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Black Issues in Higher Education, August 28, 2003 by Kendra Hamilton

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While the decision reached by the U.S. Supreme Court in June regarding the University of Michigan's admissions policies is being rightly hailed by defenders of affirmative action and civil rights as a major victory, a rising chorus of higher education observers is pointing out that obsessing over what goes on at elite institutions is almost beside the point in terms of college access.

And that's because "the numbers, especially of African Americans affected (by the decision), are very small," says Dr. Brenda Simmons, president of the National Council on Black American Affairs (NCBAA), a leadership and policy arm of the American Association of Community Colleges.

Indeed, "the masses of Blacks who are in higher education are in the community colleges," explains Dr. Castell Bryant, president of the medical center campus of Miami-Dade College. With 160,000 students enrolled for credit, it's the nation's largest community college and the No. 1 producer of minority associate's degrees.

Bryant adds, "When it comes to access, we don't need to be setting the standards or even measuring them by what happens at the university level."

Dr. Carolyn Williams, president of Bronx Community College (BCC), emphatically agrees. "Community colleges are and have always been the port of entry," says Williams, explaining that BCC has 8,000 credit and 25,000 continuing education students. "And it's been that not just for minority students but also for the less-prepared students, for the adult students, for all those who are not traditional, right-out-of-high-school students."

NUMBERS VERSUS PERCEPTIONS

Statistics bear those assertions out. According to U.S. Department of Education figures, nearly 1.5 million African Americans were enrolled in higher education at all levels in 2001. Fully 40 percent, or more than 604,000, were enrolled at the associate's level.

Community colleges accounted for a large share of the degrees conferred to African Americans as well. Of degrees conferred in 2000, the second highest number, 28.8 percent, went to students at the associate's level. The highest number, 50.3 percent, went to bachelor's degree students, with students at the master's, first professional and doctoral level trailing with 17.3 percent, 2.4 percent and .9 percent of the degrees conferred.

Moreover, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, community colleges had much greater success in attracting traditional students as well--i.e., those who enroll in college immediately after completing high school.

A little historical perspective is useful here. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, community-college enrollments began increasing rapidly as a percentage of the total degrees conferred, particularly in the '80s and '90s. And while projections for the current decade show that bachelor's-granting institutions will regain their edge, as of 1999-2000, the latest year for which statistics are available, community colleges are still leading the way in degree-production increases for minorities. Degree production was up 11.7 percent at the associate's degree level, compared with a rise of 5.8 percent at the bachelor's degree level.

But while enrollments and degree production are up, they are only part of the picture. The inescapable fact is that community colleges still face an uphill battle in terms of public perceptions.

"There's a lot of myth-busting that needs to be done every day," says Dr. Janis Hadley, president of Housatonic Community College, a mid-sized school in Bridgeport, Conn., with an enrollment of 4,700, and "convener" of the President's Roundtable, a group of African American community-college presidents affiliated with the NCBAA.

Community colleges are facing a serious "leadership dearth," Hadley notes. "The 'graying of America' is really hitting our institutions" with a wave of retirements in the leadership ranks. Hadley adds that the President's Roundtable and the NCBAA are seeking to halt the bleeding with programs aimed both at training the next cohort of presidents and middle managers.

"If we are really going to be able to impact the myths about students of color in our society, then we have to be more diligent about selecting who is teaching our students and who is an administrator for our students," Hadley says. "Ultimately, it's all about training the leaders who can select the right team to select the right faculty and staff to affect the students' lives."

But Hadley admits that recruitment can be difficult in a climate in which so many tend to look down on these institutions. Students in traditional master's and doctoral programs don't tend to look at community colleges when considering job options. And the disdain probably has its roots in the middle-class aspirations inculcated in the home. Indeed, middle-class Blacks are no less obsessed with rankings and status than the rest of the American middle class. Too often they dismiss community colleges as the home of "the leftover and the left out."