A local community college will host President Joe Biden Thursday for his visit to celebrate the upcoming Micron facility in Central New York.
It's the first time Onondaga Community College has had a US Presidential visit. College President Warren Hilton said his staff have trained for such large scale events.
“We do so many events in our SRC Arena, community events where we host tens of thousands of people a year," Hilton said. "So, our team is really advanced and understands on how to work with the community, the government, etcetera, in how to make these events occur.“
Hilton said the college is honored to welcome the president, as well as partner with Micron. The company earlier this month announced its plans to invest $100 billion over the next two decades for a major semiconductor fabrication site. OCC will offer workforce development courses to help train future employees.
“We’re, again, terribly excited to be working with Micron," Hilton said. "This is a wonderful event that they’re having on our campus and we’re grateful that the president is here recognizing community colleges and economic engine and driver of communities.”
Hilton said the college will play a significant role in getting technicians trained for high paying jobs of the future.
"We’ll be doing the training, working with Micron very closely to make sure that we’re building curriculum and designing training programs that will lead to those high paying jobs," Hilton said.
OCC canceled all classes on Thursday at its Main and Liverpool campuses due to the event.
Air travel around a 12 mile nautical radius around Syracuse Hancock Airport will be temporarily restricted from Thursday from 1:15 to 6:15 p.m. due to the president's visit. There will also be temporary lock downs of all air operations and ground transportation access to accommodate moving Biden in and out of town.
