Bridging gaps, building stronger relationships
MDJ Online
Marcus Howard
02-08-2012
MARIETTA — Though Chattahoochee Technical College’s new president, Dr. Ron Newcomb, vacated his Smyrna City Council seat that he held for 20 years over a month ago, that hasn’t stopped some of his former constituents from calling him about their problems.
“Sometimes they even know I’m not the councilman, but they’re just looking for some guidance,” said Newcomb, who says he keeps in touch with his successor, Councilwoman Andrea Blustein.
Newcomb, 62, is settling into his new position as president of the state’s largest technical college, after being appointed Feb. 1 by the Technical College System of Georgia board. He replaces Dr. Sanford Chandler, who stepped down for a position in the system’s central office.
Newcomb had been serving as interim president since Oct. 1.
Newcomb has already set three primary goals, which are to expand programs, close what he calls a skills gap, and build a stronger relationship with area high schools.
Presently, the college offers more than 75 associate degrees, diploma and technical certificate programs at eight campuses in Cobb, Cherokee, Paulding, Bartow, Gilmer and Pickens counties. Among the new programs will be a building and maintenance diploma program in Marietta, paramedic technology associate degree program in Jasper and clinical lab technology associate degree program in Canton.
Newcomb also wants to fill a skilled labor shortage, an issue Gov. Nathan Deal is also tackling with his administration’s new Go Build Georgia campaign, an outreach program designed to educate the public about the benefits of skilled labor trades. The governor’s office projected 16,500 jobs will be available this year in industries that rely on skilled labor.
“We’ve got to increase the supply of people that want to go into these semi-skilled and skilled areas, so we’re really going to focus on how to dovetail the Go Build initiative,” Newcomb said.
“The misconception that people have is that these jobs are just lowing-paying, unskilled positions. No, these are well-paid, skilled and semi-skilled jobs.”
Additionally, Newcomb plans to look deeper into impediments that he says are keeping high school students from choosing careers in skilled labor trades.
“We’re going to be working ever more closer with high schools in our six-county service area to be a better part of that bridge with the high schools,” he said.
More than 20,400 students enrolled in Chattahoochee Tech in the 2011-12 school year at its eight campuses, including two in Marietta, one in Acworth and one in south Cobb. The largest campus in Marietta has 40 percent of the college’s enrollment. A quarter of the students take classes at more than one campus, according to the college.
While past enrollment significantly increased, current enrollment leveled off in the past year, partly due to students learning how to manage the colleges’ conversion to the semester system, Newcomb said. But he said he expects enrollment to soon increase.
In August, Chattahoochee Tech and other schools in the Technical College System of Georgia converted from the quarter to the semester system to align themselves with other educational institutions. Under a semester system, the academic year is divided into two 15-week fall and spring sessions, followed by a 10-week summer session.
“It was absolutely the right decision to make,” Newcomb said.
In 2011, the college opened its eighth campus in Canton to meet its growing enrollment. Enrollment there is at 762 students, near its capacity of 1,000 students, according to the college. Newcomb said he does not foresee any new locations being built, mainly because of a tight state budget.
“They’re very expensive to build and operate,” Newcomb said. “We’re going to have to look for creative ways to find additional space and run the finance of additional space. I think the state has sent a pretty clear message that the model has changed.”
A request of $5.2 million to renovate the Woodstock campus was included in the governor’s annual budget and is awaiting approval by lawmakers, Newcomb said. Recently, the college began operating a new campus police department, composed of many retired local police officers, to service its campuses.
In 2009, three separate college campuses merged to form what is now Chattahoochee Tech, a process that has saved the state $750,000 a year, said Newcomb, who was acting president of North Metro Technical College at the time.
“It’s met all expectations,” Newcomb said of the merger. “It gave students more options in terms of programs.”
The hot-button issue of illegal immigration has been felt throughout state’s education system, which is bracing for the Georgia General Assembly’s decision on House Bill 59, which would prohibit illegal immigrants from enrolling in the 25 Technical College System of Georgia colleges and 35 colleges in the University System of Georgia.
The current policy, which went into effect in the fall, allows illegal immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition rates at public colleges and attend a handful of the state’s more selective institutions, such as the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech, only when academically qualified students have not been turned away.
When asked his position on the matter, Newcomb steered clear of the controversy. He did, however, point out that Chattahoochee Tech requires applicants to prove they are U.S. citizens and state residents in order to pay in-state tuition.
“I have the point of view that we implement whatever policy that has been dictated by the state board,” he said. “I will leave that to them to ascertain what that should or shouldn’t be.”
Since 1998, Newcomb has worked for the Technical College System of Georgia. Previously, he worked as an education assistant for former Govs. Joe Frank Harris and Roy Barnes. He received three degrees from the University of Georgia, including a doctorate in higher education he earned just last August.
Not long ago, the college president was balancing working on his dissertation, homework assignments, writing papers and conducting online chats with classmates half his age in order to complete his doctorate, along with his day job at the college, and representing Smyrna residents.
Newcomb continues to reside in Smyrna while he finds time to travel to the college’s eight campuses in between Chamber of Commerce breakfast events, appointments, emails, lunch events and staff meetings.
He said he left the Smyrna City Council in order to focus all of his energies at Chattahoochee Tech. Newcomb was first elected in November 1991, after arriving in Smyrna in 1983 from Athens. He was re-elected in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007.
“Being president of a college is a little bit also like running for office,” he said. “I was really fortunate to have earned the respect (of Smyrna residents) and prove worthy of the trust and respect of folks here at the college, and I believe that I have.”