'Brand of Cox College going away' as new alliance expands healthcare education in area

Max Buetow, president and CEO of CoxHealth, chose his words carefully as he described how the creation of an Alliance for Healthcare Education will affect Cox College, which has been educating nurses for more than a century.

The alliance will completely absorb the private institution. There will be a time in the near future — likely within five years — that the college will cease to confer degrees in its name.

"The reason we are gathered here at Cox College today is because, as part of this change, Cox College will be fully integrated into the alliance," Buetow said. "Let's be clear, integration means evolution not dissolution. Integration is Cox College evolving into an educational alliance that can provide even greater opportunities for this community — more than any one of us can do on our own."

The alliance is a partnership between CoxHealth, Missouri State University, Ozarks Technical Community College and Springfield Public Schools. They will work together to expand the number of healthcare professionals educated and employed locally in a more efficient and less expensive way.

Buetow said CoxNorth will serve as the home for the unprecedented alliance, allowing it to "continue to invest in the neighborhood where CoxHealth's story started."

If the plan comes to fruition, Cox College programs will be absorbed by OTC and MSU.

The 70,000 square feet of classrooms, offices, and healthcare technology, equipment and laboratories the college currently occupies in the northeast corner of Cox North hospital will be used instead by students enrolled at MSU, OTC and possibly SPS.

"Cox College's impact in this community is immeasurable," Buetow said at the event. "Founded in 1907, the Burge Deaconess School of Nurses has (produced) generations of healthcare professionals who have built their careers on the education they received right here."

In the mid-1990s, the name was changed to Lester L. Cox College of Nursing & Health Sciences and later shortened to Cox College.

In the years that followed, numerous programs were added. They include bachelor's degrees in nursing, diagnostic imaging; associate's degrees in medical assisting, radiography; and master's degrees in nursing, occupational therapy and nutrition diagnostics.

Buetow praised Amy Wutke, president of Cox College, and the faculty and staff of Cox College for their work so far and the role they will play in the new alliance.

In an interview Tuesday, Wutke said there are 800 students enrolled at Cox College this year, which is roughly 100 less than before the pandemic.

She met with the college's faculty and staff Monday to go over "how higher education has changed" in the wake of the pandemic and the changes prompted by creation of the alliance.

"They completely understood," she said.

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The annual cost of attending Cox College, including tuition and fees, is significantly higher than MSU and OTC.

"Anytime a higher ed institution, regardless of whether they're public or private, can reduce the overall cost of education for our students, that is a good thing and we should do it," Wutke said.

MSU and OTC will have to seek permission from the Higher Learning Commission to absorb the programs offered by Cox College, an approval process which can take a year or more.

If approved, OTC will take over two-year programs and MSU will take over four-year and graduate programs.

"While we are sad that the brand of Cox College is going away, we want to expand the number of students who can go through," Wutke said of health sciences programs locally. "It's going to be a wonderful opportunity."

Wutke said the plan is for Cox College to stop accepting new students in spring 2025. Any student in the pipeline at that point will be able to complete their degree program, which may take a year or two.

"That is about the time the alliance will be ramping up," she said.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: New health education alliance will absorb Springfield's Cox College