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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Life as a SUNY Jamestown Community College student in Olean in the late 1980s looked a little different than it does today.
Just ask Meme Yanetsko.
When Yanetsko attended classes, JCC was still about 15 years away from opening its modern Cattaraugus County Campus in downtown Olean. Students took their classes in the former Montgomery Ward department store on North Union Street.
The only college building at the time, it also housed the library, learning center, and administrative and faculty offices.
distinguished graduates.
The train depot and massive cold storage building, now the Library and Liberal Arts Center, were added shortly after Yanetskno graduated. But that was the entirety of JCC's Olean campus before its expansion in 2003.
“Everything was accommodating,” Yanetsko recalled recently. “You had the computer lab and the library in the (Montgomery Ward) building. Even though there was no lawn space, we still played football games out in the parking lot.”
That parking lot is now the campus's expansive quad. Today, the area features landscaped trees and shrubs, a clock tower at its center, and views of the large-scale mural installed in 2022 on the exterior of the Library & Liberal Arts Center.
Indeed, as JCC celebrates 50 years in Olean, much has changed. What has remained the same are the small class sizes, supportive faculty, and affordable education close to home that drew the former Meme Krahe to JCC after graduating from Olean High School in the mid-1980s.
“There’s six of us in the family,” she said of her siblings. “You really had to pay for college, which is understandable.”
After finishing in the top 20% of her graduating class, Yanetsko earned JCC's Unified Student Assistance (USA) Scholarship, which covered up to four semesters of tuition.
She initially considered studying engineering and following in the footsteps of an older brother and sister. But that would have required traveling to the Jamestown Campus for most of her classes.
“So, I switched to marketing,” Yanetsko said. “Even back then they had a wide range of degrees and opportunities ... but I wanted to stay close to home.”
After graduating from JCC in 1988, Yanetsko transferred to SUNY Brockport to earn a bachelor's degree.
“When you fill out the SATs and all those things, you put all these weird schools – at least I did – like Columbia. Just odd schools,” she said. “I don’t know why I was choosing something that far away from home. Because of the family situation, I had to go local. I had to go community college. It was an easy transfer to Brockport after. It was great that there was that opportunity to do that.”
While affordability brought her to JCC, the experience itself is what she remembers most. Yanetsko participated in campus activities and said she felt supported throughout her time at the college.
“I think the small atmosphere warranted closer relationships with teachers,” she said. “Going to Brockport, from 500 or 600 students to 10,000, it was a little change. You were more of a number. JCC’s size was great because people knew my name.”
Yanetsko said her time at JCC also gave her the confidence to speak up and ask for help.
“JCC instilled in me that you’re valuable student no matter what numbers a school has,” she said.
What she remembers most are an English course with Dale Yerpe, who has taught at JCC throughout the college's 50 years in Olean, and a statistics course taught by business instructor Daniel Schrantz.
Daniel Schrantz, far left.
For Yerpe’s class, Yanetkso was required to write a daily journal.
“He was on you that you had to maintain that journal,” she said. “It was pretty cool because it taught me to pay more attention and think outside the box, not just say ‘Hey, I got up and went to class.’ What else did you do?”
Yanetsko said she often wondered why she enrolled in Schrantz's statistics class, but it ultimately proved valuable.
“He showed us obviously that there’s things that you’re going to need to do in your daily life that can be useful for that,” she said.
After finishing up at Brockport, Yanetsko returned to Olean to work for the Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce, where she later became chief operating officer. Today, she serves as director of advancement for HomeCare & Hospice.
Yanetsko has been a member of JCC’s Cattaraugus County Alumni Association since 1991, serving as its president for many years, and joined the JCC Foundation Board in 2021.
One of the Cattaraugus County Campus' most accomplished graduates, she received JCC's Outstanding Alumni of the Year Award in 1995 and the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2008.
Looking back, Yanetsko said JCC's emphasis on community extended beyond the classroom.
“With JCC, community is part of their name,” Yanetsko said. “I think it encouraged students to get more involved in the community. Not necessarily just at JCC but in other things.”