|
Cerro Coso Community College: Best bang for your buck |
|
|
Thursday, 12 March 2009 |
By Stacey Powells
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Having a true college in Mammoth Lakes was the dream child of Dave and Roma McCoy.
“There were eight kids at the elementary school down by the fish hatchery when my kids were growing up here,” said Dave McCoy in a phone interview. “What’s happened so far is what I’ve expected, but I still expect a lot more from the college and from the community.”
Cerro Coso Community College has offered college classes in the Mammoth Lakes area sporadically since the early 1980s.
In 1990 space in the Rite Aid shopping center was converted for classrooms and in 1996 classes were moved over to the Mammoth Lakes Ski Museum. Ground was broken in 2001 for the Cerro Coso Community College, Mammoth Lakes campus and classes commenced at the Dave and Roma McCoy Learning Center in August, 2003.
Last August, the dormitory was opened and hosts 35 rooms with a total of 59 beds.
“There are 11 singles and another 24 rooms that are one-bedroom with two beds in each room,” said Evan Russell from the Mammoth Lakes Foundation (MLF).
According to Russell, a dated Mono County planning document had the original community college site situated where the Trails housing development currently resides but the land exchange that eventually took place was for the piece of land that is between Vons and the Mammoth Community Water District. “That land between the two entities was always set up for community use,” Russell said. “The Foundation did an exchange with U.S. Forest Service for the 86 acres and 20 of those acres went to the school district.
It took the Foundation seven years to find a parcel to exchange with the USFS so the Foundation could have the land between Vons and the MCWD.
“We ended up exchanging 200-plus acres around Mono Lake and about 400 acres in Lee Vining Canyon for that land,” Russell said. “The property around Mono Lake was gifted to the MLF from Southen California Electric (SCE) and then the Foundation bought the additional 400 acres from SCE in Lee Vining Canyon.”
McCoy said that having a college in Mammoth Lakes is a true gift, especially during these tough economic times when a lot of parents can’t afford to send their kids to a four year college right from the get go.
“Kids have to have a different consideration because the dollar doesn’t go very far today,” McCoy said. “Parents can’t always send their kids off to a four-year college right off the bat, if it costs them $30,000 a year, even if they want to. The college in Mammoth gives families an opportunity to get the kids a good, inexpensive education while still being able to make plans to send them off to another college when the time is right.”
McCoy thinks the community can be even more involved than they are. “Eighty-five percent of the community voted for the bond that helped bring the college here, which made us feel great. Now we just need to get more community members enthusiastic about having a college in their town. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”
Deanna Campbell has had her share of challenges since she took on the job as Director of both the Mammoth Lakes and Bishop Cerro Coso campuses but she loves every minute of it.
“I’m most proud of working with the faculty to create a curriculum that meets the needs of what the students need for their AA Degree and what they need to transfer to a four-year college,” Campbell said.
“We’ve been able to offer at least one class in every area a student needs in order to transfer. It may not be the exact course they want, but it meets the requirement. To meet the students’ educational objectives has been quite the accomplishment.”
Campbell mirrors McCoy’s sentiments that the community still believes that they can’t get a good college education at the Mammoth Lakes campus when that is far from the truth.
“We have outstanding faculty who have worked all over the world and we have a great team of full-time faculty members,” Campbell said.
“We have all courses you need for the AA degree and classes are not being cancelled as much.”
“Every college and university cancels classes, but we are very judicious in deciding when to cancel classes,” Campbell said.
“It’s our policy now not to offer a class and then cancel it. We’ve worked very hard to schedule classes so we don’t have a lot of overlapping classes, and are focusing on classes that meet the needs of the students.”
“I won’t say we won’t ever have to cancel a class again but we know how much it impacts the students when they are planning their schedule.”
According to Campbell, the recession has played a major role in the choices students make for their education. “People are finding they don’t have the funds in this environment and Cerro Coso tuition is very inexpensive, especially if the student can get a scholarship from the Mammoth Lakes Foundation.”
“We are picking up a lot of students who can’t afford a four-year or who didn’t get in because the state of California has cut back funding for colleges. Cal States and UCs are having to limit their enrollment because of the state.”
Campbell said the community college is also where many people who have been laid off from work are going to restructure their employment opportunities.
“We get many students who are brushing up on new skills and older people who are retraining themselves for the evolving workplace.”
The Mammoth Lakes Foundation has funded a record number of scholarships, almost double what they were offering two years ago.
Tuition is $250 a semester and books can run up to $500 per semester. “If there are 50 students who get a scholarship every semester, that’s $37,000 a semester that the foundation is contributing,” Campbell said.
“We are seeing that most of our Mammoth Lakes students are transferring to a four-year university and we really appreciate the fact that the Mammoth Lakes Foundation helped make that happen,” Campbell continued.
For more information on Cerro Coso Community College go to www. cerrocoso.edu.
|
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 19 March 2009 )
|
