Retiring Burlington County College president Messina recalls path to more prestige

When Robert Messina Jr. took charge of Burlington County College 25 years ago, classes were taught in 17 barracks on a sleepy Pemberton campus. Most of the school's 2,000 students were part-timers in their late 20s.

But as the popularity of two-year public colleges grew, so did BCC, now a more prestigious institution with four campuses, gleaming glass buildings, 14,000 students, and partnerships with universities that provide bachelor's and master's degrees on-site.

The college's progress came in fits and starts, Messina recalled in an interview on the eve of his retirement as president this week.

Ronald Brand, the school's vice president of financial and administrative services, has been appointed acting president. The board of trustees is expected to name a permanent replacement by the end of May, a BCC spokeswoman said.

Community colleges once were considered "the runt in the litter," said Messina, 66, of Mount Holly. They were denied the level of state funding doled out to four-year colleges and universities.

The state Department of Higher Education barely considered them when it approved grants, he said.

Over the years, Messina raised private funds, and persuaded state and county agencies to issue bonds and grants to buy land and construct buildings to meet the growing demand for an affordable college education.

"As tuition costs of four-year schools rose, people started looking for alternatives," he said. Community colleges gained clout during the last decade and are still growing.

The majority of BCC's students are recent high school graduates who are enrolled full-time.

Messina recalled how in the late 1980s, he and county Freeholder Francis Bodine "went out at night and looked at land" for a campus in Mount Laurel. "We didn't want to tip anyone off because we didn't want them to raise their prices," he said, chuckling.

The school purchased a 100-acre orchard and farm just off Route 38 and opened a campus there in 1995, with a technology and engineering center, library, classrooms, and offices for business incubators.

BCC later created campuses in Willingboro and Mount Holly. The latest addition is a $9 million culinary arts center that opened in the fall in Mount Holly and has an enrollment of 125.

His biggest achievement - and challenge - has been to adhere to BCC's mission of "providing a low-cost quality education," Messina said. Tuition is $92 a credit, or roughly $3,000 a year, one of the lowest rates of any public college or university in the state.

Students can now turn a BCC associate's degree into a bachelor's or master's degree from Drexel University, Seton Hall, or Rider University at a considerable savings and without leaving campus.

BCC was the first community college in the state to reach an alliance with a four-year institution, Messina said.

"A lot of our students were part-time, single parents, or people returning from the service," he said, "and their lifestyle didn't fit in with traveling to a college and taking courses full time."

At first, "some of the four-year colleges were resistant" to partnering, he said. Courses had to be analyzed, and credits had to be accepted.

In 1989, BCC formed an alliance with the New Jersey Institute of Technology. In 2005, Messina reached an agreement with Drexel, whose main campus is in Philadelphia. Since then, 225 students have earned Drexel engineering or science degrees on the BCC campus, he said. They pay BCC tuition the first two years and Drexel tuition the next two.

Messina announced his retirement a year ago at the urging of his wife, Jean, a retired nurse. "This is a 24/7 job if you do it right," he said.

"Which is why he is leaving," interjected Jean Messina, who was interviewed with her husband. "He has never been able to be here a little bit."

The couple plan to travel, visit family and friends, and "enjoy life."

Her husband made an impact, said Jean Messina. "He knows there are people out there with a lot to offer, but who do not have the opportunity. . . . He's opened doors for students that they didn't think existed."

Robert Messina's experience at the City University of New York, which he attended when it was free, helped motivate him to provide a college education to students who couldn't afford other schools. "If it wasn't for CUNY, I would [have been on] loading docks," said Messina, who earned an undergraduate chemistry degree there and a doctorate at Fordham University.

He will be missed, said Natasha Wesley, president of BCC's student government.

"Dr. Messina was so intimate with the students. He walked the halls, was very warm and very inviting, like having a father figure in your life," Wesley said. He held monthly "pizza with the president" events in the cafeteria and would open his home to students at the holidays, she said.

Terry Sherlock, a chemistry teacher at BCC, said he was grateful to Messina for the college's "beautiful science labs that have very expensive and sophisticated instrumentation that allows our students to get really good hands-on experience."

Many BCC students go on to become doctors, pharmacists, and scientists, Sherlock said. They "are all very proud to list BCC as an important part of their academic road map. . . . It's part of Dr. Messina's human legacy."