Over the past few days, Southwestern Community College hosted its 10-year reaffirmation site visit as a key milestone of the accreditation process with the Commission on Colleges and Universities (CC&U, formerly known as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges).

A visiting committee met with more than 50 college administrators, employees and students from Oct. 5-8 at three instructional locations across SCC’s service area of Jackson, Macon, Swain Counties and the Qualla Boundary.

The visiting committee consisted of a CC&U staff member as well as six peer reviewers from colleges outside North Carolina.

“Reaffirmation is an important opportunity for us to look closely at how well we are fulfilling our mission and serving our students and communities,” said Dr. Don Tomas, SCC President. “I am incredibly proud of the way our faculty and staff prepared for this visit and, more importantly, of the work they do every day to provide an outstanding educational experience for our students. We appreciated the opportunity to welcome our peer reviewers to SCC and to share the great work happening across our college.”

Southwestern was initially accredited by the Southern Association on Colleges and Schools in December of 1971 and has since continuously maintained that accreditation.

Peer review is a fundamental aspect of the CC&U accreditation process. Higher education professionals from peer institutions evaluate SCC’s compliance with accreditation standards and its commitment to institutional quality and student success.

“One of the strengths of the accreditation process is peer review. Our visitors are higher education professionals who understand the work we do because they are doing similar work at colleges across the region,” said Dr. Barbara Putman, SCC’s Executive Vice President for Instruction & Student Services. “Their questions and perspectives give us an opportunity not only to demonstrate that we meet accreditation standards but also to reflect on how we can continue to improve. The site visit allowed our faculty, staff, students and partners to tell SCC’s story, and I was very proud of the story they told.”

Though significant, the site visit does not mark the conclusion of the accreditation process. SCC’s reaffirmation work reflects an ongoing commitment to continuous improvement, institutional effectiveness, academic quality and student success.

SCC will continue the remaining steps of the reaffirmation following the site visit with the final reaffirmation decision expected in June of next year.

“A reaffirmation review involves an extraordinary amount of work across an institution,” said Andrea Stamper, SCC’s Director of Institutional Research & Planning and the college’s CC&U Institutional Liaison. “Faculty and staff throughout SCC contributed to documenting our compliance, evaluating our practices and preparing for the visiting committee. The site visit was an important milestone in a process that has involved years of work and collaboration, and we are grateful to everyone across the college who helped us reach this point.”

For more information about Southwestern and the programs it offers, call 828.339.4000 or drop by the nearest SCC location.

Jim Schwalm (center) of the N.C. State Employees Credit Union (SECU) presented a $500,000 check to SCC officials on Sept. 25 in Sylva.

The donation from the SECU Foundation supports the Good Jobs WNC initiative, which aims to address workforce needs in the manufacturing, skilled labor and healthcare sectors.

The Good Jobs WNC Initiative is a cooperative effort among the 11 westernmost community colleges in North Carolina, local employers, the John W. Belk Endowment, The Leon Levine Foundation, America Achieves, Dogwood Health Trust, SECU and other philanthropic agencies.

Pictured with Schwalm are, from left: Scott Sutton, SCC’s Dean of Workforce Continuing Education; Dr. Don Tomas, SCC President; Dr. Barbara Putman, SCC’s Executive Vice President of Instruction & Student Services; and Mike Despeaux, SCC’s Director of Career Services.

Written by SCC PR Intern, Jonathan Mendoza

Eight students made the President’s and Dean’s list for the 2026 Summer semester at Southwestern Community College.

To be honored, students must complete at least 12 credit hours in the summer semester. The President’s list of honorees earned a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.85 or higher, while those on the Dean’s list earned a Grade Point Average between 3.50 and 3.849.

PRESIDENT’S LIST

CLAY COUNTY

Hayesville: Autumn Bykofsky-Conley

JACKSON COUNTY

Sylva: Heather Michelle Phillips

Whittier: Cameron Gawayugi Jackson

MACON COUNTY

Otto: Ella Marie Summers

DEAN’S LIST

JACKSON COUNTY

Sylva: Amanda Ann Vaden

MACON COUNTY

Franklin: Abbigale Rose Hopkins, Alma Elizabeth Vasquez-Garcia

RABUN COUNTY, GAClayton: Margaret Ulrich

As part of a collaborative effort aimed at providing relief to the region affected by Hurricane Helene, the Good Jobs WNC Initiative has awarded Southwestern Community College $271,575 to help address workforce needs in manufacturing, skilled labor and the healthcare sectors.

After assessing some of the strongest needs of the labor market in Southwestern’s service area, SCC officials are focusing on two areas for expansion: Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) and Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC). Plans for adding an evening LPN program and a daytime HVAC program are already underway at Southwestern.

