FMCC moving toward future

By RODNEY MINOR, The Leader-Herald
JOHNSTOWN — Fulton-Montgomery Community College has worked to offer students more services at different times over the last 20 years, but never quite like it is right now.

John Jablonski, the provost and vice president of academic affairs, has worked at the college during that time and watched it happen. Many other colleges have expanded their services for students, he said, and FMCC needs to compete with them.

“This is one of those periods [of service expansion],” Jablonski said. “But it is on a larger scale than what we have seen at other times.”

The college is following its own strategic plan to coordinate what it is doing.

In 2006, FMCC developed the five-year plan. It includes a number of goals for the college, such as building more relationships with the community and supporting economic and workforce development in the region.

Different ways to reach those goals are listed in the plan, and work has started on a number of them.

FMCC President Dustin Swanger arrived at the college in 2006, and began working on the plan.

It has touched on a number of different areas, with one of the biggest developments being Campus View.

The student apartments at what used to be named Campus Green were reopened this school year as Campus View.

“[The college] is just keeping up with a trend,” Swanger said.

Across the state, more than half of the community colleges have dormitories or plans for them, he said. Students are interested in attending the two-year community colleges, Swanger said, but many want the experience associated with living at a four-year college.

When the student housing was known as Campus Green, a number of problems and security issues were reported. Swanger said the housing was not run by FMCC then, but many parents did not know that.

“[The college] had no way to effect the environment,” he said.

While an outside company owns Campus View, FMCC now runs the apartments and has taken steps to increase the security and develop a sense of community among the students there, Swanger said.

The college’s recent decision to remove the stoves in the apartments next year has led the college to another change — an expanded meal program.

Next year, FMCC will require all students at Campus View to purchase meal plans.

Swanger said meal plans have been included at other community colleges that have dormitories.

FMCC, which had traditionally served breakfast and lunch during the school week, will expand its meal program to include dinners and meals on the weekends.

Another part of the strategic plan included reaching out to more Montgomery County residents and finding a better way to reach the Latino community, specifically in the city of Amsterdam.

Both objectives were achieved to some extent when FMCC began offering classes at the Riverfront Center in Amsterdam in January.

A two-year lease agreement on a 2,400-square-foot space in the former Amsterdam Mall on Route 30 was agreed to by the college before the start of the spring semester. The space provided enough room for two classrooms and a computer lab.

Swanger said if only five classes had been able to run this year, he would have been happy. The college was actually able to run a dozen, with an average class size of about 13 students.

“I think it will only grow and bring in more students,” he said.

Jammie Plummer, the vice president of the student government, said the strategic plan has helped FMCC reach out to the community, and will lead to more students attending the school.

The Riverfront Center, she said, is one example of how the school is educating a more diverse population.

“The community is learning about the college and finding there are a lot of good things here,” Plummer said.

Swanger’s time in office has largely coincided with the development and implementation of the strategic plan.

Nivek Moshier, a senior at FMCC, said the college president listens for suggestions about what could diversify and improve the quality of campus life.

More than a year ago, Moshier started working to create a club that would become Gays, Lesbians, Or Whomever. There was no club at the college for students to discuss homophobia or sexism, he said.

Moshier said Swanger was supportive, and has stayed up to date on the club’s status.

“[Swanger] does not let his position create a barrier between himself and the students, and he is very involved [with student activities],” he said.

For his part, Swanger said the 2,200 full-time students at the college have a lot more to look forward to. From more programs at Campus View next school year, to non-traditional means of earning a degree, FMCC will keep implementing parts of its strategic plan.

The strategic plan, according to Jablonski, gives all of the faculty and students a sense of shared ownership in the college’s future.

“We are all involved in this,” he said.



Rodney Minor covers Gloversville. He can be reached at gloversville@leaderherald.com.