GREENFIELD — “We just don’t have space,” Dawn Josefski, assistant dean of allied health programs at Greenfield Community College, told Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll during a tour of the college on Monday morning.
Driscoll viewed tight classrooms, cramped storage spaces, and a facility that GCC administrators and faculty members said would benefit from investments through “An Act to Build Resilient Infrastructure to Generate Higher-Ed Transformation” (also known as the BRIGHT Act), which is being considered by the state Legislature. If passed, it would tap $2.5 billion in funding from the Fair Share Amendment to modernize facilities and address deferred maintenance at state universities and community colleges in Massachusetts.
The legislation, which was filed in January by Gov. Maura Healey, was passed by both the House of Representatives and Senate in different versions and is now being reviewed by a conference committee to reconcile the differences in the two versions of the bill.
“The BRIGHT Act is designed to improve facilities that are going to serve people who are gonna be in your communities for a very long time, and it’s helping our public higher ed institutions compete, and lastly, it’s a job bill,” Driscoll said. “When we invest in these buildings and facilities, we are gonna put a lot of people to work. … We need the bill to pass. I know that the Senate and the House are working on that.”
Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, said she loves GCC, and when she heard Driscoll planned to visit the college, she wanted to be there as well. She added that the Legislature is working on the bill and joked that the message that it is a priority for the Healey-Driscoll administration was received.
GCC President Michelle Schutt said her top priority would be constructing a new building for the college’s manufacturing programs.
“We would start with a machining building so that we could really partner with those employers who are just banging on our door waiting to give us equipment and train up their future workforce,” Schutt said.
In the campus’ East Building, built in 1998 with the intention of being a temporary structure, Manufacturing & Trades Program Manager Caileb Milton said GCC partners, which include regional manufacturers and Franklin County Technical School, have offered the college equipment as they replace and upgrade their own, but the college has limited storage and teaching space.
“We’re working with the space we have,” Milton said. “Simulation and running with things that run off smaller power only gets you so far. The industrial machines I could get from the tech school wouldn’t even fit in the front door of the building.”
Milton said he dreams of having a makerspace on campus, and he believes there would be enough interest from students to keep such a space busy. Manufacturing partners have offered equipment that they do not have space to store. He added that he often has to rearrange the classroom so that equipment can be used safely.
GCC Vice President of Workforce Development Kristin Cole said the college has started working on early design plans for what a manufacturing building could look like, and added that it could serve multiple programs, including the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) program, which has more than 200 names on a waiting list.
GCC’s Energy Technology Program Manager Sharon Cates said that students leave the program with seven certifications, including a Oil Burner Technician License and Refrigerant Safety Certificate, but the space for students to learn and work in is not big enough, so the college plans to reduce cohort sizes to 10 students.
“We’ve been running with [cohorts of] 15,” Cates noted.
Similarly, in the nursing and paramedic programs, Josefski said there is not enough space for students and equipment, limiting how many students GCC can accept.
“When there’s a call for more and more, we’re limited,” Josefski said. “Look at this place. Fifteen students in here is ridiculous, so we usually run these classes with 10 or 11.”
She said employers in the region are looking for staff and there is plenty of interest in the program, but the campus cannot physically accommodate more pupils.
“We’re telling students, ‘Yes, the job market says there’s jobs for you,’ but we can’t train any more because we just don’t have the space,” Josefski continued.
Josefski said the program is also limited by the number of sinks available for training rooms and by the lack of a laundry room, requiring the college to outsource laundry services. Dean of Nursing Melanie Ames Zamojski added that partner facilities for student clinicals and finding nursing educators is also a limitation to the program’s growth.
“We want to make sure we’re meeting demand,” Driscoll told the GCC nursing faculty.
She said the state wants to ensure there is sufficient space to train students in growing fields that have high demands for employees, and she hopes the BRIGHT Act will help GCC overcome barriers in expanding the campus.
“I think it’s a beautiful campus, serving students and particularly in work-related fields that will be of benefit to the region,” Driscoll said. “And there’s some work to do. Clearly the space has some inadequacies. That’s why we’re really excited about the BRIGHT Act and working with Sen. Comerford and the Greenfield Community College president. I think that there’s lots of opportunities for us to grow together.”
