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Berkshire Community College is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
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The college first opened in the Central Annex in Pittsfield.
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The latest addition on the campus was made a couple years ago.
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President Kennedy cuts the ribbon with Eugene Dellea on the sports field that bears his name.
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Kennedy and former President Paul Raverta at the rededication of the Boland Theatre.
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The college has been holding its commencement ceremonies at Tanglewood to accommodate the number of graduates and family members. This had to be canceled this year because of the pandemic.

Berkshire Community College Celebrates 60th Year With Video Ceremony

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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BCC has had a generational impact on many. Here is late professor Mitch Mulholland with his son and future college vice president William Mulholland on his graduation.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The state's first community college opened 60 years ago in the Central Annex building on Second Street with about 150 students and a handful of disciplines. 
 
Since then, its moved to West Street, increased its student body by more than tenfold and offers 40 associate degrees and 15 certificates, some in disciplines that didn't exist 60 years ago. 
 
Much of Berkshire Community College's original establishment is because of the work done by former state Rep. Thomas C. Wojtkowski of Pittsfield, who represented what was then the 5th Berkshire District. 
 
"We all have to credit Tom Wojtkowski for the fact that community colleges are such an important part of Massachusetts today," said BCC President Ellen Kennedy.
 
Wojtkowski, now in his 90s, recognized how important higher education was and set out to find a way to make it more accessible. He found partners in the Legislature to support his idea, including one on Cape Cod who also wanted to see community colleges become a part of Massachusetts. Because of Wojtkowski's collaboration with state Sen. Edward Carleton Stone, Cape Cod Community College became the second community college in Massachusetts in 1961.
 
Years later, Wojtkowski's daughter Dr. Marcella Bradway would graduate from BCC before going on to earn her medical degree and served on the board of trustees.
 
In 1964, BCC was accredited by the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and, in 1972, expanded to its location 180 acres of land on West Street. Kennedy, in a note on the college's website, said BCC will continue to evolve in the 21st century to provide programs and degrees "in the areas of highest demand." 
 
What did not exist 60 years ago was the novel coronavirus, which forced the college to rethink how it would celebrate its diamond anniversary. A planned outdoor ceremony in September had to be scrapped because of the pandemic, as had the 2020 commencement. 
 
The solution was to host a virtual ceremony that will highlight the many different programs within BCC and include interviews from students, alumni, and staff. This one-hour long, 17-segment video is a collaboration with Pittsfield Community Television.
 
The event will be aired on Pittsfield Community Television on Thursday evening and hosted on BCC's website.
 
"We knew we couldn't go past this anniversary year without acknowledging it," said Toni Buckley, the college's director of alumni relations who produced the video.
 
She sat down with Associate Director of Marketing Jonah Sykes and created an outline and they looked  videos, commercials, interviews, and promotional videos BCC has previously produced and decided what they could add to that to put together a meaningful, representative, and emotional film.
 
Since the video will be an hour long, it was important to keep viewers engaged the whole way through.
 
"This is for the whole Berkshire community no matter if you have never had a connection with BCC or not, this is for you," Buckley said. "If this is your first touchpoint with BCC, that's great."
 
At the end of August and beginning of September, PCTV crew came to campus and filmed interviews with staff, students, and alumni.
 
"It's a mix between professionally filmed recording and Zoom recordings, I even went and filmed one segment with my phone," Buckley said. "It's like this mosaic of all different kinds of technologies and levels of professionalism, but I think it all comes together and it's very moving. ...
 
"We couldn't have done it without PCTV, specifically Dave Cachet. It has been an amazing collaboration."
 
Buckley hopes that BCC will still be able to hold an in-person anniversary celebration in September 2021, but for now aims to have this video show all that BCC has given back to the Berkshires and create a sense of togetherness.
 
Buckley came to Berkshires in 2015 from Germany and has a degree in communication design and photography. She's has held three positions at Berkshire Community College since 2017. A year later she was made director of alumni relations, the first in this post since 2015. 
 
