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 Southwestern
Community College [Link]
Broadband Pioneer
Do you know people who live “on the edge?”
They go sky diving in the Mohave Desert, bungee jumping
along the Grand Canyon, and scuba diving in South America.
On the one hand, you think they might be crazy—but
on the other hand you are intrigued by the awesome things
they might see or experience. And then there are those
folks in history who were “ahead of their time”
with their thinking and activities—people like
Albert Einstein and his Theory of Relativity, Henry
Ford and the assembly line, Amelia Earhart and her solo
flights, and Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery.
They were questioned by their peers and society, yet
their discoveries paved the way for great advances that
we benefit from today.
Well, you might be surprised to learn of a modern day
“pioneer” nestled in the rural mountains
of western North Carolina—Southwestern Community
College. While SCC hasn’t cured cancer or discovered
a new land, it has quietly dared to imagine its region
in several years time—with easy access high-performance
telecommunications delivered via a fiber optic backbone
on par with that found in urban environments.
SCC was established more than 40 years ago to provide
educational and training services to the people of Jackson,
Macon and Swain counties—which includes the Eastern
Band of Cherokee Indians. When the College opened its
doors in 1964, a total of 133 students were enrolled
in short-term courses in 4 programs of study.
Today, the College provides instruction in more than
50 programs which can culminate in a diploma, certificate
or associate's degree to its service area population
of more than 80,000. More than 2,600 students enroll
annually in these credit classes, and more than 6,500
participate in a wide variety of courses, workshops
and seminars offered through Continuing Education. The
College also provides support to the area’s business
and industry sector through customized training and
its Small Business Center—and is actively involved
in promoting the economic development of the region.
In addition to the main campus in Sylva, the College
operates a full-service campus in Franklin, three outreach
centers, and a Public Safety Training Institute.
It is this commitment to quality education, grassroots
innovation, and community development that has driven
SCC’s long involvement in the telecommunications
field. Recognized as a technology leader, SCC utilizes
sophisticated fiber optic infrastructure to fuel its
extensive telecommunications network—supporting
35 file and application servers, 20 computer labs, close
to 1000 desktop computers, and free internet service
provision for students, staff, and faculty at home.
In addition, the College hosts a 13-site interactive
television system – which includes four SCC locations
and seven area high schools – and a North Carolina
Information Highway connection which provides a valuable
videoconferencing linkage.
In 1999, the College began an unprecedented quest to
bring 21st Century resources to the region. Armed with
more than $1.5 million in funding won by SCC, the College
launched the Appalachian Access Initiative – seeking
to find a way to lower the cost and increase the quality
and availability of telecommunications infrastructure
in rural western North Carolina. The scope of the effort
included sophisticated assessments of technical, regulatory,
business and political factors affecting pricing and
quality of service in the region—and ended in
the development of a strategy to deploy an alternative
middle mile infrastructure in western North Carolina.
The strategy was validated by Callisma and adopted
by such groups as the Education and Research Consortium
of the Western Carolinas, the Western North Carolina
Knowledge Coalition, AdvantageWest – and the founders
of BalsamWest FiberNET, the Eastern Band of Cherokee
Nation and Drake Enterprises. “We are excited
to see years of collaborative effort pay off for the
people of western North Carolina,” said Cecil
Groves, President of Southwestern.
Serving as BalsamWest’s Community Interest Partner,
the College has been a pivotal player in the establishment
and management of the Company. This involvement has
helped the area bridge the technological gap with the
rest of the world—ensuring that the region could
participate fully in a global economy by providing open
and affordable access to this state-of-the-art infrastructure.
In a new model of innovation and collaboration, SCC
has assisted in the creation of an open infrastructure
that will be directly available to the public, private
and non-profit sectors—a model that has drawn
attention across the Country.
“BalsamWest will give the region the tools it
needs to educate and train the workforce of the future,
support advances in health care, improve the ability
of local businesses to succeed, and create opportunities
to generate good jobs for the future,” said Dr.
Cecil Groves, President of Southwestern Community College.
“And infrastructure like this will allow the College
to tap into advanced teaching tools, provide education
virtually anytime/anywhere, and help our public partners—such
as the schools and libraries—access resources
anywhere in the world,” said Groves.
SCC is one of 59 institutions operating in the North
Carolina Community College System, a statewide organization
of public, two-year, postsecondary educational institutions.
The College’s vision, mission and goals are indicative
of the modern community college—providing inspiration
for the implementation of innovative educational programming
and collaborative approaches to community development.
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