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I was recently reacquainted with that wonderful old classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life" starring Jimmy Stewart as the small town savings and loan owner, George Bailey. I'm not going to tell you how old I was the first time I saw that picture, but Frank Capra's film reminded me of what a remarkable difference one seemingly ordinary life can make. It reminded me that the neighbors we help, the kindnesses we extend, the good relationships we foster touch more lives, influence more minds and affect more hearts than we can ever know.

To imagine Rochester without Monroe Community College, is to imagine our streets less safe, our economy less strong, our public assistance rolls more crowded, our medical facilities staffed with fewer qualified professionals, and our students with far greater obstacles to a college education.

Fortunately, that is not the case and today my message is much like Frank Capra's. Our community colleges are the George Baileys.

When the New York State Legislature approved the legislation to create community colleges in 1948, there is no way they could have ever envisioned the impact the community colleges would have on our communities. We are one of the largest community college systems in the nation and our enrollments continue to grow. At Monroe Community College, we have been growing at 5% each year and, at this time, we are looking at a phenomenal 10% growth for our spring term.

We track our students and especially our graduates very carefully. We have more than 50 academic programs that relate directly to our business and industry workforce. And of the graduates in those programs, 95% stay locally meeting the workforce needs of our community.

Every one of our career related programs has a business and industry advisory committee. Not only do these committees assist us with program development and courses we need to offer to adequately educate and train our students -- their future employees; but more importantly, they keep us in touch with the current and future needs of our businesses and industries.

I know you are aware of the challenges these businesses and industries are facing. They come to us daily asking for assistance in workforce development - both for new employees and training for existing employees.

As an example, at the present time, I am in discussions with one of our regional businesses. They are considering providing the funding for a building on our campus, which we will use for the training of their employees both locally and regionally.

Are we doing a good job with our programs and training? You bet we are. That is why companies like Xerox (10% of their Rochester workforce are MCC graduates) and Gleason Works have given nearly $3,000,000 to our capital campaign this year, and we expect to hear from another major corporation any day now for a seven figure gift -- and our small businesses and industries are all working hard to raise money for our foundation. Businesses and industries in the Rochester area know MCC is positioned well to assist them.

We consider ourselves a rapid response team. As an example, I flew to Durango, Colorado on September 17, six days after the 9/11 tragedies. On this trip, it was obvious to me that the individuals who were attempting to provide greater security at our airports did not have the necessary training. When arriving in Durango, I called Mike Karnes, the Director of our Public Safety Training Facility, and asked that when I returned in a few days he have on my desk a proposal for training security personnel in airports. Mike's response was, "I'm working on it already."

In the last few years we have had two major national initiatives: the Welfare Reform Act and the Workforce Investment Act. Monroe Community College like many other community colleges immediately responded with our local governments and developed programs to address these important changes.

In fact, it was through a partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial Management Council and Monroe Community College that a most innovative program was developed to address the Workforce Investment Act - a One Stop Center that is being replicated in this state and many others. The reason - it is business, industry and education working together at their best.

In the past few years, we have opened two new campuses - an Applied Technologies Center which trains auto technicians; heating, ventilating and air conditioning technicians; and precision tooling and machining technicians.

Also, a Public Safety Training Facility, which trains fire, police and EMT personnel. Every police officer and sheriff’s deputy in the greater Rochester area goes through our police academy; the same opportunities exist for firefighters. We train airport fire personnel for all of Upstate New York and beyond.

Yes, when the State Legislature approved legislation for community colleges, there was no way they could have ever imagined the impact these community colleges would have on our communities - the educational impact and value as measured by cost per student, our community colleges are one of the best buys in education.

To meet the increasing demands and expectations of our communities, we need increased revenue. As you are well aware, our students are doing more than their share. We are all working hard to get our counties to provide more support, and we desperately need the State to increase the support it has given the community college system over the years. We are your creation. I know you won't abandon us now when the business and industry of this state need us more than ever.

Thank you very much.