OCtech may become Enterprise Campus

By DIONNE GLEATON, T&D Staff WriterWednesday, February 18, 2009

Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College is poised to promote and enhance economic development with the creation of an enterprise campus.

OCtech would support the location and development of high-technology businesses and industry through an Enterprise Campus Authority Act presently being considered by the Senate Education Committee. The bill has been approved by the House.

“We anticipate it moving smoothly, and we have the support of the entire (legislative) delegation,” OCtech President Dr. Anne Crook said.

“The enterprise campus authority allows the college to work quickly and smoothly with a private business or industry that might want to come to our area and needs training and space. Without going through the two-year process that it currently takes us to build a facility, this would make that a shorter process,” Crook said.

The State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education could approve the building of new facilities and alleviate the college having to go through some of the procurement codes that we generally do, Crook said.

The act would allow for creation of a separate board, which would be made up of members of the existing OCtech Area Commission.

“It would be made up of the current commissioners, but it would be a separate board given the authority to sell, rent or lease land that the college owns. Now, sometimes that might be that a private industry would donate land to us and then we would jointly develop it,” Crook said. “In that way, we would enter into a partnership in the construction and the buying of the equipment.”

The college is asking that all of its current land be part of the enterprise campus because of the college’s limited ability to use government funds on private property, the president said.

So, if a new industry came in and we needed to share a training facility, we could both put funds in it and make it a lot smoother. We have also allowed our (facility) to be open such that if someone came in and developed a facility somewhere else such as in the Global Triangle, then the State Board for Technical Education could give us authority to use the enterprise campus on another location, Crook said.

The triangular area in eastern Orangeburg County, which is formed by the intersections of Interstate 95, I-26 and U.S. 301 and referred to as the Global Logistics Triangle, has been projected to become a regional hub of economic activity.

Crook said the enterprise campus also could be a catalyst for small business development with the availability of training opportunities and equipment capabilities. Midlands Technical College is already home to a 150-acre enterprise campus, which already includes an incubator business.

The tech system statewide is doing this. I think it speaks to the vision of the leadership of the tech system and, of course, Dr. Crook, said Rep. Gilda-Cobb Hunter of Orangeburg, a sponsor of the bill.

They are seizing an opportunity to really prepare their students and forge alliances with business. I see this bill as another weapon in OCtech’s arsenal for economic development. It will allow them to partner with industry and businesses on projects that will be mutually beneficial and … beneficial to the counties, she said.

Gregg Robinson, executive director of the Orangeburg County Economic Development Commission, said he welcomes the creation of an enterprise campus. He said it will allow OCtech to become more responsive to the needs of new and existing industries.

“It helps the college be flexible and creative for incubators as well as offer flexibility to the new manufacturing companies,” said Robinson, noting the college is poised to provide the “quality skill set” needed to recruit industry.

Rep. Harry Ott of Calhoun County, also a sponsor of the bill, said the campus would enhance industrial recruitment and put OCtech in a better position to continue its mission of training workers for a technological work force.

This will increase the opportunity for Tech to work with incoming industry, Ott said.