Feb 18, 2017 3 min read

Not everyone can afford a four-year degree or has the time to attend classes full time.

That makes community colleges such as the Greene County Education Center near Waynesburg so important to area residents.

“The cost of a community college is a fraction of the cost of a four-year school and it’s giving you an opportunity to stay local and maybe keep a job during the day,” Greene County Commissioner Blair Zimmerman said.

But those students were dealt a blow last month when Westmoreland County Community College, which has operated the satellite school since 1999, announced it was closing the center due to declining enrollment and revenue losses.

The situation was made even worse by WCCC’s last-minute decision, giving students little or no time to withdraw from the spring semester in order to receive a full refund.

School spokeswoman Anna Marie Palatela said the Board of Directors voted Jan. 25 to close the school in May, so then why did it take another five days for WCCC to publicly announce the decision on its website? Students received an email Feb. 1 notifying them of the impending closure, Palatela said, but that was already two days after the final drop date to receive a complete tuition reimbursement for the spring semester.

“This was a yearlong process in terms of evaluation,” Palatela said discussing the closure.

So then why weren’t students told in mid-January when classes began – or late last year – that this might be the final semester?

That’s not right when students have invested hundreds or thousands of dollars to go to school.

Not only are students losing money over the impending closure, they’re losing time as they scramble to find other schools that will accept WCCC’s credits or try to begin a new curriculum elsewhere. WCCC is suggesting students affected by the closure transfer to the main Youngwood campus, although it’s nearly 60 miles away from Waynesburg, making it an impractical trip for many students.

School officials said they are working with students to place them in other programs, but some have expressed concerns about the timing of the announcement.

“I don’t feel like they treat us right because they let us know at the last minute,” said Abigail Perl, a 17-year-old freshman who moved here from New Jersey to attend WCCC because she has relatives in the area. “I feel like I’m being taken advantage of. If they cared about our education and not just our money, I feel like they would’ve given us another semester to prepare.”

She and others say they’re now “stuck” with no other community colleges nearby.

There might be one silver lining to this otherwise bleak story.

Zimmerman said county officials are pursuing “other avenues for higher education” in Greene County to give students more options when it comes to pursuing a degree.

Hopefully, another option arrives soon for those students who thought they had a pathway to achieving higher education through WCCC. But that still won’t make up for the lost time and money for those working to better educate themselves, only to wonder now if or when they’ll ever be able to don a mortar board cap and college gown.