“This funding allows us to create a sustainable educational model and create a pipeline of talent for area employers while also preparing students for good jobs,” said Dr. Don Tomas, SCC’s President. “This is exactly what community colleges have been doing successfully for a very long time, and our region is going to benefit tremendously from this investment.”

The Good Jobs WNC Initiative is a cooperative effort among the 11 westernmost community colleges in North Carolina, local employers, the John W. Belk Endowment, The Leon Levine Foundation, America Achieves, Dogwood Health Trust, State Employees Credit Union and other philanthropic agencies.

Its goal is to place 1,200 students into high-demand job opportunities within the region. SCC’s initiative defines a “good job” as one that provides a living-wage income (starting wage of at least $42,000 annually), benefits and an opportunity for advancement.

With the additional LPN educational track, SCC can double the number of yearly LPN graduates and improve the workforce pipeline of nurses. Recent research reveals that 83 percent of SCC graduates stay, live and work in the college’s service area of Jackson, Macon, Swain Counties and the Qualla Boundary.

For the HVAC program expansion, a shortened (14-week) certificate program teaches essential foundational competencies, providing a rapid pipeline for matriculating skilled workers in the local economy. Four days of classroom instruction will be paired with one day of hands-on training in the field.

The Good Jobs Framework, developed by America Achieves, guides the initiative’s work across 11 community colleges and 23 counties to expand education, training and employment access for low-income residents of Western North Carolina. The goal is twofold: prepare and place more residents into good jobs in Western North Carolina, and translate that experience and lessons learned to build evidence, tools, and recommendations to improve education and workforce policy at large scale at the state and national levels.

“This work began with listening to the people who know Western North Carolina best: its community college leaders, employers, and residents,” said MC Belk Pilon, President and Board Chair of the John M. Belk Endowment. “Their leadership has brought us to this point. We are thrilled that national philanthropy will build on local communities to help make sure that this region not only delivers strong local programs but develops lessons learned and tools to take lasting pathways to economic mobility to a much larger scale.”

For more information about Southwestern and the programs it offers, visit www.SouthwesternCC.edu, call 828.339.4000 or drop by your nearest SCC location.

For almost the entirety of Southwestern Community College’s 62-year history, precious little space has been fully dedicated to short-term workforce training.

That’s about to change.

Thanks in large part to a $2,593,557 million grant award from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), Southwestern will be able to renovate the existing Holt Library structure into a centralized space for the college’s Small Business Center and workforce development.

Planning is underway, and officials are working to schedule construction to begin shortly after Holt Library moves to a new location at the center of SCC’s Jackson Campus. Renovation of the Workforce Continuing Education Division’s space is expected to be completed by the summer of 2028.

The total project cost equates to $3,241,946. As part of an 80/20 federal/local funding split, the project’s remaining budget of $648,389 will be covered by a local match from SCC’s institutional funds.

“As is the case at community colleges across the country, short-term workforce training is in high demand throughout our service area,” said Dr. Don Tomas, SCC’s President. “This investment by the EDA will benefit not only our existing businesses but also thousands of workers and their families in the years to come.”

The EDA grant is supported through disaster recovery funding. Hurricane Helene exposed training gaps throughout the region, and SCC has identified ways to address those gaps by expanding space to provide short-term, relevant training that is responsive to business needs. These efforts are part of a strategy for fostering the region’s long-term economic resilience.

SCC’s Workforce Continuing Education Division typically trains individuals for new careers in four months or less and helps aspiring and existing entrepreneurs to grow their small businesses.

Southwestern’s official grant submission to the EDA highlighted the fact that the Southwestern NC region – including SCC’s service area of Jackson, Macon, Swain Counties and the Qualla Boundary – is in the process of adding about 6,000 jobs between the years 2022-2032. Many of those new jobs require technical or vocational schools, but only 44.9 percent of area residents have a degree or credential – far lower than the state average of 58.4 percent.

The existing Holt Library has 11,056 square feet, and initial plans call for the creation of multiple classrooms, conference rooms, flex spaces and offices to support workforce training and the Small Business Center. The Workforce Continuing Education Division currently occupies less than 1,300 square feet of office space inside Founders Hall – the only structure on Southwestern’s campus when the institution opened in 1964.

“We’re grateful to Dr. Tomas and our college administration for supporting this effort to secure space that can be dedicated entirely to helping individuals receive the training they need to quickly prepare for high-demand careers in our area,” said Scott Sutton, SCC’s Dean of Workforce Continuing Education.

Within five years of project completion, SCC officials project the new facility will help generate a 10-percent increase in the number of course completions in an industry-recognized credential.

The investment is projected to generate $32.8 million in annual payroll over the same time span.

For more information about Southwestern and the programs it offers, visit www.SouthwesternCC.edu, call 828.339.4000 or drop by the nearest SCC location.