President Biden Visits Tri-C, Tours Metro Campus MTC

Tri-C stop includes remarks on economy, importance of investment in education

U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to Cleveland May 27 to visit Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C^®), where he was scheduled to make his last campaign stop in March 2020 before COVID-19 shut down the nation.

During his approximately three-hour visit to the Metropolitan Campus, Biden toured the Manufacturing Technology Center (MTC), where Tri-C and local representatives including College President Alex Johnson, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, and U.S. Representatives Marcy Kaptur and Tim Ryan accompanied him as he viewed the technologically advanced equipment that students in the College’s Manufacturing, Engineering Technology and Welding programs utilize in their training.

This was Biden’s first trip to Northeast Ohio since becoming president, and he took the opportunity to emphasize the importance of educational access as a means of helping cities like Cleveland — and the nation as a whole — continue recovering from the economic impact of the pandemic.

In a series of remarks following the MTC tour, the president spoke about his multifaceted plan to continue revitalizing the American economy, which includes increased funding for education and better access to higher education, particularly at community colleges.

Biden noted that his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, is a former community college teacher who reminds him that America will lose the economic competition against any nation that provides better education for its citizens.

He went on to say that America is at an inflection point, with an opportunity to breathe new life into a recovering economy through education, jobs and investments in infrastructure.

Biden was introduced by Tri-C student Shilaah Patterson, who also shared her story. Patterson is a single mother who attended the Precision Machining Technology program in Spring 2020, completing it despite extensive challenges in the early days of the pandemic. She is now employed at a local manufacturing company.

At the conclusion of Biden’s visit, Johnson said Tri-C was honored to host the president.

“It was a privilege to show our nation’s leader all of the ways in which we are preparing students for careers in manufacturing and technology and supporting the nation’s recovery through access to higher education,” Johnson said. “We share the president’s vision of a brighter future for all Americans and are grateful that he views community colleges like Tri-C as integral to realizing that future.”

May 27, 2021

Erik Cassano, 216-987-3577 or erik.cassano@tri-c.edu