The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Ohio Higher Education chancellor visits LCCC
Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor Randy Gardner, who recently was named to the position after serving in the Ohio Senate from 201319, visited Lorain County Community College, 1005 N. Abbe Road in Elyria, Feb. 15. “A lot of this stuff is incredible to hear about,” Gardner said. “It’s great to see ... students being prepared for high-demand careers. “I know how to work a transistor radio, but a lot of this stuff is beyond me ... it’s remarkable.” The tour, which started at LCCC Richard Desich SMART Center, focused on Gardner learning more about the bachelor’s degree of applied science in microelectronic manufacturing. “The program has students working at local businesses before they even receive the degree,” said Johnny Vanderford, LCCC assistant professor and director of the Microelectronics Institute. “The program started by employers asking for more properly trained technicians and engineers. “They had a need for them, and we have 100 percent of the graduates of the program with job experience. The problem for the students is when they have two companies, who they worked for during their time in the program, that both want to hire them out of college.” Vanderford said a lot of the jobs students are getting from the program are local. “You have some that are five minutes to 45 minutes away,” he said. “We also provide students with $50 a week for gas if they intern in one of the companies east of Cleveland.” The tour then continued to the Patsie C. Campana Sr. Engineering and Development Center, which includes the Fab Lab. “The tour went to the Fab Lab for a look at the rapid prototypes which quickly make a scale model of something,” said Tracy Green, vice president of strategic and institutional development at LCCC. “There are a lot of good, practical technologies that are discussed and developed in the Campana Center, so it was a place we wanted to highlight.” Green said the tour was shorter than she would have wanted, but it was great to get Gardner to visit LCCC. “There is much more we could have shown him, but I think it went fairly well, overall,” she said. “He has emphasized how higher education needs to prepare students for high-demand jobs, and that is why we took him to the areas we did. “We appreciate the fact that he wanted to stop by and see LCCC.”