WCC to add engineering degree, drop two others
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on November 29, 2015 3:05 AM
The Wayne Community College board of trustees voted Tuesday night to seek state board approval to offer an Associate in Engineering degree and eliminate two programs due to lagging enrollment.
Dr. Gene Smith, vice president for academic and student services, said the Associate in Engineering degree will benefit college transfer students when they go on to four-year schools.
Officials assessed the need for the program and found there is sufficient student demand to support it, Smith said. Additional classes will be offered, which will differentiate the program from the associate of science degree.
Pending state approval, it can launch in the fall of 2016, he added.
"Having students start at the community college in an engineering program is a very smart thing to do," WCC President Dr. Kay Albertson said, adding that students pursuing the option will be better prepared when they reach the university level.
A decrease in enrollment prompted the move to terminate two programs -- school age education and healthcare management technology -- which Smith said currently have five and four students, respectively.
"If we terminate the program we will teach out the curriculum so that students can complete (it)," Smith said.
He attributed the decline in numbers for the education offering to the current labor market and elimination of teacher assistants in recent years.
The healthcare management technology program, which had the added component of an instructional service agreement with Pitt Community College, had students start out at WCC and travel to Greenville to complete the degree, Smith said.
"We don't have the equipment or the instructors to teach those next-level courses and the drive from Wayne County to Pitt County has not been quite as appealing in recent years," he said. "We will allow for them to complete the courses they need and then we will no longer accept students in the program, with the termination approval."
"This is a very old program that basically started prior to a number of the other allied health care-type programs that we have here," Mrs. Albertson said. "It worked very well for a number of years, never had a lot of students but it accomplished some of our students' needs.
"It is no longer a viable program for us, so it's a good move."
Board Chairman Chris Martin said it is sad to terminate a program.
Mrs. Albertson offered a different take.
"One of the lessons that I learned very early on as a community college employee was, for every new program you probably should be looking at terminating a program," she said. "That has held true across 30-plus years of my being in the system so this is right and just. That's one of the beauties of the community college system, is that we can add and terminate and those curriculum programs. If they don't work we can go to continuing education and have short training programs.
"So this actually works very very well."
The board also discussed the impending vacancy that will be left at month's end when Lee Johnson, principal at Wayne Early/Middle College High School, transfers to the principal role at Eastern Wayne High School.
The administrator at WEMCH since the school launched on the WCC campus in 2006 has been a "wonderful addition" to the WCC family, Mrs. Albertson said.
"We don't have an interim named but I expect (Wayne County Public Schools will) bring someone from in-house," she said. "We really are going to miss her and the strategies that she passed on to a very strong staff.
"That staff and our staff collaborate basically daily and these are good kids. And they're one of the Top 10 high schools in North Carolina."
Board member Keith Stewart said Eastern Wayne will be fortunate to have her at the helm.
"I just hope we can find someone close to her abilities," he said.
"They (WEMCH) have a really strong staff there," Mrs. Albertson said. "I don't think they'll miss a beat now until a replacement is found."