Dr. Barbara Risser - Finger Lakes Community College

Posted

on Jun 10, 2015

Bob Ike introduced us to Dr. Barbara Risser, who has spent the last 8 years as president of Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC). She shared some interesting facts about the college with us.

The college first opened as Community College of the Finger Lakes in 1968, using Canandaigua storefronts as its “campus”. In 1975 the new campus, which covers 250 acres was opened. The college changed its name to Finger Lakes Community College in 1992. Dr. Risser says that FLCC is a “college with character.” Many community colleges are “vanilla,” but FLCC’s campus has features you wouldn’t find in many other community college campuses, such as nature trails and outdoor classrooms.

FLCC is part of the SUNY system and serves Ontario, Yates, Wayne, and Seneca Counties. In addition to the main campus, they have three campus centers in Victor, Geneva, and Newark. There are two field stations in Honeoye and Naples, plus the Viticulture and Wine Center in Geneva. The college is considered medium-sized, being 15th in size among SUNY’s 30 community colleges. The college has 6,800 enrolled students, split almost evenly between full- and part-time. Two-thirds of the college’s 25,000 alumni live and work in the region.

Dr. Risser seemed proud of some of the school’s signature programs. FLCC’s Environment Conservation program boasts the second highest number of graduates in the country. There is an Instrumentation and Controls Technology program, which was built from the ground up, based on input from local manufacturing companies. The Viticulture and Wine Technology program has a full winery which can produce 400 cases of wine each year. (They can’t do anything with that wine, but a state liquor license is pending.) Other programs offered by the college include Music Recoding, and Culinary Arts.

Dr. Risser also mentioned the Gemini program, which allows high school juniors and seniors to complete FLCC courses while still in high school. The program is tuition-free and students receive credits in their high school as well as FLCC.

Finger Lakes Community College is a local treasure hidden in plain sight, and we thank Dr. Risser for spending her time with us today, shining some light on this valuable resource.