Five Years in the Making
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ECC should have been one of the first community colleges established in Virginia. It was almost the last.
MECC should have been one of the first community colleges established in Virginia. It was almost the last. The Higher Education Study Commission and the Virginia Community College Board planned to develop a series of community colleges across Virginia. The design was to make higher education available to 98 - 99% of citizens in each of the state’s service areas.
The State Board for Community Colleges commissioned consultant Eric Rhoads to develop a community college master plan. His paper, “A Proposed Master Plan for a State-Wide System of Community College Education in Virginia,” published in 1967, called for 22 college regions (later changed to 23 college regions). The plan designated the area encompassing the City of Norton and the Counties of Lee, Wise, Scott, and the western part of Dickenson in Southwest Virginia as Region 14. Region 14, the LENOWISCO area, had the greatest need for education for young people, according to the study. However, the state decided to allow localities to choose their sites for community colleges. (Robinette, 2009) The Board’s findings concerning the need for education were verified later, when the college began its first year’s enrollment. In a demographic assessment, Bonnie Elosser, Director of Financial Aid, reported that: Preparation of the first application for student financial aid was a “bear” and I had to gather mountains of statistics and a great deal of demographic information as well. The thing that struck me as I amassed the volumes of information was the very low level of income of the inhabitants of the region. The other overwhelming piece of information I gathered that was extremely shocking was the number of disabled individuals we have in the MECC service area! When I conducted an internal audit of financial aid records several years later – I was astounded by how many of the parents of our students and how many of our students as well were disabled. And, they were disabled at such a young age. I think the average age of those folks during the first few years was in the early 40s. The figures were so alarming that the federal government seriously challenged them on a number of occasions, and we had to verify this information repeatedly – they simply did not believe our incomes were so low. They also questioned the number of disabled individuals we had on record. – Bonnie Elosser The first question was “Where will the college be located?” Had the Virginia Community College Board chosen the college’s site, its members probably would have looked for a central location in the LENOWISCO district to assure reasonable commuting distances. The geographic and population centers were both located in Hoot Owl Hollow at the top of the mountain above Big 3