Campus is pilot site for energy efficiency project; software company plugs in
Schenectady County Community College officials recently announced two new partnerships: one intended to improve the college’s online portal and the other to facilitate an energy efficiency study.
CampusEAI Consortium is partnering with SCCC to implement its myCampus software, which is valued at $1 million over five years. Green View Energy Management Systems of New Hartford chose the campus to be a pilot site for their Real-Time Metering project of electricity expenses, which is funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
At SCCC’s Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, Jan. 24, board members, along with the SCCC President Quintin Bullock, shared their delight in obtaining the two partnerships and the continuing effort to strengthen the college. Both projects are scheduled to begin during the current semester.
These partnerships show that we are looking at innovative solutions to meet the needs of our campus community, said Bullock. `In these trying economic times, these initiatives will result in savings and greater efficiencies, so that we can better redirect priorities to our students, faculty an staff.`
Through the real-time metering of electrical usage on the campus, a baseline usage of electricity will be discovered. The meter can be reviewed on a daily basis to see how much each campus area uses electricity, said Bullock. With a baseline usage established, he said, modifications can be made to be more efficient in electricity usage. The project is scheduled to last for 18 months.
Denise Murphy McGraw, chairwoman of the Board of Trustees, said a metering unit will be placed in a main area of the building so students will also be able to see how much energy the campus is using.
`There is going to be an educational component to it,` said McGraw about the project. `It is going to have an interactive component to it so it is not just energy savings and not just a grant, but something in it for the students as well; that’s what was really attractive to me when I was first approached by NYSERDA about this [project].`
McGraw said the project would be a `good fit` for the campus and noted SCCC is the first campus in the region to get this grant opportunity.
The campus will also be implementing the online community portal for students, faculty and staff through the partnership with CampusEAI Consortium.
The online destination, myCampus, will have SCCC running on the most used campus portal and online content delivery software, said Bullock. This will allow for a single streamlined destination for college members to access academic and social information.
SUNY community colleges will also have a new way to acquire revenue and help fund future projects and expenses.
At the SUNY Board of Trustees meeting on Jan. 11, a resolution was passed to allow community colleges to establish capital cost reserves account. Bullock said this would allow community colleges to transfer operating funding to the accounts, which would have any surpluses in the operating budget get transferred to the account. This contributes to a county’s 50 percent match, so if the county can’t do the full amount can use funds from the account.
`As you all know, community college’s have aging structures and with growing enrollment we need to have new capital in place to address those shortages in funding,` said Bullock.“
