By the numbers, cheap college makes sense in Akron, where Stark State is making room for 5,000 students when its $14 million campus opens on Perkins Street in the fall of 2018.
Federal grants for some low-income residents — of which there are plenty in Akron — cover nearly half the annual cost of the commuter college’s two-year degree and job certificates. Stark State “aggressively” steers students away from debt. Less than half of students at most community colleges, including 43 percent at Stark State, take out federal loans.
The Jackson Township-based community college has enrolled 500 students at a temporary site on White Pond Avenue. The plan is to double enrollment by the fall, a full year before the permanent home in Akron opens near State Route 8. The expansion follows in-house surveys at the Barberton campus, where 70 percent of students were found to be living in Akron.
The seven full-time staff at White Pond also have endorsed the move. All live in or plan to relocate to Akron.
Compelling as they might be, these are just numbers. It’s the faces of people that Stark State President Para Jones used when making the case for community college before a friendly Akron Press Club crowd Wednesday.
While speaking at the luncheon, the Canton resident pointed to an Akron city employee who has taken online classes at Stark State to advance her career. Jones then plugged the 20 college credits a Buchtel High School senior sitting at another table will take with her to Tennessee State in the fall, thanks to a growing partnership between Akron Public Schools and the community college.
“24 credits,” Mikailah Ramsey, 18, said, correcting the record. On spring break, Ramsey left the luncheon early to return to her job at a local insurance company. Like most Stark State students, she has a job.
As all but a few attendees also headed back to work, Jones walked over to David Givan. The 46-year-old North Hill man grew up in Indiana, the oldest son in a broken home. There, he dismissed college after high school and, instead, took a job to help with the bills.
As an adult, he’s driven garbage trucks and now is a machinist working the third shift at a local plastics manufacturer. “Working and going to school is just challenging,” Givan said of “losing the momentum” to learn. “But at my advanced age, I don’t have time. I have to get this done.”
Givan has been taking nursing classes at the Akron campus since it opened in the fall. Before that, he attended online or in-person in Barberton or — if he had to — drove a half-hour to the main campus in Jackson Township.
He wonders if he’ll be healthy enough to stand when he finally retires in another 30 or so years. “I’m not saying nursing is easier. And someone still needs to drive the trucks and make the plastic,” Givan said. “But this is the first time in my life that I thought maybe college is for me.”
Built to suit
Jones gave no jarring details in her Wednesday address.
Construction at the Perkins Street campus is on schedule. Signage visible from the highway waits to be hoisted into the air above State Route 8.
Attending the luncheon were the college’s trustees, Mayor Dan Horrigan, Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro, researchers from the Summit County Educational Initiative, Akron Schools Superintendent David James and others who have encouraged and guided the move to Akron.
James underscored an announcement in Jones’ speech to launch the “Learn to Earn” program. Jones said its the first plan in Ohio to marry job training and the state’s new graduation requirements so that career-oriented students can earn college credits while working toward gainful employment.
City and county leaders expect these jobs — and the 33 full-time staff and 60 adjunct professors at the finished Akron campus — to drive income tax revenue as educators in high school and college team up with industry to train or re-train workers in mid-skilled sectors such as manufacturing and health care, each with starting salaries between $36,000 and $45,000.
Nowhere in the county are these and other jobs more lacking than in Akron. Census Data show the unemployment gap between Akron and the rest of Summit County is widest for workers between the ages of 35 and 44. But that gap is half as wide for workers in their early 20s.
And with an average age of 27 for the 500 students at the White Pond site, Jones figures her programming provides timely intervention that could break the unemployment cycle in the city.
Stark State’s success hinges on its strategic location and partnerships with Akron businesses, its major hospitals, the University of Akron and Kent State University. Should the commuter college attract students and staff who wish to make Akron home and “we need housing,” Jones said, “we will partner with the University of Akron.”
In the meantime, public transit officials in Stark County are offering free, direct bus trips from Akron to Jackson Township for students still making the trip.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug .