By Michael Purtell
The historic move of Clinton Community College onto SUNY Plattsburgh’s campus reached a new milestone.
SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. joined SUNY Plattsburgh President Alexander Enyedi, Administrator in Charge of Clinton Community College Ken Knelly and President and COO at CVPH Michelle LeBeau to sign ceremonial agreements to mark the move as official April 16.
“The finances have been stabilized, a new building has been identified and prepared for the Fall, the work of the accreditors who really saved the accreditation of that campus,” King said. “So today is really a celebration, an opportunity to say thank you to all the community leaders who stepped up, and we’re very excited that this fall we’re going to see a new, revitalized Clinton Community College here on the Plattsburgh campus.”
The first-of-its-kind move will redefine the relationship SUNY schools have with their local community colleges, strengthening the already strong bonds usually shared by the schools.
“This will be the first time that we have a community college physically located on the campus at one of our four year institutions, but close collaboration is not uncommon,” King said. “And in fact, Plattsburgh has a very close partnership with Adirondack Community College, for example.”
The new bond between Plattsburgh and Clinton will help both institutions support their student bodies in a revolutionary way.
“This is a model of saying we’re going to put students first. We’re going to make sure that we take the steps necessary to protect the student experience,” King said. “Students at Clinton Community College are going to have access to more resources and more opportunities because of this move.”
Knelly said he believes the move will be good for the greater Plattsburgh community as well. Most CCC students are commuters as the college hosts no dorms, so bringing them closer to the city will benefit both parties.
“I think it’s going to be real positive for the community too, because you’re adding all those employees, you’re adding all those students who are going to be circling in the community, whether it’s going down to Zuke’s, downtown, or something like that,” Knelly said. “ It’s just going to help bring that life on campus aspect.”
The move will also help bolster the local CVPH hospital, as Knelly and LeBeau discussed how CVPH will welcome in the nursing students of CCC as a part of the move.
“The nursing program has a long history in this community,” Knelly said. “It’s critical to the community, the pipeline of nurses.”
Plattsburgh’s is not anticipating any strain on existing structure, namely dining and residential, that incoming CCC students may rely on, due to the commuter nature of most current CCC students, Enyedi said.
“Clinton Community College’s student population is around 350 to 400 students. If 10% of those students take advantage of dining, that’s 30 or 40 more additional students. They operate on a different time schedule than many of our students, so I don’t foresee there being an issue for demand,” Enyedi said.
The preparations for the move have taken well over a year so far, but the involved parties are committed to seeing the project through for the benefit of everyone involved and around Plattsburgh’s campus.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to build capacity in the north country that drives economic prosperity, economic vitality. We’re going to be able to help increase the number of teachers, health care workers, in many ways, business and entrepreneur and entrepreneurial individuals. This is a true win for the community,” Enyedi said. “We’re going to be able to grow our own in terms of our local residents to be able to be prosperous, so I’m happy about that.”
