Wayne Community College boasts positive fiscal year
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on July 26, 2018 5:50 AM
The year 2018 has been a good one so far for Wayne Community College, the school's president told its board of trustees Tuesday night.
From a master plan still in its infancy stages of potential construction projects and preparing a strategic plan, WCC also contributes great economic value to this community and an impressive return on its investment, Dr. Thomas Walker Jr. said.
The master plan is expected to be unveiled and formally presented at the September meeting, and the timeline for the strategic plan was tweaked from a three-year effort to a five-year plan at this month's meeting to put it in sync with the accreditation process.
Focus groups will be organized for September, Walker said.
"We're trying to get information from everyone, both our internal audiences, students, faculty, staff board, the Foundation, but also our external partners -- the county commissioners, our local business and industry, the board of education -- with regard to our strategy moving forward," he said. "And then what we would like to do in January of 2019 is to be able to review and approve this."
He suggested the board of trustees be prepared to select two or three items and take "deep dives" into them at the annual board retreat in January.
Walker also gave a preview of a study recently prepared for the college on the economic impact it has in this community.
He said he plans to present the findings at an upcoming commission meeting, and the information will be integrated both in the strategic plan as well as marketing of the college.
"Wayne Community College has returned $218.4 million added income impact in the county and that's through a variety of measures -- either through our alumni, and that's the biggest impact -- which means that students come here generating a certain level of money for the county and leave here generating a higher level," he said. "So when that student leaves here with credentials and certifications, they go and spend money in our local businesses, have social impact on our region and also the operations, just what the college's personnel, what we spend here at the college and what we do operationally."
Then there's the student spending impact, which is $14.3 million.
"Students come here, they spend money in the bookstore, they spend money with Artis Daily Bread and our cafeteria, they spend money associated with coming here," he said.
He also referenced a takeaway from the data, boiled down to three points, which will be discussed more in-depth in the future.
"The college generates more tax dollars than it takes, the institution retains and creates wealth and Wayne Community College performs better than the stock market," he said."We will be sharing this with the community and I think you as board members should be particularly proud that your governance and leadership yields this kind of results.
"Every college didn't get these sort of results on their economic impact study. I know that we often like to say that we are one of the signature organizations in this county. But I think we've got the numbers to back it up."
The Foundation of WCC also had an impressive year, said executive director Adrienne Northington.
The annual fund drive for fiscal year 2018 raised $817,747, she said, exceeding its goal of $550,000.
The 26th annual scholarship golf invitational also had a record-breaking year, with $203,000 generated for student scholarships. Since its inception, the invitational has surpassed $1.9 million raised, she said.
For the last fiscal year from July 1, 2017 through June 30 of this year, 626 scholarships were awarded, which equated to a total of $389,934.
Northington added that 216 scholarships have been awarded for the fall of 2018, totaling $182,507. The number represents assistance awarded to both high school and college students.