BERKELEY – As students go back to school, a guest speaker addressed a recent meeting of the Township Council to extol the virtues of attending college locally.
Dr. Pamela Monaco, president of Ocean County College, spoke about the ability to get a scholarly education without hurting your wallet or your gas tank.
She opened her talk asking for a show of hands – who in the audience attended the school? There was a significant number.
That number might go higher in future years since several local high schools have programs that allow a kid to receive their high school diploma at the same time as their associate’s from OCC.
Additionally, now that there’s a partnership with Kean University, “a student never has to leave our campus. They can complete a four-year degree and even their master’s without ever leaving Ocean County.” Stockton University classes can also be taken as a junior.
Another reason more people will be going there in the future is a paramedic program in 2026. Healthcare has been a focal point of the school for a number of years, and she boasted that the nursing program has a 100% job placement rate.
She told the story of a Cornell University student living in India who figured out that flying to New Jersey and taking a summer class at OCC would be cheaper than taking a summer class at Cornell. The student then talked about the class with contemporaries at Cornell, who noted that the OCC class was harder.
The campus is a cultural touchstone even if you are not a student, she said, reminding the audience of the Robert J. Novins Planetarium, the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the arts.
Open for 61 years, OCC was the first community college in the state, Monaco said.
Mayor John Bacchione said that for two years, a family can save a lot of money. For example, 15 credits costs $2,699.
While you’re saving in money, you’re not losing anything in quality, he noted, complimenting the top notch instructors. “Are classes any different at Harvard than here?”
He said he is in the mortgage business, and when looking at credit reports, he’s seen families going into a great amount of debt due to higher education.
“Student debt is not going to let people buy a house or get married,” he said. “There are attorneys who graduate with so much debt that they’ll be in debt until their 50s.”
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