Do Community Colleges Need to be More Global?

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Oh, no! You won't be getting a printed SCUP–45 Preliminary Program in the mail this year. Instead, SCUP is going green and regularly updating this digital version (PDF), which you can download at any time.

Check it out! You don't want to miss higher education's premier planning conference, and your one chance this year to assemble with nearly 1,500 of your peers and colleagues: July 10–14, Minneapolis.

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Lots of community college news this week, as the annual gathering of the American Association of Community Colleges(AACC) takes place in Seattle. Note that The Chronicle of Higher Education is doing large-scale reporting from the conference, although most of the reports require subscription or a pass.

One area of special interest is the issue of whether or not community colleges are doing enough for their students, to prepare them for the global marketplace. David Molz of Inside Higher Ed reviews some of what he learned in this area. As well, this slide show by Natalie J. Harder of Patrick Henry Community College (VA) displays the results of a large survey she conducted about community college internationalization efforts. From Molz's report:

A 2006 American Council on Education survey on internationalization in higher education – examining whether institutions offered programs like study abroad or courses with a global focus and other variables – gave community colleges a low score of 0.68 on a 4.0 scale. Harder discovered that when the individual institutions are broken out, rural community colleges fare considerably worse than suburban and urban community colleges. She also found that institutional support from the administration, in terms of both dollars and decision making, was the largest predictor of internationalization of the curriculum.

Harder has been slow to win support for her ideas on her own campus. She explained that faculty and some administrators cannot always see the benefit of making such changes.

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Community College Budgets Were Weak Even Before Financial Crisis Slammed Everyone

Scott Jaschik reports on the presentation at the AACC conference (SCUP staff member Betty Cobb represented SCUP in the AACC exhibit hall.) of the 2008 survey of the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges. That full report is not yet available on the AACC website, but it will be. The bottom line is that community college funding was in trouble even before last September:

“It is very clear that the high tuition/ high aid model of student financial aid does not work well, if at all, for low-income students attending community colleges,” the report says. It notes that state directors report that their lawmakers are not aligning policies to promote such policies, but are simply raising tuition.

State directors were “nearly unanimous” in finding that their students will be unable to attend without incurring debt, which discourages many from enrolling. If higher education continues to receive “what’s left on the table” in state budgets -- as has been the case -- the report project serious loss of access for low-income students.

Community Colleges: 'Going Residential"

This article, "Going Residential," is from Inside Higher Ed by Jennifer Epstein. It is a nicely done review of a number of institutions which have implemented or are implementing student residence life at the community college level:

Of the 1,100 colleges represented by the American Association of Community Colleges, 233 public colleges and about 40 private colleges offer some on-campus housing to their students. Norma Kent, the association’s spokeswoman, said that although “nobody’s documented the full picture, it is our sense that there is increased interest and growth” in campus housing at community colleges.

“With more traditional-age students enrolling at community colleges for a variety of reasons, colleges and students seem more receptive to on-campus housing,” she said. “They want that college experience.”