When Marc Jerome arrived at Monroe College”™s New Rochelle campus in the fall of 1994, the situation was grim.
“New Rochelle”™s economy was very, very bad at the time,” Jerome, executive vice president of Monroe College, said. “Macy”™s was declaring bankruptcy, Bloomingdale”™s was long gone, and Main Street was very desolate. It was in that environment that the president of the college, who happens to be my father, asked me to come up here to see if we could inject a little energy into the campus, which at the time was a single building with 290 students and only adults, no high school kids, no dormitories, no bachelor”™s degrees and no international students.”
The main campus in the Bronx was founded by Jerome”™s family in 1933; the New RochelleBronx was going through very difficult economic times and the college was concerned that the neighborhood would deteriorate. campus was opened in 1983 because the
The irony of the move was 10 years later the Bronx economy had completely turned around, but the New Rochelle economy was suffering.
“Through great difficulty sometimes comes bold ideas,” Jerome said. “We thought, ”˜We do a great job serving some underserved populations in the New York area, so why not go to countries outside the United States that may have students that aren”™t being served by their educational institutions?”™” Jerome said.
The college started the international program with seven students from Jamaica in 1995.
“When we talk about students that don”™t have an opportunity in Jamaica, it”™s totally different than students that don”™t have an opportunity here,” Jerome said.
That”™s because students who would be accepted at top-ranking colleges based on their SAT”™s and GPA”™s can be shut out of Jamaica”™s only four-year institution, which accepts students based on a test they take called the A-levels.
“It”™s an elite British system, and the result is there”™s all these very, very bright people that in the United States would have gone to college without a doubt, but in their own country they had nowhere to go.”
Before they knew it, the New Rochelle campus became one of the largest educators of students from the Caribbean.
“These students are basically very well-to-do students that get no financial aid,” Jerome said.
At the request of its government, Monroe opened a campus on the island of St. Lucia. That campus is now in its second year and doing very well, according to Jerome.
The next step for the college was recruiting students right out of high school and providing more housing.
“We had thought we were at such a competitive disadvantage that we wouldn”™t do well, but we decided to try it and our idea was that even though we don”™t have giant lawns and beautiful gymnasiums, we have really great customer service, a great faculty and great programs,” Jerome said.
Monroe began providing busing to any high school student who wanted to have an educational visit, and that grew into a very robust high school program.
In addition, the college started offering bachelor”™s degrees, then graduate degrees.
Another advantage for the college was Westchester”™s changing demographics.
“We had always served a large African-American and Latino audience,” Jerome said. “All the other colleges had never served those populations so significantly, and they were trying to learn how to serve them. We”™d been doing it for 70 years, so we were pretty well-situated as the populations changed.”
Currently, between the two campuses there are 7,000 students; 2,100 are at the New Rochelle campus with more than 700 students living in the dormitories and about 600 international students.
Online classes are also popular: Monroe has 2,000 students that take online classes, about 400 of whom don”™t attend classes on campus.
The college”™s culinary school is also a draw; one recent graduate is the sous chef at the BLT restaurant at the Ritz Carlton in White Plains.
Monroe does a lot with the community, whether it”™s funding not-for-profit organizations, or providing students and staff for volunteer events.
A new building will house 250 residents and will feature 15,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet of classrooms and a state-of-the-art food services common area. Groundbreaking will occur in summer 2009.
Jerome said the college “does a great job making sure the degrees we offer match what”™s going on in the economy. There is no doubt that right now the health field is very big locally: the jobs are there.”
Monroe”™s nursing program has more than 100 applicants for each slot.
Culinary studies and hospitality have also been strong, with hospitality becoming especially popular abroad.
“People from foreign countries like to come here and we place them in big hotels, and they use that experience to go back to their home to get a great job,” Jerome said.