With 60 years behind the college's belt, BCC has tens of thousands of alumni out there that it hasn't been able to track because the college has only been keeping track of alumni for five to 10 years now. This makes Buckley's position integral to having a diverse range of BCC alumni representation.
 
Because her position is new, she is able to be creative with the ideas she has for alumni relations. She speaks one on one to an average of five to 10 graduates per week and has picked up social media presence to increase engagement.  
 
Buckley has also made collaborations with other organizations such as PCTV to increase visibility. BCC currently has a weekly and bi-weekly Zoom talk show on PCTV, so far has had 43 guests since April.
 
Kennedy said the COVID-19 pandemic forced the college to create news ways to support students and faculty.
 
Community colleges are on the front line during the pandemic, she said, because students are often first-responders and health-care workers who are trying to figure out how to support their family and afford college at the same time.
 
BCC converted to remote learning in March and plans to do so through the next spring semester. BCC's faculty spent their summer learning how to convert courses into remote learning format in a four-week online course.
 
New student orientation was also converted into an online model and had more than 1,000 student participants.  Additionally, BCC invited all students to complete a "How To Be A Remote Learner" online course so they could become comfortable with remote learning.  Every student who completed the course was sent a check for $100 out of eduational relief fund of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act.
 
"We knew this would increase student's ability to successfully navigate a really different semester," Kennedy said. "We've gotten great feedback and we are really proud of what our faculty have done and what are students are doing."
 
All of the services that BCC offers to students such as academic advising and personal counseling are now available virtually as well.
 

President Kennedy announcing a $2 million grant to the college in 2015 to support student success.
"What we would love to hear is students saying, 'I couldn't be at BCC but BCC was there for me during this process,'" said Kennedy, who became the college's seventh president in 2012. 
 
Misty Corio, class of 2014 for animal care and 2018 for environmental science, wrote in an email that BCC was a special place for her. 
 
"I loved attending school there. The professors are extremely passionate and knowledgeable and I love the community friendly  environment. I now work there as the environmental lab technician and couldn't be happier," she wrote. 
 
Jahaira M. DeAlto, class of 2020 wrote:
 
"Saying that Berkshire Community College taught me how to fly would be utterly cliche. My truth is, the staff and faculty at BCC introduced me to my wings in the first place. This is their legacy of 60 years, and it is what students for the next 60 years can look forward to."
 
William Mulholland, who retired several years ago as vice president of lifelong learning and workforce development at BCC and whose father, Mitch Mulholland, was his first professor there, wrote: "BCC is our shining city on the hill; it changes lives!"

Tags: anniversary,   BCC,   

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MassDOT Project Will Affect Traffic Near BMC

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Prepare for traffic impacts around Berkshire Medical Center through May for a state Department of Transportation project to improve situations and intersections on North Street and First Street.

Because of this, traffic will be reduced to one lane of travel on First Street (U.S. Route 7) and North Street between Burbank Street and Abbott Street from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday through at least May 6.

BMC and Medical Arts Complex parking areas remain open and detours may be in place at certain times. The city will provide additional updates on changes to traffic patterns in the area as construction progresses.

The project has been a few years in the making, with a public hearing dating back to 2021. It aims to increase safety for all modes of transportation and improve intersection operation.

It consists of intersection widening and signalization improvements at First and Tyler streets, the conversion of North Street between Tyler and Stoddard Avenue to serve one-way southbound traffic only, intersection improvements at Charles Street and North Street, intersection improvements at Springside Avenue and North Street, and the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of First Street, North Street, Stoddard Avenue, and the Berkshire Medical Center entrance.

Work also includes the construction of 5-foot bike lanes and 5-foot sidewalks with ADA-compliant curb ramps.  

Last year, the City Council approved multiple orders for the state project: five orders of takings for intersection and signal improvements at First Street and North Street. 

The total amount identified for permanent and temporary takings is $397,200, with $200,000 allocated by the council and the additional monies coming from carryover Chapter 90 funding. The state Transportation Improvement Plan is paying for the project and the city is responsible for 20 percent of the design cost and rights-of-way takings.

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