Chris Gray, Ph.D.
Founding President, Erie County Community College
Another new year is upon us, and it's hard to believe that we are a quarter century into the 2000s. When I was a kid, I was sure that we'd have flying cars and be living on another planet by now. Yet, here we are. Obviously, technology has changed our world drastically over the last twenty-five years; however, much has stayed the same. This seems to be particularly true in higher education.
I've spoken in the past about the mission and purpose of the comprehensive community college: to provide students with the opportunity to earn an associate degree, to prepare students to transfer to a four-year institution, and/or to prepare students to enter the workforce. Our doors are open to everyone. That's been true since the advent of the community college in the 1960s. How we teach and what we teach are changing as the world and market demands, but we still focus on those three broad areas.
EC3 is different from many community colleges because we are growing based on community needs. We aren't offering classes based on what WE think students should take. Nope. We are offering classes based on what our students and the Erie County community are seeking. That approach is just not how higher education has worked traditionally. We aren't building new buildings in a centralized campus and mandating that students find their way to us; instead, we are renting spaces across the county so that students have an EC3 facility near their homes. This also is different from how academia traditionally operates, but it's working well.
Even our academic calendar is different from the norm. We don't offer sixteen-week long semesters starting in August and January. Instead, we offer eight-week mini-semesters to allow students more options to enroll in courses that fit their personal scheduling needs. They can still complete a two-year degree in two years, of course. Completing fewer courses more frequently — two courses in eight weeks, for example, rather than four courses in sixteen weeks — allows students to focus in-depth on what they are studying. We know that chunking knowledge helps retention, so focusing more deeply on fewer things helps to maintain student focus. The math, as the kids say today, still maths, but it just looks different in execution.
For most of our sister colleges, the spring semester is about to start back up. We don't begin until February. For many people, this is the toughest part of the winter and the time when lake-effect snow makes transportation the most difficult, so it makes sense to delay just a couple of weeks to enable more students time to enroll. Thus, for us, January is a time of preparation: we get ready to welcome new students to our ranks and to welcome returning students back after a period of rest and recovery here in the new year.
For us, this month is focused on recruitment. We are offering an EC3 Open House on Wednesday, January 22 from 4:00pm to 7:00pm, and then we are hosting an Instant Enrollment Day on Saturday, January 25 from 11:00am to 1:00pm. Both are to be held at Erie West, and these are among my favorite events to attend. Seeing the moment that students make the decision to change their lives is humbling and unbelievably inspiring. I'm excited to see the start of this journey which, like the new year itself, is rife with possibilities.
Cheers to 2025 and to a new cadre of students — one of whom just may invent that flying car for us after all.
Our community: your college.
