RCC president seeks help from Hudson

HAMLET — Richmond Community College President Dale McInnis informed U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson of “federal issues” with the way the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act has worked — and not worked — for RCC during s legislative breakfast meeting Monday at the Cole Auditorium.

“There is money that has been set aside for Richmond and Scotland counties,” McInnis said. “And we need to make sure they are getting what they need.”

McInnis went on to add that 81 percent of RCC students rely on federal Pell Grant funds to stay enrolled, but those funds do not cover students who attend class during summer sessions. Many of the programs the community college offers are one-year programs, such as heating and air and licensed practical nursing.

“These programs allow people to start new careers in a year,” he said. “But right now it’s a challenge for them to finish it up because Pell does not cover summer classes. We need year-round Pell. Application for the funds, this is a universal issue. Everybody agrees that we need to streamline the process for applying for those funds and we know work is being done on it, but we need your help to make sure the Department of Education is making that happen.”

McInnis also expressed concerns about the U.S. Department of Education’s role in accreditation of schools, citing excessive regulations and new standards he called redundant because they “cross over many regulations and standards already in place.”

“And we’re supposed to be getting a new report card soon,” he said. “We don’t even know the criteria are. We have no idea of what we’re going to be evaluated on or how it’s going to be measured, so we see that coming. We need some clarity on it. So any help from you would be greatly appreciated.”

McInnis said the school has applied for several federal grants and is seeking to form a relationship with the National Science Foundation based on the fact that RCC has the nation’s only substation relay program in existence, as far as he knows. He told Hudson he would appreciate any help the congressman could provide toward becoming designated as an “NSF center,” as well as receiving U.S. Department of Energy grants.

“We can’t seem to crack the Department of Energy nut,” he said. “Because they’re supporting the smart grid, and this is all about the smart grid. These folks are all about keeping the smart grid working. They’re at the top of the food chain when it comes to utility technicians.”

Lastly, McInnis spoke about the recent changeover from the program formerly known as the Workforce Development Act to the revised Workforce Development Opportunity Act.

“Finally, we need to make sure that’s working,” he said. “And really working for the 8th district and Richmond and Scotland counties. Navigating through that process is difficult and we don’t understand the procedures yet. Some of that is a state issue because it’s running through the Department of Commerce at the state level, but some is federal, too. The people who are working on these boards are not getting the information they need.”

McInnis then turned the floor over to Hudson.

“Thank you, and I appreciate it,” Hudson said. “First I want to congratulate you and the school for all you’re doing that makes a difference here for Scotland and Richmond. As far as the Workforce Development Opportunity Act, they took about 23 different siloed programs with different ways of doing things and different red tape and combined them into one. Then they added about three more. The idea was to streamline it and make sure the college programs were matching up to the jobs, and if that’s not happening we need to talk about it.”

Hudson said he’d like to talk more about the experience at RCC and work more closely with the state to ensure that the feds give the state the information it needs to implement the program.

“’Cause the idea was not to make this more complicated,” Husdon said. “The idea was to make it more simple. Right now, Congress is looking at ways to improve the grid and its function and try to do a bipartisan bill. I believe a lot of it will be grid-related stuff, so you pushed the button on me with that. I need to look into it and we’ll continue discussion about that.”

Rep. Garland Pierce, D-Scotland, Rep. Ken Goodman, D-Richmond and Sen. Tom McInnis, R-Richmond, also attended the meeting of about 30 people.