To remain competitive, Genesee Community College must grow and expand its facilities, college President Jim Sunser told the County Legislature's Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
The committee approved a $42.5-million Facilities Master Plan for the college.
Half the funds for the new buildings and improvements will come from state grants, Sunser explained, and while the county is technically on the hook for the other $21 million, GCC is uniquely positioned to quickly pay down any debt.
"This is a very responsible plan that not only moves us forward and continues to make us a competitive choice for students in the region, it will help ensure Genesee County students don't opt to go to one of the other schools," Sunser said.
GCC, he noted, competes for students with Erie, Niagara, Finger Lakes and Corning, and if a Genesee County student decides to attend one of those schools, the county must pay a fee to those other community colleges for each student that enrolls.
The neighboring community colleges have all recently made significant additions to their campuses.
"These colleges have made improvements and are already ahead of us in terms of square footage and services," Sunser said.
However, because GCC is the only community college in the GLOW region, it draws students -- and revenue -- from neighboring counties, which is one way the college can help pay for upgraded facilities.
The other, he said, is the successful GCC Foundation, which does a good job of raising funds to support the college.
Even though the college will come back to the Legislature to seek approval for specific projects under the plan, it's important that the entire plan be approved now so the college is in line for state funding as it becomes available.
Getting into the queue now, Sunser said, will make fundraising easier.
The two big components of the facilities plan include:
- A "student success center," which will be a "front door" for new and current students;
- A multipurpose college and community event center, which will help bring more events -- with greater economic impact -- to the community.
The new buildings will also help free up more of GCC's existing space for instructional use.
The last bullet should read,
The last bullet should read, "A multipurpose college and community event center..."
Half the funds for the new
Half the funds for the new buildings and improvements will come from state grants, Sunser explained, and while the county is technically on the hook for the other $21 million, ...
What does technically on the hook mean...21 million is alot of money to be on the hook for...The county is having a hard time paying for maintaining the bridges and roads.Plus taking care of the costs associated with the nursing home...To be on the hook for 21 million seems like something the county doesn't need at this time..Mr.Sunser needs to understand that even the state grants are our tax dollars and should be spent wisely....
It's in the later paragraphs:
It's in the later paragraphs: using money that the GCC Foundation raises and using the money that comes in from Livingston, Orleans, and Wyoming for their students that attend the college.
GCC Needs to build a hockey
GCC Needs to build a hockey rink. We have kids in this area that leave to play hockey elsewhere in the state. MCC and ECC both have teams. GCC could start an excellent hockey program if they wanted to.
Here's a link to the Genesee
Here's a link to the Genesee Community College Strategic Plan (2013-2018):
http://www.genesee.edu/content/about/administration/Strategic%20Plan%20…
It's a short read at only 24 pages, much of which is charts, graphs, and pretty diagrams. It's well put together and quite comprehensive and even covers the army of people and the process it took to put it together.
Pay particular attention to the "Supporting Data for Strategic Planning Process" section.
Here are a few interesting quotes from the document:
"GCC’s enrollment peaked in 2010-11."
"GLOW will experience a population shift over the next ten years, with a declining young population replaced by higher numbers of seniors."
(GLOW = Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, & Wyoming counties)
"The result of this population shift will be declines in the size of high school classes, and thus in the number of high school graduates."
"As high school class sizes continue to drop, GCC will need to attract a larger portion of college-bound high school graduates to maintain the current numbers of entering freshmen."
"Approximately one-third of fall students are concurrently enrolled in high school."
That one is particularly interesting to me as I took several Advanced Placement classes (none of which were held on a GCC campus and none of which were taught by GCC professors as best as I can recall) when I was in high school WAY back in the '70s. I did earn college credit for most of the courses (2 from GCC and 1 from Geneseo) and I thought that was pretty cool (especially when the credits transferred to my 4 year college allowing me to take more advanced courses in two concentrations for my undergrad degree). I wonder how the high school students are being taught college level courses today and also how the funding model works with both school taxes covering high school and a portion of our county taxes being funneled to GCC?
Anyway, one last quote from the master plan:
"Maintain a fund balance that is consistent with higher education industry standards."
You gotta love a fund balance while your palms are facing upward taking grants (taxpayer funded), county money (taxpayer funded), donations, etc... Didn't I just see "higher education industry"???
Might make sense due to the
Might make sense due to the receding college age population and the presence in the other counties already to rename it GLOW Community College. I should think that would help with fundraising.