Young Citizens for ECC, a regional advocacy group for Erie Community College, announced the organization’s establishment this week. Composed of about 50 young professionals and growing, Young Citizens for ECC intends to introduce “adult supervision” to the debate about the future of Erie Community College.
The organization announced its mission: To grow ECC’s neglected City Campus into the regional hub for ECC’s three-campus system.
“We believe the future of Erie Community College is in downtown Buffalo,” said Bernice Radle, the chair of Young Citizens for ECC. “ECC must become more competitive by transforming the City Campus into the hub, not the forgotten stepchild, of the three-campus system.”
The mission statement of Erie Community College states the college “strives toward a future where education is accessible and convenient to all.”
Young Students for ECC plans to actively fight for this stated mission first by urging County Executive Chris Collins to change course on his plan to build a $30 million, four-story Health Sciences Center for Excellence at Amherst’s North Campus rather than the City Campus, the most convenient and accessible location in Western New York. The proposed building suffered a set-back when state funding for the project was not included in the recently adopted budget.
The group believes the Collins proposal would forfeit an opportunity to link students at the community college with the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, one of New York State’s preeminent economic development and health sciences research hubs.
“Why would we deny health sciences students all the benefits of New York State’s leading health sciences research hub at downtown Buffalo?” asked Radle. “ECC should invest in downtown Buffalo, where all the new jobs are being created, not at a suburban bunker in the middle of nowhere.”
Erie Community College revived a City Campus in 1981 with the opening the refurbished Old Post Office, one of the grandest structures of any community college in North America, yet ever since 2008 the opportunity to expand and refocus ECC at this highly accessible location has been overlooked. Despite the obvious advantages of expanding the downtown campus, it is still the smallest of the college’s three-campus system. Young Citizens for ECC hopes to change this paradigm.
“We are young professionals dedicated to the success of Erie Community College, and we will no longer keep our voices silent,” declared Radle.
Get Connected:
Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/595/026/589/
FB Group : Young Citizens for ECC facebook group
Blog: http://youngcitizensforecc.blogspot.com/