A 'passport' to a four-year degree: HBCUs are finding the community college to be a valuable resource when looking to recruit students of color - Academic Kickoff Special Report: community colleges - historically black colleges and universities' admission standards - transfer program agreements between community colleges and universities

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 28, 2003 by Ronald Roach

Cheryl Scott, a native of Norfolk, Va., wanted to attend a four-year college. After being a stay-at-home mom for more than a decade, Scott decided to pursue her dream of becoming an elementary school teacher. When she applied to Norfolk State University, she learned that her associate's degree credits from a local two-year college could be not used because the school, which had closed sometime after she had earned her degree, had not been an accredited institution. To make matters worse, Scott's high school academic record at a Norfolk public school fell short of the 2.0 grade point average NSU required for its matriculating students.

"It was so frustrating, and it made me wish I had done better in high school," she says.

Fortunately for Scott, Norfolk State officials had established, in association with the Tidewater Community College system, a program called PASSport. Formerly an open admissions public university, Norfolk State worked out an agreement with Tidewater that would allow students not meeting the university's admissions requirements to attend the community college to take remedial courses, usually for one or two semesters, before enrolling directly into Norfolk State.

"I had to start all over again, but (the PASSport program) got me into college," says Scott, who expects to graduate in 2005.

Claiming that it's the only program of its kind at a historically Black college or university, Norfolk State officials have embraced PASSport because they see it as a way to keep their doors open to students who in the past would have automatically gained entry under open admissions. In addition to PASSport, Norfolk State and Tidewater Community College officials signed an articulation agreement this past May to hammer out specific transfer arrangements for a variety of majors.

"Norfolk State still sees itself as a school of opportunity even though we have eliminated open admissions," says Dr. Elsie M. Barnes, vice president for academic affairs at Norfolk State.

Because of changes in state higher education systems to shift remedial education to the community colleges, historically Black public universities in a number of states have had to drop their open-admissions status and adopt selective admissions standards. Observers say it's critical that with raised admissions standards at four-year schools, HBCUs find and develop ways to be accessible and attractive to students who begin their academic careers at the community college.

That has meant that HBCUs, like many of their four-year counterparts across American higher education, have been actively developing articulation agreements with community colleges that specify the criteria under which the community-college student can receive credit at and transfer into four-year schools.

"There has to be real commitment from the presidents of these institutions to develop effective articulation agreements," says Arnold Kee, coordinator of minority services at the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in Washington.

In addition to unique programs such as PASSport and the growing adoption of articulation agreements, two- and four-year schools are forging links around critical need areas, such as in nursing, teacher training, and science. A few HBCUs are taking advantage of these critical need initiatives that link them with community colleges.

ADJUSTING TO HIGHER STANDARDS

HBCU advocates and officials have watched with concern the trend of states raising admissions standards at four-year colleges and universities. The move has meant that four-year schools are dropping their remedial education programs and community colleges are becoming the only public state institutions to offer remedial courses. Justified as a means to save money in states, increase retention rates and improve the overall academic quality of four-year institutions, the shift has forced a number of minority-serving institutions, such as HBCUs and urban universities, to eliminate the practice of open admissions.

For the most part, fears that adopting higher admissions standards might put some HBCUs out of business due to deep enrollment drops have been far from realized. In Mississippi and Louisiana, the introduction of higher admissions standards in the late 1990s has generally led to short-lived enrollment drops at the historically Black public colleges in those states. Mississippi's adoption of higher admissions standards resulting from a 1997 ruling in the state's long-running Ayers desegregation case has seen more enrollment growth rather than decline at the state's three Black universities.

In the past few years, undergraduate enrollments rose from 6,832 in fall 2000 at Jackson State University to 7,783 in fall 2002; 2,936 in fall 2000 at Alcorn State University to 3,143 in fall 2002; and 2,687 in fall 2000 at Mississippi Valley State University to 3,521 in fall 2002.

Dr. Edward R. Jackson, chancellor of Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., has said the move from open admissions to selective admissions resulted in undergraduate enrollment drops in 2001 and 2002. Officials, however, anticipate that Southern will see enough of an increase in the number of freshman and transfer students enrolling this rail to reach the 2000 enrollment level.