Community College Feasibility Examined

By Harold Gwin, Vindicator, Youngstown, Ohio

Jan. 2–YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University didn’t get a $500,000 federal grant it sought to help finance the possible creation of a community college, but that hasn’t stopped the university from moving forward with the project.

The university was able to come up with $40,000 of its own money to help fund the community college feasibility study, said Dr. Nathan Ritchey, interim associate provost for academic administration and chairman of the YSU committee studying the community college idea.

The $500,000 sought from the federal Fund for Improvement of Post Secondary Education would have covered the cost of the study and much of the expense of developing programs, should YSU decide to proceed with opening a community college, Ritchey said.

“We never got any comments about what was wrong with the proposal,” he said.

The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley gave the committee a $10,000 grant to help with the feasibility study, and Ritchey said Dr. David C. Sweet, YSU president, was able to come up with $40,000 in university funds to keep the study going.

The actual study cost is expected to be about $70,000, but part of the work will be done internally by YSU’s Public Service Institute to help reduce the expense, Ritchey said.

The university hired a consultant, Burges & Burges Strategists of Cleveland, earlier this month to help with the study.

Burges & Burges is a top expert on community colleges in Ohio and is willing to work with the Public Service Institute on the project, Ritchey said.

Community colleges offer two-year degree and certificate programs at traditionally lower tuition rates than do four-year colleges and universities.

The YSU Board of Trustees voted in March to have the university administration explore the possibility of creating a community college, asking that details such as costs, location, programming and staffing be worked out within a year so the board could make a “go or no go” decision in March 2007.

The trustees believe that starting a community college here could increase overall college enrollment in the region, as well as serve as a feeder system for more advanced degrees offered by the university.

Ritchey said the study committee does expect to have a preliminary report to Sweet by March 1 and formal recommendations to the president by April 15, but a recommendation to the trustees probably won’t be made until June.

There is no community college in the region and creating one here could be a major economic and education engine that could draw 12,000 students, according to Bruce Beeghly, a member of the Ohio Board of Regents and a former YSU trustee.

Ritchey said the committee is working on the creation of a community college model that would likely focus on a collaborative approach to education.

“We would like a component of it to be centered around partnerships,” he said, explaining that the Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana career and technical centers and the Youngstown city schools’ Choffin Career & Technical Center have all expressed interest in the project.

“Collaboration will be a central theme in any model that is chosen,” he said.

Courses could be offered at those career centers and area high schools rather than having a central community college campus built. That concept would take the programs to the students, rather than require the students to come to campus, he said.

“We treasure those potential partnerships,” Ritchey said, adding that the centers could be asked to help fund specific community college programs in which they have particular interest.

For example, Choffin has already said it would like to see some type of culinary arts program and such a course of study could be held at Choffin under the community college banner, Ritchey said.

The study committee has set up a number of subcommittees to focus on the various issues to be resolved. As many as 100 people will likely have a hand in creating the community college model, Ritchey said.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Vindicator, Youngstown, Ohio

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