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DeMarte: ‘Very Happy’ SUNY Ending Vaccine Mandate

Members of the Jamestown Community College Board of Trustees are pictured during a meeting Tuesday at the Jamestown campus. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

Last week’s announcement that the State University of New York will no longer require its students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 was met with enthusiasm by the president of Jamestown Community College.

“It feels like the fog is lifting,” Daniel DeMarte said during a college Board of Trustees meeting this week. “The general mood, I think, is feeling more optimistic to me; very happy to see that it finally happened, somewhat ahead of schedule depending on who you ask. I think it was a little bit behind schedule. But, it’s gone and that message is going out now to our summer and fall students who are beginning to enroll.”

DeMarte, whose contract as JCC president was recently extended through 2028, is hopeful SUNY’s decision to rescind the mandate beginning this summer may lead to an uptick in student enrollment.

“We continue to get calls right through the spring semester from students and parents who would tell us they’re not coming here as long as that vaccine mandate is in place,” he told trustees on Tuesday.

The April 11 update from SUNY followed the announced end to the COVID national emergency by President Joe Biden. Moving forward, COVID-19 vaccinations will be strongly encouraged for students, faculty and staff, consistent with other viruses including influenza and mpox.

“The safety of SUNY’s students is our first and foremost priority, and while COVID is no longer an emergency, we will not lose sight of the impact it continues to have on us,” Chancellor John King Jr. said last week. “Across SUNY we will continue to monitor cases and make adjustments as needed, but even more importantly, we will look to increase the overall health and wellness support we provide our students.”

JCC, like many community colleges and four-year schools across the country, has seen a steady decline in student enrollment over the last decade.

On Tuesday, Michael Martello, JCC vice president of administration, presented trustees with budget assumptions for the 2023-24 school year. He said the lack of an approved New York state budget is making it difficult to determine what kind of state aid — one of JCC’s three major revenue sources — might be allocated to higher education institutions.

Martello said JCC is looking to increase tuition for in-state students by $140 in the next budget. “We are tremendously sensitive to increasing tuition,” he said.

If approved by the board, in-state tuition costs would go from $5,300 to $5,440 at JCC. The average cost to attend one of SUNY’s community colleges for the 2022-23 school year is $5,145.

For budget purposes, Martello said JCC had about 3,800 “full-time equivalent” students 10 years ago. For the current budget and the budget being put together, the college is expecting 2,100 full-time equivalent students.

On its website, JCC states it had 1,291 full-time students and 524 part-time students during the 2021-22 school year.

Martello also referred to “space utilization” as a way to reduce operating costs without “reducing the product, so to speak.” Even with fewer students, he noted that the college has continued to take up the same amount of space.

“What we’re looking to do is … consolidate space where we can,” he said. “This will help with resources out of our facilities — our buildings and grounds. This will help in our IT where they don’t have to support as many IT classrooms and so on.”

Martello’s budget assumptions also include an increase in the cost to live in the college’s residency halls. With 340 available beds, his budget estimates 250 will be occupied.

Part of the proposed bump to live on campus, he said, is due to the meal plans that are included in the cost.

“Nothing here is set in stone,” Martello said of the preliminary budget lines he discussed. “We’ll continue to keep you apprised of our progress in developing the budget and bringing to you information associated with it.”

He anticipates the budget being ready for a vote by the board in July.

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