The Evolving Mission of the American Community College

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The Evolving Mission of the American Community
College

• Kenneth P. Walker, Ph.D.
• Council for the Study of Community Colleges
• AACC Annual Convention
• April 13, 2007

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• The revolution in American education, in which
  the two-year college played a leading role, is
  almost over. Two years of post-secondary
  education are within the reach financially,
  geographically, practically of virtually every
  American.

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Education in America

• Revolution Almost over
• Evolution Continues in full force

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New movementnew revolution

• Baccalaureate degrees awarded by some community
  colleges will continue the democratizing process
  for access to the bachelors degree.

Joliet Junior College America's oldest public
community college
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Why Baccalaureate Degrees at Community Colleges?
Globalization of the economy Demands of business
and industry Increased job competition Exporting
of jobs Increasing demand by students Limited
university access Rising costs
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Benefits of Baccalaureate Degrees at Community
Colleges
Increases access to higher education
Promotes cost efficiencies
Maximizes human resources
Supports success of non-traditional students
Promotes articulation and upward mobility
Provides cooperative facility use for work-based
learning

• Maintains family and employment relationships

Expands commitment to economic development
Responds to local need for specialized programs
Capitalizes on facilities, faculty, staff and
programs
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Community College Mission Responsive,
Adaptive, Growing
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• The institution must be able to change as
  communities change with new conditions, demands,
  or circumstances. Any time we can describe the
  community college in definitive, specific terms,
  we will destroy it. It has to change. It has to
  be different in different areas.

Ed Gleazer, Jr. The Community College Values,
Vision Vitality
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• Responding to the Crisis in College Opportunity
• National Council for Public Policy and Higher
  Education
• The nation should provide a space for every
  eligible student to enroll in higher education.
• YET

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Financial barriers prevent

• 48 of college-qualified low-income high school
  graduates from attending a four-year college, and
  22 from attending any college at all

43 of college-qualified middle-income high
school graduates from attending a four-year
college, and 16 from attending any college at
all.
Study by the Advisory Committee on Student
Financial Assistance
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Why Baccalaureate Degrees at Community Colleges?
4.4 million
2 million
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Why Baccalaureate Degrees at Community Colleges?

• The vibrancy of our democracy and our
  knowledge-based economy is dependent upon
  ensuring access to college for high school
  graduates.
• --Empty Promises, 2002

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Access to the Baccalaureate Degree

• Access to the baccalaureate degree must be
  expanded so that future generations will be
  equipped to cope with the magnitude of change
  instigated by technology, industry, finance,
  commerce, and government.

Frank Newman
Changes in the marketplace for higher education
are producing a new vision for the delivery of
higher education that has not yet become fully
understood.
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Access to the Baccalaureate Degree
NOW
Vision for community colleges offering
baccalaureate degrees not currently understood
THEN

• Vision for four-year colleges becoming
  universities not understood at the turn of the
  century

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Higher education mission
Graphic National Conference on Teacher Quality

• always has and always will adapt and conform to
  the changing needs and demands of society.

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75 Years of the University Transformation Era

• The most prominent element in the transformation
  was the emergence of the university.
• Arthur M. Cohen

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Slow introduction of universities

• Colleges had to modify concepts adhered to since
  colonial days including expanding the educational
  experience from four years to a greater length of
  time by organizing graduate schools and awarding
  advanced degrees.

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• Mission Creep

Mission Adaptation
or
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• Idea Converting colleges to universities
• Attributed to men familiar with German higher
  education

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University evolution

• Added masters degrees, doctoral degrees,
  postdoctoral studies, new majors

Community College evolution
Adding baccalaureate degrees in areas of need
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• Unless the old rural colleges revive themselves,
  it was argued, they stood in danger of slipping
  into oblivion.
• --Christopher J. Lucas

• Restructuring driven by a potent combination of
  social, political, cultural, and economic factors

• Same factors which are driving baccalaureate
  degrees as community colleges

• Today, no clear understanding of what constitutes
  a four-year community college

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Ultimately, the outcome of decades of ferment
and turmoil, would be the supplanting of the
old-time college as a dominate institutional
model by that of the modern university. Existing
collegessome of them at leastwould be
transformed in succeeding years to entirely
different kinds of academic institutions. The
rise of the American university, marked though it
was by false starts and much trial and error, was
to prove itself a momentous phenomenon of almost
revolutionary proportions. American higher
education would never be the same
again. --Christopher J. Lucas
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• Baccalaureate degrees at community colleges now
  authorized in 15 states!

Tremendous opportunity for university faculty and
graduate students to study, research and write
about this new type of institution, still in its
infancy
Graphic ASHFoundation
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Continuing democratization of access to the
bachelors degree will result in a higher
standard of living and a higher quality of
life.

--Kenneth P. Walker