Ramsey, B. Carlyle

English

Research Papers in Economics

Agricultural  Outlook  Forum      Presented:  February  17,  2006 
 
GROWING A RURAL ECONOMY WITH AN ENTREPRENEURIAL COMMUNITY 
COLLEGE 
 
B. Carlyle Ramsey 
President, Danville Community College 
  
GROWING A RURAL ECONOMY WITH AN   
ENTREPRENEURIAL COMMUNITY 
COLLEGE 
 
 
  Rural America is a study in contrasts.  While some regions and communities 
  are thriving, others are struggling to survive.  During the widespread  
  prosperity of the 1990s, many rural areas continued to suffer persistent  
 poverty.
1 
  
  Danville Community College (DCC), located in south central Virginia, often 
described as southside, has been a major partner in a concerted effort to diversify and 
transform the economy of the region.  The primary strength of the region’s economy for 
the past half century has rested on wood products, tobacco and textiles. 
 
  Danville Community College’s service region consists of two rural counties:  
Halifax (population:  36,362) and Pittsylvania (population:  61,752) and the City of 
Danville (population:  46,371) for a combined population of 144,485.
2  In 1992, more 
than 40 percent of all the jobs in the region were in manufacturing.  With the dramatic 
decline of manufacturing jobs in textiles, tobacco, and to a lesser degree, wood products, 
approximately 25 percent of the jobs are currently tied to manufacturing, which is still 
higher than the national and state levels.  Danville Community College, a member of the 
23-college Virginia Community College System (VCCS), has a rich tradition in working 
with business and industry, a record that extends to the inception of its predecessor 
institution, Danville Technical Institute, established in 1935.  For example, a number of 
Danville Community College’s programs are more than 60 years old such as heating and 
air conditioning, welding, electronics, machining, and a number of others.  Another 
predecessor institution was the Danville Branch of Virginia Tech which was established 
after World War II as a two-year extension center to prepare engineers, business and 
liberal arts students for transfer to Virginia Tech.   
 
  An  article which appeared in a recent League for Innovation publication, the title 
of which is “Workforce, Economic, and Community Development:  The Changing 
Landscape of the Entrepreneurial Community College,” advances the proposition that not 
all community colleges have an entrepreneurial focus.  In addition to the traditional 
access goal, the article’s authors argued that entrepreneurial community colleges 
                                                 
1  Expanding Economic and Educational Opportunity in Distressed Rural Areas:  A Conceptual   
   Framework  for the Rural Community College Initiative.  MDC Inc. (Chapel Hill, 2001), p. 1. 
 
2  U.S. Census Bureau, 2005 Population Estimates. 
   2
concentrate on the following broad goals:  (1)  strengthening the workforce; (2)  assisting 
with economic development; and, (3)  assisting with community development.  
Moreover, the entrepreneurial community college is designed “to capture its 
entrepreneurial spirit, market-oriented drive, and responsiveness to external 
organizations.”
3  Danville Community College is committed to all of the aforementioned 
goals as a part of a larger strategy to assist with the economic revitalization of the 
region’s economy.    
  
  With regard to access, Danville Community College has launched a number of 
strategies to ensure that the College is delivering its programs, people, and message to the 
citizens who may have trouble commuting to the 76-acre campus located in the City of 
Danville.  The College has established three neighborhood educational opportunity 
centers (NEOC’s) in Danville and several rural centers in the heavily rural counties of 
Halifax and Pittsylvania.  The neighborhood centers serve as a vitally important outreach 
initiative for the College.   
 
  The outreach centers were initially funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation 
when DCC was selected in 1997 to participate in a national demonstration project, the 
title of which was the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI).  RCCI helped 
community colleges sharpen their focus on addressing two overarching goals:  expanding 
access and assisting with economic development.
4   DCC’s experience with Ford was 
invaluable in enabling the College to transform its internal culture among faculty, staff, 
and students, as well as its external constituencies.  Since RCCI was launched in 1997, 
the College has experienced steady enrollment growth--notwithstanding the fact that the 
region’s population growth is flat and the demographics indicate strongly that the 
population’s workforce is becoming increasingly older.
5    Moreover, there has been an 
inexorable and disquieting out-migration of many of the region’s most talented youth.  
Unless major and aggressive strategies are taken, these results are ominous for the future 
workforce.  
 
  A second leg on which an entrepreneurial community college stands is in 
strengthening the workforce.   Indeed the community college’s success, mission, and 
raison d`etre have traditionally been inextricably tied to expanding access and 
strengthening the workforce.   However, an entrepreneurial community college views 
workforce preparation in a much broader perspective by incorporating degrees, 
certificates and diplomas as a part of the workforce process.    Moreover, while 
customized training is also central to this process, so is career planning and placement.  
The latter has often been overlooked by many community colleges because this segment 
of the college’s function is either underfunded or not funded at all.    
 
                                                 
3   Grubb, W. Norton, Norena Badway, et. al., “Workforce, Economic, and Community Development:  The          
Changing Landscape of the Entrepreneurial Community College,”  p. 1.  
<http://ncrve.berkeley.edu/Summaries/1094sum.html. 
4   A Conceptual Framework , pp. 1-3. 
5  Regional Strategic Plan—West Piedmont Alliance Planning District, 2003, pp. 2-3, 2-5.   3
  If a community college does not have exemplary workforce programs, it will not 
likely be taken seriously by the economic professionals in a community.   In other words, 
if the access and workforce issues are not outstanding and exemplary, the local 
community college will not likely be invited to the table as a true economic development 
partner.   It requires the community college administrative leaders and faculty not only to 
recognize this imperative, but also to work on improving the college’s position every day, 
vis-a-vis economic development.    DCC provides data and technical services to 
economic development entities, and workforce professionals meet with prospects early 
during a search process.  The senior administrative/workforce team often serves on 
economic development and chamber boards.  Finally, the College is a major partner in 
the job creation and retention business.  Danville Community College has established 
labs with advanced state-of-the-art technology and equipment in such areas as polymers 
which have had a direct impact on productivity among the area’s employers.  The 
College also provides technical services in a number of other areas.  In addition, DCC has 
partnered with Virginia Tech in establishing a polymer/plastics institute.  Virginia Tech 
and DCC are exploring a similar arrangement with nanotechnology.  As a result, DCC 
has formed an exciting partnership with Virginia Tech, Averett University, a local liberal 
arts university, the Institute of Advanced Learning and Research, and local industry and 
political leaders to facilitate a bold economic development initiative.
6 
 
  When the community college is clicking on all of the above goals (i.e., access, 
workforce, economic development, and community development ), it is affecting  
community building and economic transformation, thus contributing immeasurably to 
quality of life issues.   Rural communities must have an aggressive, proactive plan for 
economic competitiveness.  An entrepreneurial community college is one of the key 
partners in the game plan.   
 
  (I plan to show a seven-minute video on our Advanced Digital Manufacturing 
Center.) 
 
 
    
B. Carlyle Ramsey is the President of Danville Community College, Danville, Virginia.  
E-mail:  bramsey@dcc.vccs.edu  
                                                 
6  “Learning.  Working.  Winning.  Bringing the New Economy to the Dan River Region.”  A Report of the 
     Future of the Piedmont Foundation, prepared by MDC Inc., Chapel Hill, 2000. 

Growing a Rural Economy with an Entrepreneurial Community College

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