by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The theme at Monday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville was education, and Florida Community College at Jacksonville President Steven Wallace shared some of the institution’s plans for the future of higher education. Planning for that future has been made more exciting due to reductions in government funding.
“FCCJ is thriving, and we realize expanding our mission will not be without challenges,” said Wallace. “We receive 75 percent of our funding from the State of Florida, and Florida is going broke, so that is not a dependable source.”
Other institutions facing funding reductions have used measures such as capping admissions, but that’s not in the long-range plan for FCCJ.
“We will not close the doors to people who want to better their lives through education,” declared Wallace.
He pointed out FCCJ will soon surpass the 80,000-student mark. The education programs offered are widely varied and extend beyond the local community to all parts of the globe. Wallace also cited some impressive performance statistics and gave an overview of several profitable ventures operated by FCCJ.
“Of the 1,600 community colleges in America, FCCJ is the fifth largest in terms of granting associate degrees, fourth largest for nursing degrees and we are first in the nation for career and technical education,” he said.
“We also have the largest program for veterans in the country. We love our military and we can’t do enough for them,” added Wallace, who also said FCCJ has also become the largest educator of U.S. Navy personnel in the country with 26,000 officers and enlisted personnel enrolled at satellite campuses in Great Lakes, Ill. and Pensacola.
FCCJ currently offers a bachelors degree in fire science management and plans to add three more baccalaureate programs in nursing, computer network maintenance and operation and network supervision and management.
Wallace said FCCJ is also developing other profit centers not tied to admissions, including a line of educational materials for the classroom that is marketed nationwide by McGraw-Hill and the Military Education Institute. Classes for personnel in the field are being developed for distribution on PDAs and other digital technology.
FCCJ is also poised to train workers needed for the new port facilities as well as air traffic controllers.
Longer-range projects include an academic health center on the Northside that will provide care to patients, as well as the new Landwirth Scheidel Center, an international program focused on genocide, said Wallace.
“Northeast Florida has four local colleges and universities. As we move deeper into the knowledge economy, we can provide the education that will be required to succeed,” he said.
The club also heard about the experiences of Brooke Gagnon, a Flagler College graduate who recently traveled to Australia as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar sponsored by the Jacksonville District. She said she finished a master’s degree in social change and development in nine months at the University of Newcastle. She then spent several months working for nonprofit social service organizations and sharing her story with 16 Rotary Clubs in Australia.
“It was a fascinating experience,” said Gagnon. “Almost all of my classmates were from the developing world. My future plans are not yet firm, but this degree has given me an understanding of poverty in the world.”
Photos by Max Marbut