Slide: “Coming soon SRC Arena” and has the Onondaga Community College logo on it.
“The college is looking at sort of entrepreneurial efforts where we could generate our own revenue.”
(Kim Court, assistant to the vice president for public affairs, Onondaga Community College)
Text slide- Community Colleges lost $35 million when New York legislators cut aid in 2010.
“The SRC arena is being constructed right now. A venue like that will allow us to bring in outside groups and outside events and functions, where that might be a revenue-generation vehicle that will help offset those budget cuts and keep the burden of the budget cuts off the shoulders of the students.”
(Kim Court, assistant to the vice president for public affairs, Onondaga Community College)
“We are funded by three sources. About a third from the state, a third of the revenue is from the county and a third from student tuition. And when state or country levels decrease or fluctuate, we try very hard not to raise tuition and to maintain the operation that we have and to serve all the students that we have, which is about 12,000 students now. Sometimes modest tuition increases have been necessary.”
(Kim Court, assistant to the vice president for public affairs, Onondaga Community College)
“In the last five years, we’ve seen record enrollment and it’s been about a 50-percent increase. So we’re around 12,00 students now.”
(Kim Court, assistant to the vice president for public affairs, Onondaga Community College)
Text slide- Creating classes isn’t easy under a limited budget. So existing classes hit capacity quickly, leaving some students locked out.
“We have seen classes—day classes, traditional classes — that are offered during the day fill up. We try to really communicate with students and really encourage early registration, early application for financial aid — really trying to get ahead of the game and prepare the students the best that we can.”
(Kim Court, assistant to the vice president for public affairs, Onondaga Community College)
“The classes fill up pretty quickly. You have to schedule them fast if you want the classes that you want because the popular classes get taken up pretty quickly.”
(Ondra Elliot of Syracuse, first-year OCC student in communications)
“My first semester I waited till the last minute for my marketing class and it was full, and there was only one teacher who teaches it.” (Tamara Puskar of Syracuse, first-year OCC student in business administration)
“If I have one class that I need to take, you know, to graduate, I have to work everything around that one class because there’s only one class that’s doing it. With scheduling, it’s kind of hard sometimes, but other than that it’s OK.”
(Emily Anthony of Syracuse, second-year OCC student in human services with specialization early childhood)
(Ana Yanni is a graduate student in magazine, newspaper and online journalism.)
-30-
