This story is part of a series marking the 50th anniversary of SUNY Jamestown Community College's Cattaraugus County Campus in Olean and its impact on the region. Visit sunyjcc.edu/News to read additional articles.
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Della Moore cried at the thought that a two-year college might no longer exist in the Olean area.
Then, she acted.
It was 1976, and Moore was on the cusp of graduating from the Alfred State College Olean campus extension. The State University of New York had decided to shutter the extension because of budget constraints, making Moore’s graduating class the last.
First, she penned a passionate letter to Cattaraugus County leaders. Next, she traveled to Little Valley with classmates to speak to county legislators in person.
Moore’s college experience meant too much to her to do nothing. She wanted others to have the same educational opportunities.
SUNY JCC took over. The photo above is during Moore's time as a student.
What she did then still matters today. Moore may not have graduated from SUNY Jamestown Community College, but she and her classmates helped shape the college’s future in Olean.
A half-century after Moore urged Cattaraugus County legislators to support JCC’s takeover of Alfred’s operations at 722 Homer St., the college is celebrating 50 years in Olean this year. The college has been sponsored by the county throughout that time.
“I remember,” Moore said recently, “especially women like me with a family and not a whole lot of money, we put the kids first and we can’t afford to go to Bonaventure” and other traditional four-year colleges.
“It would be hard to put our children who graduated from high school right into Bonaventure,” she continued. “Alfred was for me, and JCC now is a good passing through or a steppingstone — and I mean that in the nicest way — to get our bachelor’s. The many people in my situation, we’re not in the condition to just fork over a lot of money for (college) because we just didn’t have it.”
Moore was a mother of two grade-school children, a cashier at Tops supermarket and just over a year removed from relocating to Olean from Philadelphia when she read in the newspaper that one could audit a new Shakespeare course at no cost at Alfred’s Olean extension. It was fall 1973.
“I loved Shakespeare,” Moore said.
Inspired to do more, Moore used grants and financial aid to complete an associate degree at Alfred.
It wasn’t always easy.
She walked from her home on 12th Street in Olean to Homer Street — sometimes in the bitter cold, sometimes in pouring rain — to get to night classes.
“I remember walking all the way down there,” Moore said. “There was a particular dog. It was a big dog. I was walking past, and he did not like me for nothing, and there was no way to walk on the other side. But I still did it, because I was passionate about doing that.”
Moore’s letter to the legislators called for the county to invite JCC to take over the college.
Moore wrote, in part: “College has given me an awareness of myself that I would not have received elsewhere and could not have afforded it anywhere else but at the Extension. I certainly am a happier person and, I hope, a credit to my community ... There are at least a thousand others like me this college has helped. I envision thousands more to come.”
Indeed, thousands of students have graduated from JCC’s Cattaraugus County Campus in Olean since Moore’s letter was written, taking advantage of affordable education close to home.
One of them was Ginna Hensel in 2021. And, like Moore, she didn’t sit idly by.
During her two years at the Cattaraugus County Campus, Hensel was a student ambassador, a member of the campus Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, an honors program student and a tutor for classmates. She also happened to be the Cattaraugus County Campus’ first elected student member of the JCC Board of Trustees.
To complete her JCC days, Hensel delivered the campus’ commencement address.
“I had no clue that there would be so many opportunities,” she said. “I really didn't. I also wasn't expecting people to care. Every single one of my professors cared. Whether it was a faculty member, a staff member, everyone just cared. And I think that's still true today that everyone cares.
“And I was so taken aback by how many professors were willing to step up and mentor and how many people were just willing to just take you under their wing. I was under a lot of wings here.”
Hensel returned to JCC as an employee in August 2025. As an assistant in the campus Learning Commons, students feel her bubbly, can-do presence every day.
"It's the most fulfilling part of my job, because during that process, I really get to know the students and I get to connect with them,” Hensel said. “And then they feel like they have one person that they know on campus that is a smiling face that they can come back to, and they're not afraid to ask a stupid question.”
Like Hensel, Moore's connection to JCC didn't end when she left the classroom. She has returned over the years to teach classes in Black history and the Harlem Renaissance.
After JCC, Moore earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from St. Bonaventure University, and she became an Olean fixture through her volunteer work and community involvement, serving on countless boards and committees.
At 87, Moore is director of the African American Center for Cultural Development in Olean, which she founded in 2010. She continues to raise funds and lead tours.
“It’s still going strong,” she said. “I’m loving it. I’m so grateful for all the support. I’m living the dream. God is good. He is so good. I am so blessed.”
Fifty years after completing her last class at Alfred, Moore still feels a tug at her heart when she drives past the old Homer Street building.
She also fondly remembers gathering with fellow students at Sullivan’s Lounge in Olean to write and share ideas.
“I think we put out four or five books – little, teeny books of poetry and stuff,” she said. “Oh gosh, we had a good time.”
The way Moore talks enthusiastically about her first two years of college echoes what JCC students have said for generations about their own experiences with small classes, caring instructors, and opportunities that changed their lives.
“I was just so grateful for the experience of going to Alfred,” she said, “and I’m so grateful JCC took it over.”