MOUNT VERNON – Central Ohio Technical College (COTC) recently held a Knox County-area virtual town hall discussion, which included a presentation by COTC President Dr. John Berry.

The town halls are a new effort to connect with the representatives of different COTC regions and have in-depth discussions on project updates and other points of interest.

"This is the start of something new for us here at COTC," Berry said in the discussion. "Within all of our campus communities, we have started to now engage in a process of a town hall engagement."

Berry noted that the college held its first-ever virtual town hall at a different campus last week, and the interactions with the advisory boards have been positive thus far. 

"We just wanted to make sure that we spread our voice and our communication spectrum a little wider," he said. "We wanted to make sure that we were able to get into the communities themselves [...] to have these over-arching discussions."

The president said that the majority of Knox County campus students have been and continue to attend school virtually. 

"It has been an interesting dynamic," he said. "To be an institution like ours and to make sure that students felt secure and supported in this type of distance education has been a bit of a challenge, but we have made sure to reach out to students to check in with them on a consistent and regular basis."

Berry said thanks are owed to the Knox County campus advising and mission staff for making sure that students remained successful through the pandemic. 

"They have been very closely connected to students to make sure that they are navigating the system," he said. Over $1 million in grants and scholarships have been disbursed throughout the pandemic to help students in need, with at least an additional $1 million slated for distribution soon. 

For COTC's entire Knox County town hall discussion, visit the school's Zoom page.