A consortium formed of representatives from the SUNY community colleges in Orange, Ulster, Sullivan and Rockland counties is currently meeting each month to hammer out the details of four new collaborative degree or certificate programs utilizing teleconferencing.
For example, a student in Sullivan County who previously had to travel 90 minutes to the Ulster campus to take a paramedic course would be able to take the class from the Sullivan campus, using a classroom fitted with four high-definition screens. Students who have jobs and are particularly time pressed would especially benefit from the technology. The initiative will enable the schools to combine assets and enhance their curriculum, while eliminating redundancies and trimming costs. The plan is the first of its kind in the state education system.
The programs are designed to provide work force training in specialties that meet the growing demand for better emergency preparedness: paramedic services, fire protection science, emergency management and cyber security.
“For every one of the first-responder groups, there”™s a need to have a higher level of education and training for more advancement,” said Marianne Collins, dean of advancement and continuing education at SUNY Ulster, who helped coordinate the consortium. “They need to have not just technical training, but also training to communicate well and make decisions. Some very straightforward liberal arts skills are required. The community colleges have delivered that type of education and training for decades, so it was thought they could play a role in this.”
Collins said the post-9/11 concern for improved preparedness was first articulated by U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, in a report he gave on the subject in 2002. Hinchey spoke of the need for more trained emergency workers and coordination in the region, given its proximity to New York City and the shared network of highways, rail lines and other infrastructure. With 29,000 police officers and 12,000 firefighters in New York City, the job opportunities are definitely there for students who get certified. But Collins said Ulster”™s Police Academy graduates, which number from 20 to 30 a year, are mostly placed in Hudson Valley localities, so the programs also help meet a local need.
Additionally, more two-career households and the large number of people commuting to jobs outside the area have resulted in a dearth of volunteer firefighters and emergency workers, creating a vacuum which the programs would help fill.
A $4 million grant, awarded by the state Legislature, enabled the consortium to get off the ground. Collins said state Sen. John Bonacic had been an early backer of the initiative and the prime mover and shaker in procuring the grant. When approached by consortium members, “Bonacic said ”˜great idea,”™” said Collins. “He took the leadership on the legislative side.” State Sens. William Larkin and Thomas Morahan also participated in the effort.
The grant money is being used to fund the upgrade and installation of the technology for videoconferencing rooms at Orange, Ulster and Rockland counties. Sullivan already has a videoconference room up and running. The system for the four schools should be functioning by November.
To test the technology and serve as an example, the consortium held its September monthly meeting at one of the new videoconferencing rooms at Orange, communicating with colleagues at the Sullivan campus remotely by means of microphones and cameras, with a view of each classroom projected on the other”™s screens. Vin Cozzolino, consortium director and administrator, explained that when a class is in session, split screens will be used to broadcast views of all three remote classrooms in the room occupied by the instructor, who will be able to zoom in on individual students. In the remote rooms, the instructor will be beamed in on one of the front screens, with the second one available for projection of power point presentations.
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Except for the cyber-security program, which is being built from scratch for the consortium by Orange Community College, the programs are already partially up and running at one or more of the campuses. Rockland has been offering a fire protection science program for a number of years. Ulster has had an emergency management (EMG) program for three years, which is available to students at the other schools online.
However, Ted Skaar, area chair of nursing and public safety for SUNY Ulster, said the teleconferencing capability would greatly enhance the program to those remote students. Teachers will be able directly to communicate with students and future emergency staffers will already know each other by sight, helping rescue efforts. Remote students can view demonstrations of techniques and equipment.
Both Rockland and Orange community colleges already offer paramedic services. Because the two programs are identical in scheduling, Peter Andryuk, educational coordinator at SUNY Rockland, said pooling resources would be relatively simple. “My biggest expense is hiring physicians, who charge $50 an hour,” he said. Once the teleconferencing rooms are up and running, “if a physician comes in to do a head trauma demonstration, my counterpart at Orange won”™t have to hire one,” since the students could view the Rockland demonstration on the large screen.
Andryuk said the technology would also make the programs “more student friendly. Students will have a choice on the skill demonstration nights where they can go” to participate.
Cozzolino said the consortium is also talking with Brooklyn Polytechnic and other four-year colleges about coordinating so that the community college degree candidates in the programs could transfer and earn a bachelor”™s degree in their specialty. SUNY New Paltz, which has teleconferencing capabilities, is another possible partner. The consortium is also looking to expand the use of the facilities for noncredited courses. A course in new solar technologies, offered by Ulster, and one in LEEDS (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, offered by the U.S. Green Building Council, which would be available from Sullivan, are being considered for the spring.
Businesses also could utilize the spaces, enabling employees to participate in a conference or training session remotely. The Construction Contractors Association is currently talking to the consortium about utilizing the rooms. Because the remote rooms are accessible from anywhere in the world, the technology could also be used in international studies programs, beaming a professor based in France, for example, into the community college classrooms.
The consortium had hoped to have the emergency management program available by now, but it still awaiting approval from the State Education Department (approval from SUNY, which is also required, has already been obtained). Because this is a new program, the state is taking its time. “It”™s a well-known bureaucracy,” said Cozzolino. Paramedic services and fire protection will be approved next, with cyber security taking a bit longer.
Meanwhile, the reps from the participating colleges are meeting to work out the logistics in creating a joint schedule of courses, no easy feat considering each school has a different academic calendar and such variables as snow days must be figured in. Collins said the consortium is already planning for the future and has approached Hinchey for support with some of the administrative and oversight costs. “While all the presidents and administrators are excited about this, once it gets up and running, there will be issues around student advising,” she said. “A lot of collaboration will be needed for the first several years.” She noted that a top-heavy IT staff would be required in the initial stages to ensure the technology works smoothly and remote students are able fully to engage.
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