ACTION calls for central campus

Gateway plan isn’t enough, group says

By Harold Gwin

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning Valley is getting a community college that will begin offering classes this fall, but it’s not the educational facility wanted by a local faith-based organization.

ACTION, committed to improving the quality of life in the Mahoning Valley, wants to see a comprehensive community college with a central campus.

The organization has launched a petition drive seeking 10,000 signatures to show there is support for its position.

The petitions, addressed to “state and federal officials,” will be presented to Gov. Ted Strickland, Eric Fingerhut, Ohio’s chancellor of higher education; and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th.

The drive, launched a week ago, has secured more than 500 signatures, said Rose Carter, an ACTION organizer. Petitions are being delivered to ACTION-member churches and will be available at church fairs and other venues over the summer.

ACTION is dedicated to developing a community of diverse leaders committed to raising awareness and seeking solutions to overcome poverty, racism and social injustice. Its current issues, in addition to the community college, are health care and wellness, crime, safety and immigration reform.

“We feel that we have to make some noise to get our point across,” said June Drennen, secretary of ACTION and a retired high school principal.

It’s not that the group, which has 14 member organizations, is looking for a spacious campus setting.

“We certainly have facilities that can be adapted,” said Pat Rosenthal, ACTION treasurer and executive director of Commonwealth Inc., a community-development corporation that is a member of ACTION.

The group realizes the financial constraints Ohio is facing, but, if nothing else, it wants a written commitment from the state that it will develop a fully functional community college with a central campus, hopefully within five years, Carter said.

ACTION believes a fully functional community college has three major components: providing a two-year education to high school graduates and others wanting to further their education; providing diplomas in such fields as occupational therapy, radiology, word processing, nursing and more; and providing quick training for employers who need people trained for specific tasks.

Those services should be provided on a centralized campus close to the heaviest populated area in the Mahoning-Trumbull-Columbiana county area, Rosenthal said.

The group met with Fingerhut to express its concerns near the end of April and found him to be very understanding, Drennen said.

“He understands our problem,” she said, explaining that the Mahoning Valley is the only urban region of the state not served by a community college.

Drennen said Fingerhut told them that the development of a community college here is part of the state’s 10-year Strategic Plan for Higher Education unveiled last year, but that plan doesn’t include a central campus.

As it sits right now, the state plan involves linking Jefferson Community College in Steubenville, Jefferson County, with the tri-county area to create Eastern Gateway Community College, which will use existing educational facilities across the four-county region as classroom sites.

The new college is to begin offering its first educational program — an accelerated LPN-RN nursing program — this fall at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center and the Trumbull Career and Technical Center.

“We’re not satisfied with that,” Drennen said. “There are plenty of places to put it here.”

There are plans to locate a headquarters, with perhaps some classrooms, along the Mahoning-Trumbull county line.

Laura Meeks, Jefferson Community College president and volunteer assistant to Fingerhut on the community-college project, said degree programs in welding, industrial-information technology and respiratory therapy will be offered within the first year.

ACTION believes the project is being put together piecemeal and should have its own administration, board of directors and building.

People who go to community college are “hands-on” individuals; they shouldn’t be shifted from place to place, said Barbara Phinisee, president of the South West Neighborhood Association, an ACTION member.

The organization also wants the community college to have a closer link to Youngstown State University than the state plan now provides. As it stands, YSU will offer its four-year nursing degree as a direct educational pathway from the LPN program.

Fingerhut, who said his session with the ACTION group was a good meeting, told The Vindicator that the first and most important step is the official creation of the new community college in Ohio’s biennial- budget bill.

After that will be the expeditious appointment of a local board of trustees to run the program.

He said he is in full agreement with the need for a comprehensive community college but pointed out that it will be the trustees who determine what the community college will eventually look like. It will be that body petitioners should approach with suggestions, he said.

In terms of getting the new college started, it is in the best interest of the effort to utilize existing educational facilities wherever possible — spending money on programs for students rather than on buildings, Fingerhut said.

“We’re going to do this one step at a time,” he said.

Rosenthal said it is important that the state set a goal of creating a comprehensive community college with its own campus here.

“We want that focus. We want that goal now,” she said.

“When you don’t set goals, you don’t reach for them,” Phinisee said. Even if the state and federal governments have no money to create that program now, they need to set that goal and work toward it, she said.

A number of state and local elected officials have expressed support for the idea, Carter said, adding, "We do not intend to give up.”

gwin@vindy.com

Petitions being circulated by ACTION call for the creation of a comprehensive community college with its own campus. They read:

“We, the undersigned, urge our State and Federal officials to establish a Comprehensive Community College and Central Mahoning Valley campus to serve the needs of adults, since there is none available. The existence of a Comprehensive Community College will offer students alternative education beyond high school. Classes offered will serve the needs of the people, local communities and businesses located therein. We believe the additional trained work force is essential to bring industries and jobs to the Valley.”

For information on where to find a petition, call ACTION at (330) 782-7433 or Rose Carter at (330) 941-0475.

Source: ACTION