom is being used to view interactive videos. Classes will be scheduled in the new addition this spring, Verbeck said, and some evening classes this fall may still be transferred there.

Enrollment of new students is down 40 percent from a year ago, Verbeck said, partly because of a drop in dual credit classes, in which high school students can also receive college credit.

The Dollars for Scholars Program funded the college tuition costs for those high school students. But Verbeck said he received notice in mid-July there was no more funding in the Dollars for Scholars program.

Incoming student enrollment dropped from 230 last year to 140 this year, Verbeck said, which includes high school students taking college courses for dual credit.

Returning student numbers are up however, from 152 last year to 184 this year.

Great Basin College cut about 20 classes at the Pahrump campus this fall, Verbeck said. Higher level college courses suffered more from a lack of enrollment than the introductory courses.

"With our state of the economy, we're not in a position to offer classes with less than five students, period," Verbeck said. "We're down a bit primarily because of our dual credit, the questions on funding."

The dual credit program is now being limited to high school juniors and seniors in accordance with college policy, Verbeck said.

Last year, $69,000 was spent on the dual credit program, which benefited 259 high school students.

The Dollars for Scholars program is funded out of the interest in the Nye County education endowment fund, drawing out of $10 million the county deposited from the payment equal to taxes the county receives for the Yucca Mountain project back in 2001.

Last year, Nye County overpaid the school district $1.23 million in property taxes. The interest on the education endowment fund was to be used to repay the tax mistake.

"I don't think when the deal was made to pay back this money to the county did anybody think the Dollars for Scholars money was imbedded in that," said Jerry Hill, the Nye County School District assistant superintendent for student achievement.

Nye County Commissioners eventually realized the mistake and Aug. 19 voted to earmark $50,000 for the Dollars for Scholars program, less than a week before the start of school.

"The word was out that dual credit was dead because it was dead. Any time you stop something and restart it, you get people who don't get the word," Hill said.

Another suggestion was to cut the auto shop course out of the Dollars for Scholars Program, Hill said. That course ate up more than half the dual credit funding.

The community college advisory committee, interested in starting another program to help those high school students pay college tuition costs, launched the Adopt-A-Student Program in late summer.

Donors may contribute $200 for one college course or $400 for two courses in a suggested donation form. Checks are payable to the NyE Communities Coalition.

While the $200 would pay for a three credit dual credit college course, it doesn't cover lab fees and textbooks.

"Eventually if we get our career tracks going and degree programs, and get students into that pipeline, we'll see less and less cancellation," Verbeck said.

He's also excited about working on training programs for the proposed federal detention center at the annex.