Community Colleges Oppose Cuts

CCAC President Alex Johnson and other community college leaders will appear before the Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee in Harrisburg on Wednesday, March 30 to avert a 10% funding cut in Governor Tom Corbett’s proposed budget--$23 million statewide and $3.6 million for CCAC. Dr. Johnson says although it's a small portion of CCAC's overall $116 million annual budget, there would be an impact on direct instruction and on support services necessary to help students be successful. He says community colleges actually need more funding because of increasing enrollment and the commonwealth’s need for a skilled labor force.

Along with seeking to restore the funding, CCAC will also look at raising additional revenue from Allegheny County, foundations and corporations and may even have to turn to students, which Johnson says he and the trustees have not wanted to do.

On April 5th at least fifteen CCAC students will help Johnson convey the importance of community colleges in meetings with legislators in Harrisburg. Johnson says the Western Pennsylvania legislative delegation has traditionally supported community colleges, but this year they have to deal with proposed cuts of many great programs at all levels.

CCAC Recieves $3 Million from Richard King Mellon Foundation

The Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) has been awarded a three million dollar grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to support health care, green technology, science and math programs.

The grant is the largest CCAC has ever received in its 45 year history. $1.27 million will go to providing equipment for the allied health program at CCAC; $810,000 for an instructional lab aimed to promote energy efficient careers and public education. CCAC's West Hills Center in Oakdale will be awarded $680,000 for a new science lab, and $240,000 will be used to construct Math Cafés at all of CCAC's branches and in two of the centers.

Rose Ann DiCola, executive director of CCAC's education foundation says that 51% of the students who come to CCAC need to take developmental math classes, meaning that the students are not ready for college level math.

"When you look at the data of the students that need to take the developmental math classes, if they are not able to progress well in those classes it really puts them in jeopardy of not being able to complete their college course work."

The Math Cafés will provide space for additional tutoring services and an environment for faculty and students to better interact so the students will succeed.

CCAC Launches new Focus on Shale Jobs

The Community College of Allegheny County says it will begin offering new degree and certificate programs specifically designed to create graduates ready to work in the Marcellus Shale fields of Pennsylvania. CCAC Allegheny County Workforce Alliance Executive Director Charles Blocksidge says the college began by looking at all the skill sets in demand in the shale gas industry and then tweaking the classes already in place to make sure they fit the needs. Blocksidge says for students already enrolled in welding or other in-demand-skills classes, graduates will be ready to take jobs in a few weeks. Others just starting such programs could have the skills in as little as 15 weeks. At the same time, the school will be building new programs to answer demand. Blocksidge says those new programs include a welding associate’s degree aimed at the skills needed to build natural gas transmission lines, a bio-remediation certificate which includes a partnership with Frac Biologics and Allegheny-Singer Research Institute, a drilling industry certificate which will be a non-credit, short-term training program addressing many of the skill sets in electronics, instruments and controls needed by mechanics and other industry personnel, and a First Responder PA DOH certification to train individuals who might be first on the scene of an industrial type emergency. Blocksidge says, “Current state and regional proposals focus on helping individuals become entry-level field workers for the industry. CCAC also wants to position itself to serve those industry employees who seek more substantial positions in the industry and to assist entry-level workers in their move up career ladders.” In all, the college identified 11 existing associate’s degrees and 10 credit certificate programs that align with industry workforce needs. Blocksidge says additional programs, both credit and non-credit, have substantial overlap with skills required by positions in the industry.

Free Marcellus Leasing Workshops Offered

CCAC has teamed up with a land brokerage firm to offer a series of free workshops on Marcellus Shale Drilling at the school’s Washington County facility. CCAC Director of Community Education M. J. Mandler says people in Washington County are starting to sign leases and now is the time to become educated on the subject “before it is too late.” “This is only going to get bigger,” says Mandler, “information is power and they should go into this knowing exactly what the are going to get into.” The free workshops begin September 11th and then run each of the next three Saturdays from 9:30am-11:30am. Mandler says they have limited space so participants are asked to preregister at CCAC.edu or by calling 412-369-3703 M-F 9a-3p. The workshops will be conducted by Terra Energy Advisors, which bills itself as an “oil and gas investment and management company” that “assists property owners to become educated on the process of fully developing their mineral rights and obtaining the maximum income for leasing their land.” Mandler says the workshops will address a long list of topics including; how shale drilling works, water and environmental issues associated with shale drilling and understanding the contracts involved in gas extraction.

CCAC Cancels Bids Deadline

The Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) cancelled today’s deadline for bids on the construction of the K. Leroy Irvis Science Center after nonunion contractors raised concerns about the procurement process. The facility would provide health care and science education on the Pittsburgh Northside Campus.
Spokesperson David Hoovler says nonunion contractors were concerned with CCAC asking for 90% union employees in its labor agreement with the contractor. He says they do not feel they’ve done anything illegal or wrong. “It was not the intent to shut out any particular firm from bidding on the project, and we just want to be sure that’s clear.”
Hoovler says many local county projects have been done with very similar agreements, specifically the new stadiums, which were built with project-labor agreements.
Up until today, he says the changes are a result of meeting some requirements that had come through from the inspection and approval of the city, relating to fire code and such. “This [cancellation] will just enable some of those changes just to be incorporated into the main specification.”
Hoovler says CCAC hopes the cancellation will not delay the construction of this $21 million project significantly, which is set to open for the spring of 2012. “There is a great need for it to help provide the state of the art science, technology and health care education that our students really deserve.”

CCAC No.2 in Nursing Grads

The publication Community College Week has ranked the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) as the nation’s second largest producer of both nursing and health professions associate’s degrees among two-year institutions. CCAC was ranked second in nursing last year and fourth in other health profession degrees. CCAC spokesperson David Hoovler says the school has been focused on training health care professionals for more than two decades. “As we were involved in the revitalization of Pittsburgh’s economy we did put a lot of focus on the growing health sector,” says Hoovler. The ranking is based on the 2008-2009 school year when CCAC handed out degrees to 405 nursing graduates. Hoovler says that was a 4% increase from 2007–2008. In 2008–2009, the college awarded 593 degrees in the Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences category.
Hoovler says he does not expect the rankings to fall next year. “We still recognize that nursing is one of our strong areas and we certainly intend to keep a strong emphasis on that. We are expecting to break ground on a new science center on our Allegheny campus on the north side this fall and that shows a commitment to these programs,” says Hoovler. Hoovler says he does not think the schools has saturated the market with nurses and health care professionals, “it’s a field where there is a good bit of turn over… so I think we are helping to fill a need there.“ A study launched by the school last year shows there is still strong and growing demand for health care workers with an associated degree. He says more than 92% of CCAC’s career program graduates are working in this region. Overall, CCAC is 58th in the number of associate’s degrees awarded by all institutions in 2008–2009, with 1,661 graduates. That is down from 49th in the previous listing.