Boston Globe/ Published August 30, 2019 // By Leah Samuel

In a time of struggle and decline for smaller educational institutions, Quincy College is striving to survive, with changes that include
an interim president and new tech-based course programming.

But the changes come after major setbacks in 2018, the community college’s 60th year. Among the challenges were a slashed budget,
declining enrollment, loss of state certification for the college’s nursing program, and the sudden resignation of the college’s
president, Peter Tsaffaras.

Near the top of the recovery agenda is attracting more students with relevant course offerings tied to educating a tech-sector
workforce.

“We’ve always been incentivated to adapt to changes in the business climate and the economy,” said interim president Michael
Bellotti. “Community colleges always have to be nimble and retool to meet local and national needs.”

To that end, the college has developed an associate’s degree program in biomanufacturing for students seeking tech careers,
primarily with new biotechnology firms moving to the South Shore. The two-year, science-based program teaches laboratory
techniques and biomanufacturing processes to prepare students for jobs as research assistants or lab technicians.

“We have a virtual lab and we’ve received grants to expand our biotech offerings, so we’re ready,” said Bellotti.
Quincy College also gained state permission to enroll students this fall in its redesigned nursing program — a two-year associate in
science degree in nursing and a 10-month practical nursing certificate program.

Last month, the college announced a partnership with Comprehensive Medical Teaching Institute of Weymouth to offer certificate
programs in paramedic and emergency medical technician.

Beginning this year, Quincy College also is offering a new two-year degree in cyber security, a curriculum that professor Jim Peters, a
software developer and engineer, helped design.

“The makeup of it is a combination of two existing programs — criminal justice and computer forensics and networking — the
technical with the nontechnical,” he explained.

The program will prepare students for jobs securing computer networks, investigating data breaches, and detecting hackers.
In addition, Quincy College introduced a summer program this year that allows high school students to take courses alongside college
students at a cost of $100 per credit, less than half the regular cost.

Bellotti explained that the school needs to reach younger students, ahead of their college decision making.

“We recognized that the average age of our students is 26 or 28, and we wanted to do better marketing to high school students,” he
said. “The summer program allows them to be students at Quincy College, and it’s letting parents know about this option. They might
save money on college by doing two years here before going on to finish at a four-year institution.”

In addition to the high school outreach, Quincy College also has included in its fiscal 2020 budget the as-yet-unfilled position of vice
president of enrollment.

By the end of 2018, there were fewer than 3,900 students enrolled at the college, down from 5,300 in 2017. Much of that decline
followed the decertification of the nursing education program.

The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing voted in May 2018 to withdraw approval of Quincy College’s nursing programs.
The board cited nursing students’ poor passing rate on the state’s licensing exam, high turnover of school administrators, and the
school’s failure to meet curriculum standards.

Meanwhile, tensions had been growing on the school’s board. A week after the decertification, Tsaffaras, who had served as the
school’s president since 2011, announced his resignation, citing struggles with board members over the direction of the college.
After Tsaffaras’ departure, Mayor Thomas Koch briefly took over, later appointing Bellotti, who left a 20-year career as Norfolk
County sheriff, to become Quincy College’s interim president last September.

Quincy College is affliated with the city of Quincy, but is funded with tuition and does not receive money from the city or state. It has
campuses in Quincy and Plymouth.

Over a year later, Tsaffaras would not go into specifics on his differences with the board.

“I had a very clear viewpoint, a focus on the mission of the college,” he said. “They [the board] had a very clear clientele in mind, but
there were several niches of students we needed to serve.”

Among them, Tsaffaras said, were students who needed more support, such as older students. “People in their 30s who had not had
an opportunity for higher education, and students who had been to four-year institutions and not had a good experience.”
After Quincy College revamped its nursing curriculum with new courses and implemented new student competency standards, the
state board recertified its certificate and degree programs in nursing. While 120 nursing students are expected to attend Quincy
College this fall, the school is currently reviewing and reorganizing various aspects of the program.

Previous Quincy College nursing students can reapply to the new program, but they have to meet the revised admission criteria and
start from the beginning, according to the school’s website.

“We’re moving very methodically,” said Bellotti. “Our nurses are learning new ways of teaching nursing students. We’re looking to
have lower faculty-to-student ratios and higher standards in terms of test scores.

“And if they don’t meet the standards, we can put them in the right classes to earn their way in,” he added.

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