So far, half a dozen writers of letters to the editor and Erie area bloggers have shown they are more perspicacious than all the editors at the Erie Times-News put together by strongly objecting to County Executive Mark DiVecchio’s incipient plan to tie the proposed Erie community college to Mercyhurst College and locate a second branch at the Mercyhurst campus in North East. The newspaper has been strangely silent on the merits of this aspect of DiVecchio’s plan, or lack thereof.
Meanwhile, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania through its president Jeremy D. Brown and benefactor Lou Porreco, threw that college’s hat into the ring, offering their preferred venue and suggesting that it be anointed as the operational collaborator for the community college, rather than Mercyhurst.
It appears that Garvey has been privately advising the county executive on preliminary plans for the proposed educational facility, which is a poor idea on more than one count. Garvey’s name never appears in the 48-page study on the need for what is being called Northwest Pennsylvania Community College (NPCC) The name, Mercyhurst, only appears once throughout the study, and that’s in conjunction with the other three area colleges- Edinboro, Behrend/ Penn State and Gannon. Nevertheless, rumors persist that Mercyhurst has an edge because of Garvey’s role as advisor to DiVecchio.
Several well-informed letter writers and bloggers have objected to any link with Mercyhurst, in part because of Garvey’s prominent past association with it, and because they fear its tuition fees, highest in the area, are likely to be reflected in those charged to prospective students of the proposed community college.
Their concerns are justified. The five-year business and operating plan outlined in the needs study released recently by DiVecchio calls for the proposed community college’s Board of Trustees to contract “with an existing post-secondary Erie County Institution with Middle States Accreditation to manage the academic operations and functions common to the existing fourteen Pennsylvania community colleges, including degree programs, student campus life, etc.”
Under the DiVecchio/Garvey plan, the board of trustees would “provide the contracted campus with a Grant of $5,700 for each Erie County resident who has enrolled in the (community college) or its related satellite centers or programs.” This may be up to twice as much as charged at other community colleges throughout the state.
In addition to the county grant, the branch campus “will also receive all student tuition fees authorized each year by the board.” Then “the contracted branch campus will be expected to open a second similar campus around 2010-2012 in another portion of Erie County,” as well as develop satellite centers at existing vo-tech institutions throughout the area, including Meadville in Crawford County.
The second branch campus and the satellite centers would operate under the administrative control of the contracted branch campus, which “will not only develop these campuses, but accept all responsibility for their operations.”
Among other things, the needs study briefly profiles a dozen or so established community colleges around the state.
It’s interesting to note that none of them is affiliated with any other institution of higher learning. One wonders what DiVecchio/Garvey’s rationale is for integrating another institution into their proposal for the Erie facility, other than the obvious motive of self-interest on Garvey/Mercyhurst’s part. There may be a valid one. If there is, let’s hear it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Joe:
Once again, good solid work on the post. My thought on why affiliation would be a good thing is that it would bring established/experienced management to the community college. If not run correctly, this thing has the potential to be a mess, and based on what I've seen from government- funded organizations, I'm definitely worried about political appointees running our community college. At least Garvey is a political appointee who understands higher education.
Not to say that the Garvey/Mercyhurst alliance is the only answer, as I have serious questions about Garvey's personal history, and Mercyhurst may be a bit expensive to be the ideal ally. However, I am of the opionion that we have plenty of experienced higher educators in the area, and we should leverage some of their experience.
This looks like another creation of the same local NETWORKED group. Watch for the jobs given out on this one. More cash into the money pit through the same Erie movers and shakers.
Leveraging local experience can be a good thing, but the county might also want to offer the leadership position to an outsider. If not, you'll likely have cronyism.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: BC3, CCBC, CCAC all function without a larger, sponsoring college or university, and they have been in business for 30-45 years (I've taught at all three).
These colleges are freestanding community colleges that are able to establish articulation agreements with the four-year colleges of their choice.
I see this as the best model, because Mercyhurst is going to attempt to channel students into its Main Campus. The same is true for the other colleges.
This is not all bad, as it encourages further education, but the Northwest PA Community College should not simply be a "feeder" school for existing four-year schools.
Instead, it should focus on the needs of the employers in Erie County (and beyond) so that the grads can get jobs. Therefore, the CC should be training welders, carpenters, machine operators, etc.
Mercyhurst is a liberal arts school, for God's sake. Do we really want a mini-Mercyhurst community college producing liberal arts grads? We have enough of that (and do we think that Mercyhurst is going to be able to train welders?).
Instead, we need to match the needs of local employers to the mission of the community college.
In other words, giving the local colleges too much say in this matter could lead to self-interest, rather than solving the employment-related problems faced by the Erie Region.
DDDDDDDDDDDD
Post a Comment