Tech is key in economy

MOSES LAKE — Before the economy’s downturn, Big Bend Community College invested in technology to maintain an expected level of service throughout its vast coverage area.

During a talk to members of the Grant County Economic Development Council Thursday, college President Bill Bonaudi pointed out his presentation was being streamed on the Internet.

The college’s trustee meetings are also streamed online, he said.

“We use the same technology to interact with students at distant sites,” Bonaudi explained. “We hope to provide many of the same services to the outlying areas that they can get right here on this particular campus.”

The college’s service area reaches beyond Moses Lake and into rural areas of Grant, Adams and Lincoln counties.

He talked about the college’s variety of class offerings and how they’re delivered.

They include the college using a Web based tool called “Illuminate,” which can be used for online classes.

The college hopes to provide many of those services at other sites, he said.

A challenge for the college is establishing a level of service in the outlying areas it can sustain in the current economic times.

“The real test is going to be how we are going to provide a level of service,” he said.

The college recently received a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish five learning centers at Ritzville, Lind, Washtucna, Warden and Mattawa, he said.

They are communities that don’t have a good level of contact, Bonaudi explained.

They are located the following distances from Moses Lake: Washtucna, 66 miles, Mattawa, 57 miles, Lind, 42 miles, Ritzville, 45 miles, and Warden, 20 miles.

Bonaudi talked about the state’s budget outlook and the college’s challenge to keep serving a large number of students with reduced state funds.

Last year, the college experienced a $600,000 budget reduction while serving record enrollments.

“Last year, the ax fell,” he recalled.

Tuition was increased by 7 percent and may be increased by another 7 percent next year.

He said he didn’t think the college would see the students it does today if tuition increases again.

He talked about the state’s allocation of the college’s budget.

The state allocation for 2006-07 academic year was $9.7 million. But the state allocation for the 2010-2011 academic year is listed at $9.4 million.

“We will not be able to continue to support the number of students we are today if we have that kind of cut,” he said.

The college offers GED classes, as 28 percent of residents lack a high school diploma.

Bonaudi said the local businesses draw from the workforce to populate jobs.

“The same population that represents a challenge and an obligation to educate, represents a population you’re probably going to draw from as you fill jobs that are vacant,” he said in part.

The area isn’t likely to drawn 10,000 to 15,000 more educated people to the area in the next five years.

“We are both in the business of trying to raise the education level of this population,” Bonaudi commented.