SCC Construction, Agriculture Programs Receive Case Backhoe from CNHI

07/01/2015

West Burlington, IA –Southeastern Community College received a backhoe from Case Construction, a brand of CNH Industrial at a presentation at the Case assembly plant in Burlington on Tuesday.

SCC’s Construction Technology and Agriculture programs will use the backhoe for student instruction and special class projects.

The donation of a Case 580N backhoe, valued at nearly $75,000, was the result of SCC and CNH officials working together over the past four months. 

CNH Industrial’s Platform and Product Development Manager for the company’s tractor loader backhoe division, Jeff Stewart, and Plant Operations Manager Steve Van Zant spoke to a crowd of more than 30 CNH employees, SCC students, instructors, and staff, and media.

Stewart shared with the crowd that he is a graduate of SCC’s Mechanical Technology program and that his time at SCC prepared him to transfer to Iowa State to earn an engineering degree.

Van Zant added that he, too, went to SCC and explained to students in the crowd why his company supports community colleges through gifts like this. “It’s important that we support SCC because in the future, some of you will become CNHI employees.”

SCC President Dr. Michael Ash echoed Van Zant about the importance of partnerships between local industry and the College.

“This kind of equipment is expensive and the College can’t always afford it. That means for us to be effective, we need community partners. We can’t do what’s best for our students without the support of our local industry. We do a disservice to everyone if we can’t give to students the skills local industry wants them to have, so whenever we can work together on projects like this, everybody wins.”

Instructors already have plans to incorporate use of the backhoe into their classwork. While SCC’s Construction Technology program will make considerable use of it in its Safety & Introduction to Heavy Equipment class, Ag students will also get a good deal of experience with it as well.

“In addition to learning how to dig trenches to install drainage tile, our Ag instructors will use it to dig soil pits so students can examine and better understand soil layers and root systems,” Ash explained.

For photos of the event, visit SCC’s flickr page: https://flic.kr/s/aHskeDsREB.

For more news or to learn about Southeastern Community College, visit: https://www.scciowa.edu/rss/news/index.html