Patricia Krzesinski, chairwoman of the ECC Board of Trustees, announced in a Buffalo News editorial today that she will push to close ECC’s City Campus in downtown Buffalo.
Lashing out against criticism recently heaped on the board for its proposal to build a $30 million Health Sciences Center for Excellence at its North Campus in Amherst, Krzesinski writes:
I will, at the next scheduled meeting of the board, ask the trustees to begin the task of considering the plausibility of closing the most costly campus to operate. That, of course, would be our City Campus. It is the least efficient to run in terms of square feet per student.
Bernice Radle, chair of Young Citizens for ECC, says after reading Krzesinski’s announcement over coffee this morning that she “couldn’t believe my eyes.”
“This is exactly why we are fighting this fight,” says Radle. “The ECC Board of Trustees has clearly lost its way.”
Radle points to a recent study by RCLCo, a leading real estate research firm, indicating a staggering 88% of Millennials, the generation born between 1986 and 1995, want to be in cities. The firm concluded the Millennials are the most urban generation since at least before World War II.
“The generation Erie Community College will be serving wants to be back in the city,” says Radle. “This weird and alarming proposal to close the City Campus can only strengthen our resolve to bring a new direction to Erie Community College.”
Young Citizens for ECC was formed in April to advocate for stronger linkages between Erie Community College and the burgeoning Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The group can be reached at youngcitizensforecc@gmail.com.