Atlantic Cape’s County Campus Prepares for Fifth Anniversary

CREST HAVEN — Few can believe five years have passed since Atlantic Cape Community College opened its Court House campus, and that includes its President Peter Mora.
He had just assumed the college’s top position on July 1, 2005, and there was great buzz about the opening of the new campus on Court House-South Dennis Road.
College officials are planning a celebration Oct. 11-15, with a Community Day Oct. 13 when the college will throw open its doors to local residents to visit classes and see various demonstrations.
On Tue., Aug. 10, Mora, Dr. Patricia A. Gentile, dean, and a 2010 graduate, Noel Kurtz went before freeholders to tell about the milestone about to be celebrated this fall.
Since opening in 2005, the college’s local enrollment has grown by nearly 40 percent.
“We exceeded our original enrollment goals for the first five years,” Mora told the board. “We project that the enrollment at Cape May County Campus will continue to grow in the near future.”
Mora told the Herald that upward swing came as no surprise to him. The growth was a result of several factors, including the sour economy, soaring tuition at state and private colleges, the “open admission” policy that mandates community colleges accept all county residents, and the fact that all credits earned locally are transferable to any New Jersey state college.
Mora said that he, along with other community college presidents throughout the Garden State, recently responded to questions of a task force headed by former Gov. Tom Kean, a former president of Drew University, about the state of community colleges.
Mora said there is not sufficient capacity in senior public institutions for all New Jersey high school graduates. Thus, two-year community colleges aid state students who, otherwise, might “migrate” to colleges in Delaware or Maryland.
Cost is also a driving factor for many community college students, Mora said.
“On average, our tuition is about $3,000 a year. The average public college average tuition is about $12,000, not including room and board. Therefore, students can save about $18,000 compared to a senior public college. That is a driving force over and above capacity,” said Mora.
Selectivity, present in such institutions as Rowan University and Richard Stockton College of N.J., means a set number of freshmen can be admitted.
That cannot happen, according to state guidelines, said Mora.
While many students are direct from high school, Mora has seen an increasing number of “career changers” who seek a new direction, or never got to finish college earlier in life, for whatever reasons.
Yes, Mora said, he expected growth, but not at the rate, it did here.
“The population of Cape May County is being reduced,” said Mora. According to average state projections, Mora said of 100,000 population, 1.8 percent would be served by a community college.
In the fourth and fifth years of the local campus, participation is “up to 2.2 and 2.3 percent.”
“That was our battle,” said Mora. “Enrollment is a key indicator of success. We did better than we thought with the county’s decreasing population,” he added.
“The average age of students is going up, and that is a challenge for us, because older people usually don’t go to community colleges. The average age for us is 25,” he said.
Officials do not expect the growth to continue at the present rate, he said.
The facility was built to serve “around 3,000 students,” said Mora.
“We hit our stride faster than we thought,” he added. “I project a modest growth rate of 1-2 percent into the future.”
Mora does not envision any new courses of study. Such are usually sought by the community at large if and where there is a demand for specialized education.
“They are a very conventional group, very young, mostly students are traditional transfer students looking for liberal arts, business and science based with the intent to transfer,” Mora said.
Mora cited a specialized course to be offered for the first time in January by Atlantic Cape for air traffic controllers.
That course was in response to the expanded role of the FAA Technical Center in Atlantic County, and the need to train those professionals.
“One of the outcomes of that is that we offer an Associates degree in Air Traffic Control. It is a terminal degree that was never before offered,” said Mora.
If a call were to be received from Cape May County officials for such a specialized course, the college would be open to conducting such a course, Mora said.
Mora said Atlantic Cape and Richard Stockton officials are about to establish a two-year program that will transfer credits to Stockton’s environmental science program, said Mora.
He noted the probable use of the former Ponderlodge in Villas by Stockton as a site.
If all goes according to plans, he said, “We could get a bump if we get that deal with Stockton.”
Courses offered in Atlantic County, he noted, include the culinary arts degree and dealers’ courses offered in response to the casino industry.
As part of its gala celebration in October, Mora said high school and middle school pupils, their parents and counselors would be invited into the college to whet young appetites for higher learning.
A facet of the celebration will be a golf tournament with dinner following at a Cape May restaurant.
“As part of the evening, we will be honoring a lot of the people who are part of the community who led to the building of the college,” said Mora.
Freeholders also learned of Atlantic Cape’s solar energy project that will take place over the parking lot of the county campus.
Pepco, the parent company of Atlantic City Electric Co., will install photovoltaic panels. The college will lease those panels for 20 years, and the county campus will produce an estimated 25 percent of the energy.
Combined with the Mays Landing campus, the solar project should generate 2.4 megawatts of electricity per year.
It will result in a “significant cost reduction,” for electric, the president said.
Contact Campbell at (609) 886-8600 Ext 28 or at: al.c@cmcherald.com