2 min read November 2022 — Westmoreland County Community College (Westmoreland), located in Youngwood, Pa., serves the residents of Westmoreland, Fayette and Indiana counties. Invest: spoke to Westmoreland President Tuesday Stanley about current trends in student enrollment, local workforce needs and programs for keeping tuition affordable.
The college recently opened a new Indiana County Center strategically located adjacent to the Indiana County Career and Technology Center. How do you expect that will add value to the region?
We’ve been working on this for quite a while; we’ve been in Indiana County since 2000 and some of our biggest programs have been in the healthcare area. At our previous facility, we did not have onsite labs available. Students would have to complete lab assignments at local high schools or the career and technology center. The conversation with Indiana County started with a discussion about having a location that is more centrally located, especially on the bus line and one that offered a chance to have a building with wet labs and also space to teach advanced manufacturing as well as other high-demand, high-wage careers. The county ended up constructing the building for us and we now have 15,000 square feet of space available for our students and other training opportunities.
Our enrollment is up at Indiana and we are starting to offer additional programs at the center. We’ve offered a phlebotomy certificate program as a pathway into our other healthcare careers and those classes have been filled. We have a full nursing class and, of course, all the general education transfer classes. Because construction started in 2020, in anticipation of the building’s opening, we signed a dual admissions agreement with Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), a long-time transfer partner of Westmoreland but we took it to a new level with this new facility.
IUP has been a solid partner since we embarked on this venture. Our agreement allows students to be dually admitted to both institutions.; and, if they follow the prescribed curriculum and meet the GPA requirements, they don’t even have to apply to go to IUP when they graduate from Westmoreland because they’re already IUP students. We also have a few students who are living in the dorms at IUP and taking advantage of all the services afforded IUP students. So while they are essentially taking classes with us, they’re already a part of the IUP culture.
Recently, IUP was awarded a Department of Defense cybersecurity grant and we are one of the six community colleges working with them on that so we can train cybersecurity technicians who then go on to earn bachelor’s or master’s degrees. Obviously, there’s a great need for cybersecurity professionals. These are just some of the items with which we have furthered our relationship with the community over the last couple of years.
What has contributed to the rise in enrollment?
I’d like to say that everything is predictable but after COVID and during COVID, it’s not. Enrollment is better overall for us. We’re down slightly but nothing like what we have seen in the past. Recently, we’ve been presented with a better scenario. I do think being able to have those additional offerings at our new center has allowed us to offer more. That is part of the appeal of going. to our new Indiana County center.
Are there any other programs where you’re seeing a lot of interest from students, and how does that align with the region’s current workforce needs?
We have an Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Mt. Pleasant, that encompasses 75,000 square feet and provides the space for our technology programs that are hands-on. The trades such as robotics, technology, welding and advanced manufacturing are what you would think of when you think of Western Pennsylvania. We’re seeing an increase in enrollment at our ATC which is the first time in several years. I am hopeful about that because when you talk to companies in Western Pennsylvania, they are mostly looking to fill those types of technician positions and they’ve been struggling. It’s good to see additional interest in those areas. Then for us, just because of what we offer, there are healthcare-related areas as well. Those two areas alone define many of the career options in the regions we serve. Those areas are where we’re also seeing the bulk of the interest.
What challenges come to mind?
It’s been somewhat difficult to guess what medium students want to engage in. We’re an open admissions college and our students tend to be very late to the process. We do the bulk of our registration and admission in the month or two before classes start for the full term. We offer multiple terms, including a full 15- or eight-week session.
With the late registration activity, we’ve had to switch modes of instruction if we’re offering in-class, online or a combination (remote) class which would include Zoom. We’re watching those trends and so far, we’ve seen about a 50-50 split. That reflects the students’ wishes and expectations; we have changed our delivery modes to meet their needs. Pre-COVID, if we had 20% of our classes online and they filled, which was extraordinary. During COVID, the converse was true: 80% of our classes were conducted over Zoom or online. This is the second year we’ve seen the same percentage, about 50-50.
One other challenge is that because our students tend to be more in need, maybe first-generation, they’re usually not able to take as many credit hours because they’re working more to cover the increase in the cost of groceries, housing, childcare, etc. They’re now faced with making a decision between how much they can go to school and how much they need to work in order to make ends meet. While in the past they might have taken 12 credit hours, they might take six now.
How do you feel increasing tuition might help in terms of programs and creating new opportunities for students?
It’s difficult for me to talk about increasing tuition because our basic student struggles, even with how reasonable our tuition remains. The total cost of getting a two-year degree with us is less than one semester at many colleges and universities. Not all, but most. Even with that, we are considered “unaffordable” by some. We are sensitive to that. I believe we have to look for alternative sources of revenue other than our students to be able to lift up our communities.
Moving forward, our focus is not only on acquiring grants that match and align with our strategic plan but also on partnerships and especially corporate partnerships.
We need to provide solutions to questions such as “How can companies partner with us to attract and educate workers for them for the future? Can they provide scholarships? Can they pay students wages to go to school in return for signing a contract to come work at that company for X number of years because the company sponsored them?” Combining these strategies will help our communities grow and thrive in the decades to come.
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