SARANAC LAKE — State University of New York Chancellor John King visited North Country Community College on Wednesday to speak with college officials about funding as planning ramps up ahead of the next state budget season.
The current state budget, which passed this spring, included an $8 million increase in operating aid for community colleges — the first increase to this budget line in nine years, King said. The new funding includes $5 million to increase the health care workforce and $3 million to address student mental health needs. With 30 colleges in the SUNY system, NCCC’s portion of the increase amounted to an additional $200,000 in aid.
Putting $5 million into training nurses and other health care professionals this year is great, but the state needs to continue this funding, King said. Gov. Kathy Hochul has a goal of increasing the state’s health care workforce by 20%. During the upcoming budget season, King said he plans to tell the governor and state legislature that if they really want to grow the healthcare workforce by 20%, “we need to grow these programs.”
King said he wanted to see firsthand the impacts that this year’s investments are having. At NCCC, he said he was glad to see the college adding new nursing positions — what he described as turning the healthcare dollars into new nurses — and working to fill a full-time mental health counselor position that has been vacant for two decades.
He also spoke with college officials about the school’s needs in the coming years. He said he will bring those back to the table when the state budget discussions begin again.
It took a lot of advocacy from legislators like Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, to get that $8 million investment earlier this year, King said.
“We wanted more,” Jones said.
This was King’s second visit to NCCC. His first was in March 2023, a couple of months after taking on the position.
Nursing
NCCC’s Nursing Program Director Tana Hare said the spring-start registered nurse licensing program — which started in February and takes place on evenings and weekends to accommodate working licensed practical nurses — has been a “game-changer.”
The program’s spring start had 29 LPNs seeking RN licenses and all 29 continued at the start of the fall semester last week.
The increased state aid this year is being used to create a new full-time position for the RN program, increasing the capacity by up to 32 additional students.
Hare said they can also have more students in the program now that a state law reducing clinical limitations is in effect. A bill passed by the state legislature in spring 2023 allows the hours these students spend in the college’s new simulation lab to count as clinical hours. These simulation labs are set up to replicate clinical situations on hyper-realistic mannequins. The law allows for 30% of clinical hours to be in simulation labs.
Hare said they call the simulations labs the “trial and error emergency department.”
“That’s why it’s important,” Jones said.
Hare said it’s a place to make mistakes in a supportive environment where no one is getting hurt and see themselves in the role of nurses. They can also can simulate rare, less routine challenges that can crop up in the hospital.
Still, Hare said they need more instructors. Professors need a minimum of a master’s degree for RN instruction. She said recruiting and retaining faculty is a challenge, since teaching pays less than working in the nursing field with a master’s degree.
She asked for SUNY to provide its nursing employees a path to pursue a higher degree at a discount while teaching at the college to make it more affordable and to give them an educational incentive to work there.
SUNY Senior Vice Chancellor for Health and Hospitals Valerie Grey said SUNY is preparing to launch a pilot scholarship for master’s degrees in nursing which will cover tuition, fees and some living expenses in exchange for the student being committed to teaching at SUNY schools for a few years.
SUNY is also planning a Clinician-Educator Exchange Pilot Program, which will pay the differential between the faculty part-time rate and the clinician part-time rate to maintain competitive salaries.
This pilot program will be a small test of how this works. Grey said SUNY schools will need to raise their hands to ask to be part of the trial run. This time hasn’t come yet, but she said that based on what she heard Wednesday, she expects NCCC will be one of those.
Mental health
Part of the $200,000 that NCCC received from the state will be used to hire a full-time clinical social worker to support student mental health. Keegan said the college has not had this position for around two decades, though it has had part-time and partner counselors available.
Student Trustee Shia Bright said when students have troubling things happen at home, it is helpful to have access to a counselor through the college. With NCCC’s three campuses, she said it’s been hard for students to schedule talks when they need them.
Student Life Assistant Director Angela Brice said crises doesn’t follow a schedule and it will be helpful to have someone ready to respond whenever someone needs it. Crises could be anything from extreme homesickness to a Title IX sexual violence claim, she said. This counselor will cover all three campuses — one in-person and the other two virtually.
Enrollment
King’s visit came as NCCC started its second fall semester with an 8% year-over-year student enrollment increase, with 764 degree-seeking students now enrolled compared to 710 last fall.
A large part of this increase has been attributed to NCCC diversifying its educational offerings with a focus on trades, credentials and non-traditional, adult students.
The college’s enrollment incline follows a national trend of colleges — particularly community colleges with a high vocational program focus — growing after several years of decline. A May report by the National Student Clearinghouse shows that undergraduate enrollment increased 1.2% last year, with community colleges seeing a 2.6% increase. The report shows that enrollment at community colleges focused on vocations grew much faster than academic-focused ones — 16% compared to 0.2%.
These increases come despite NCCC ending its coronavirus pandemic-era tuition freeze this semester, raising its rates slightly for the first time in four years. The increases also come despite lower birth rates and out-migration. King said that there is a trend of fewer 18-year-olds statewide. The estimated population of 18- to 24-year-olds in New York decreased from 1.874 million in 2017 to 1.803 million in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
NCCC Marketing and Enrollment Vice President Kyle Johnston said all 29 of the students in the spring-start weekend and evening RN program are non-traditional students, returning to college after being away for a while.
“Really, all our increases in enrollment that we’ve seen have been adult learners,” Johnston said. “Because there aren’t more students coming out of the high schools.”
He said the college had been hearing from its advisory boards about a need to remove the barriers to returning to college, and it’s rewarding to see the action on this pay off. He said that since applications for the spring-start LPN program opened earlier this week, the college already has 30 applicants.
Johnston said they realized that school takes “third or fourth fiddle” to family or work for many people, so they needed to meet them where they are.
Board of trustees
NCCC board Chair Pete Suttmeier pointed out to King that the governor needs to make appointments to the 10-member NCCC board he chairs. The board currently has two vacant seats — both governor appointees — and two trustees serving on expired terms — also both governor appointees. Suttmeier said they are always struggling to get a quorum. Five trustees have been appointed by Franklin and Essex counties and one has been appointed by NCCC students.
The college is doing well financially now, Suttmeier said, but it is operating at a deficit. It is covering that deficit with its “relatively flush” reserves right now, but that won’t be able to last forever. Suttmeier asked for the state to increase its funding for community colleges.
Energy
King was recently appointed by Hochul to the state Energy Planning Board.
On Wednesday, King said that 40% of the state’s public buildings are owned by SUNY.
“If we’re going to accomplish our goals to move toward net zero, SUNY’s got to lead that way on that,” he said, adding that the college system will also be responsible for training people to work in the geothermal, solar and offshore wind fields and research renewable energies.