“The best thing that’s happened in all of this is it’s forced people to sit down in face-to-face conversations and be frank, honest about what our concerns are with each other and how do we better our relationship to accomplish what we’re here for.”

Whether or not you think Tyrell should be NCCC’s president, he’s right about this. When the faculty union voted no confidence in him in 2015 and 2016, when the Essex County Board of Supervisors did so this April and when the Franklin County Board of Legislators almost did so in June, those entities put themselves in a position to be part of the solution.

Combined with that, Tyrell brought what we see as a great strength — the ability to back up, admit something he’d tried hadn’t gone well, stay engaged and listen to what people wanted him to do. That is exemplified in his decision to step down as president but remain on for the whole academic year, leaving plenty of time for a smooth transition.

Also, despite bombs such as the Welcome Center project, some things the Tyrell administration tried worked out well, such as student-transfer deals with Paul Smith’s College and SUNY Potsdam.

Steve Tyrell (Enterprise photo — Glynis Hart)

When Tyrell came in, NCCC faced a mountain of, shall we say, deferred maintenance — serious issues that, despite some earnest attempts, had not yet been dealt with and weren’t fully understood by the community at large. They came to a head under his administration, partly because they were ripe to do so anyway and partly because Tyrell did try to deal with them, although many challenged his methods.

The big enduring issues NCCC faces, as we see them, are these:

–

Programs

–

The college needs more programs, especially those that will help non-university-bound people get good careers in fields that are needed around Franklin and Essex counties. NCCC does a good job with programs it does have, which reflect real career fields here: nursing, radiologic technology, wilderness recreation and now emergency medical technology. It just needs more of them.

We have editorialized for years that the college should start construction trade training, building on strong local BOCES programs for high schoolers. County board members say the same, and now they are pretty much demanding the college start a trade school. To its credit, NCCC is doing so, but it’s a heavy lift. It’s probably a lot less expensive to start an EMT program in existing campus buildings than to establish a new facility for building trades. Nevertheless, if the college reaches out for help, we suspect it will find many people willing to donate tools, time and other resources to this worthy effort.

–

Campus

–

NCCC’s main campus is physically inadequate. We don’t know about the Malone and Ticonderoga campuses, but in Saranac Lake folks were all excited recently when the college finally replaced broken screens on the windows. State Sen. Betty Little recently secured a grant to finally upgrade science labs that were original to the college in the 1960s. Saranac Lake has been a health and medical hub since the 1880s; how can we still be teaching our next generation with half-century-old science lab equipment?

These things are just maintenance. A main campus overhaul has been discussed for years, but county legislators have shot down every proposal and funding request that has come before them — which brings us to the college’s next big issue.

–

Counties

–

Franklin and Essex County board members apparently see themselves as poor and struggling, and like many a poor family, they can’t see how to afford giving their children opportunities for a better future. So they feed NCCC bread and water instead of nourishing it with the funding it needs to thrive and help local people do the same. And that, of course, draws complaints that local kids move away and never come back, and the college gets blamed for not offering enough programs.

County board members have to start supporting the college as the path to the future, the way to keep kids here.

–

State

–

In New York, community college operating funds are supposed to be evenly divided: one-third student tuition, one-third counties and one-third state. Counties more or less keep up with their third — capital improvements are another matter — but the state has consistently given community colleges less then its one-third share. That leaves students, who are often under-represented in the process, paying more than their third. This clearly is unfair and needs to change.

Furthermore, the counties’ physical strain is real and is largely due to unfunded mandates from the state. No other state, for instance, requires counties to cover a major share of Medicaid like New York does — and since New York is more generous with Medicaid than other states, that means a huge burden for county property and sales taxpayers. Our current governor and state legislature have rejected counties’ requests to lift other unfunded mandates as well, such as the cost of public defense lawyers.

Granted, ending unfunded mandates would shift the cost from counties to the state, but state income tax is fundamentally more fair than county property tax, which is not necessarily based on ability to pay. If the state paid for Medicaid and other unfunded mandates with its own budget, then county leaders might be more amenable to paying for improvements at their community colleges, for their residents’ sake.

—

Compared to how things were before Tyrell arrived, we now see a college community with a better sense of itself and more will to improve, realistically. We also think we see a Tri-Lakes community with of a better understanding of what the college does and what it needs. We hope residents and officials throughout the rest of Franklin and Essex counties feel the same way and do their part.

It won’t be easy, especially if outside funding dries up for the college’s prison and high school classes. But it’s worth some effort. NCCC is a great asset to bolster the region’s economy and local people’s opportunities.