ONONDAGA — Besides its degree programs, Onondaga Community College (OCC) offers workforce-development programs in areas that include manufacturing and various health-care fields. “We have phlebotomy. We have medical assisting. We have medical billing, and all of those programs are compressed and run a full week and are linked to jobs that employers have told us […]
ONONDAGA — Besides its degree programs, Onondaga Community College (OCC) offers workforce-development programs in areas that include manufacturing and various health-care fields.
“We have phlebotomy. We have medical assisting. We have medical billing, and all of those programs are compressed and run a full week and are linked to jobs that employers have told us ahead of time they have available,” Casey Crabill, president of Onondaga Community College, said in answering a CNYBJ question about the school’s role in local job training.
The college is offering workforce programs only in fields in which it has “ascertained” that jobs are available and pay a “living wage, based on current regional, living-wage data.”
Crabill on Nov. 29 spoke to local reporters along with new SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson at OCC during the Johnson’s first visit to the local campus.
Crabill cites the school’s “With Love,” restaurant at 435 N. Salina St. in Syracuse as the “best example that people keep telling me they’ve enjoyed.”
With Love is a restaurant that also serves as a venue for entrepreneurship training and restaurant-operations training, so it has a different chef “every six months.”
“We draw adult students for a six-month period to come in to learn how to be a line cook, learn how to do restaurant operations,” said Crabill.
The training available at With Love, isn’t part of a degree program but targets people “who either need an initial career or some kind of retooling,” said Crabill.
Johnson’s vision for SUNY
Johnson became the new SUNY Chancellor on Sept. 5, replacing Nancy Zimpher. She had previously served as undersecretary of energy at the U.S. Department of Energy during the Obama administration.
When a reporter asked about her vision for SUNY, she described the system as “the largest, most comprehensive system in the country.” The question, in Johnson’s mind, is how can SUNY “really take advantage” of that size and scale “to be the best.”
“Our goal is to try and have each of our students that come to a SUNY institution be able to find their passion, their purpose, and live a productive and rewarding life,” said Johnson.
That’s a “pretty tall order,” Johnson noted, adding that it will require focusing on some of the academic pursuits happening at OCC.
She mentioned the “ability to have a more individualized approach to the education,” being able to offer options such as concurrent enrollment, “which I think is very exciting.”
Concurrent enrollment allows high-school students to take courses for college credit.
