Rep. Richard Hudson praises Richmond Community College during campus tour

HAMLET — U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson got a firsthand look at how local industries directly benefit from the programs offered at Richmond Community College during a tour of the campus Wednesday morning.

Led by college President Dr. Dale McInnis, Hudson, R-Concord, first visited the Richmond Early College program, which was ranked as the 73rd-best high school in the state by Niche in early 2015 and ranked 247th by Newsweek in September of 2014.

Hudson spoke with Principal Tonya Waddell and students Bailey Tuttle and Jessica Walters. Tuttle said he wasn’t sure what college he wanted to go to, but planned to major in political science and public administration.

“There’s more money in public administration,” Hudson joked.

Walters said she planned on going to UNC-Charlotte, which Hudson said he was glad to hear, since that’s where he earned his bachelor’s degree in history and political science and served as student body president.

McInnis also told Hudson about the RichmondCC Guarantee which will provide “free college tuition and fees to RCC for two years for all Richmond and Scotland County residents who graduate from high school with two or more RCC dual enrollment courses with a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher and who complete financial aid applications.”

That’s something Hudson calls “a great idea.”

“This is a perfect example of a local community college working with the school system to find innovative ways to motivate our young people and to prepare our young people to participate in the workforce…to get the jobs that are out there.”

The tour continued to the Forte Annex Building, which houses RCC’s electric utility substation and relay technology program, which McInnis said was the only one of its kind in the world.

Stopping in one of the classes, one student said he came from Virginia for the program and several raised their hands when asked if they had quit their jobs to change careers.

“If our students can learn to test the transformer we have, they can test any big transformer in the world,” said Steve Lampley, creator of the program. He added that power companies from across the country have been seeking recruits from the program.

McInnis then led the congressman next door to the Forte Building, which houses the college’s engineering programs — highlighting the mechanical engineering, industrial systems technology, mechatronics engineering and electrical systems engineering programs — which college officials say can provide training and skills for many of the local manufacturers.

Joining them were Steve Ulrich, general manager of Plastek, Evans Sheppard, plant manager of Perdue Foods and Martie Butler, economic developer for Richmond County.

Both Plastek and Perdue announced expansions earlier this year with a combined total of 53 new jobs added to the county’s workforce.

“We have a highly technical plant, but I can’t get my hands on maintenance folks or those to run the molds,” Ulrich said. “You can’t just hire off the streets.”

Butler and Sheppard said there was a working partnership between the county, local industry and the college.

RCC also offers pre-employment training for students — including financial literacy, time management and information on corporate culture, which college officials say makes the application process a lot smoother.

Hudson said he was most impressed with the attitude of McInnis and the rest of the college staff and their commitment to meeting the needs of the community, be it the students or employers. Praising the state community college system as a whole, Hudson added that there were “none better” than RCC.

“The employers we met with today…told me they would not be able to expand and hire more people if the college wasn’t able to move so quickly to help them meet their training needs,” he said. “If you look at what Dr. McInnis has been able to do with the resources he has, it’s extraordinary.”

In traveling throughout his district — which also includes all of Scotland, Montgomery, Stanly and Anson counties,as well as parts of Robeson, Randolph, Rowan, Union, Mecklenburg, Davidson and Cabarrus counties — he’s spoken with employers who say there are a lot of jobs available, but they have trouble finding people with the right skills, as Ulrich had mentioned.

“A lot of people out there are still looking for work,” Hudson added. “It’s important that we match people up with the right skills so that they can take the jobs that are available, and RCC does a great job with that.”

After the tour, the congressman recalled his first trip to RCC, when McInnis pointed out a computer that couldn’t be used because it was specified for a certain program, which he called “one example of the red tape coming from Washington.”

“There’s an attitude in Washington among the bureaucracy that they need to dictate the curriculum, how the money is spent, because they don’t trust the local folks to make good decisions,” Hudson said. “I have the opposite point of view. I trust Dr. McInnis and his staff more than some bureaucrat who’s never been to Richmond County to make decisions at our college, about how we address the needs of our community.”