Community colleges new foray: as more two-year colleges begin to offer bachelor's degrees, higher education officials ponder benefits, possible pitfalls - related article: taking a stand on the movement

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 22, 2003 by Kristina Lane

But as this new formula gained popularity over the last decade, it also has created divisions within the ranks of higher education.

Some say community colleges are within their rights to seek approval to offer bachelor's degrees. Others believe that baccalaureate-granting community colleges will eventually leave behind the very students community colleges were created to serve.

Is the community college baccalaureate a step in the right direction or getting off on the wrong foot?

Because the number of American two-year colleges offering bachelor's degrees is still relatively small, few meaningful statistics about the trend exist. No government agency or private interest group has a reliable list of how many erstwhile two-year colleges offer four-year degrees in one form or another.

But the sheer number of community colleges that have sought and won baccalaureate certification in recent years suggests that the phenomenon is gaining momentum.

Just in the last three years, Dixie State College in St. George, Utah, St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg, Fla., Miami-Dade Community College in Florida and Chipola Junior College in Marianna, Fla., have all launched standalone baccalaureate programs.

As a measure of how interest in the concept of the community college baccalaureate has spread, and how many colleges might one day offer four-year degrees, the number of member colleges in the Community College Baccalaureate Association has jumped from fewer than five in its founding year, 1999, to about 75 today.

The Education Alliance, a Framingham, Mass.-based higher-education consulting group, says its research indicates that two-thirds of the nation's community colleges have considered offering bachelor's degrees in some capacity.

A handful of colleges, such as Miami-Dade Community College, Dixie State College and Great Basin College in Elko, Nev., have acquired approval from their boards of education and regional accreditation bodies to offer four-year degrees independently.

The Florida Board of Education approved Miami-Dade's proposal to offer bachelor's degrees in teacher education last year, and the first students will begin classes in August. The college expects an enrollment of about 500, according to Dr. Jose Vicente, president of Miami-Dade's InterAmerican Campus.

Great Basin has been offering bachelor's degrees in applied science, integrative and professional science, elementary education and nursing since 1999. The first class graduated in the spring of 2001.

About 2 1/2 years ago, Dixie State started offering bachelor's degrees in business administration, computer science and elementary education, and the school's president, Dr. Robert Huddleston, said the school also hopes to obtain permission to grant bachelor's degrees in nursing.

UNMET NEEDS, SLIPPERY SLOPES

While only a smattering of schools have established independent bachelor's degree programs, many colleges offer so-called two-plus-two agreements with area universities. Such programs allow students to take university-level classes with university professors at community college campuses, though the four-year degrees are ultimately conferred by the four-year school.

What's driving this interest? Supply and demand, says Dr. Ronald K. Remington, president of the Community College of Southern Nevada, which is hoping to launch a bachelor's degree program. With universities few and far between in rural communities such as his, Remington said, community colleges must adapt their offerings to fill the void.

Remington was president of Great Basin College when it started offering four-year degrees in the fall of 1999. He said Great Basin launched its program after discovering the unmet need in the Elko community, which is rural and isolated--the nearest four-year institution is 240 miles away, in Utah. For place-bound students in Elko, such as those who have families and jobs, going that distance would be unrealistic, added Remington.

Dr. Rosa Perez, president of Canada College in Redwood City, Calif., said her San Francisco Bay-area school is fairly close to many universities, but serves a high percentage of low-income Hispanic students and confronts geographic limitations of a different sort.

"We have Latino teens who contribute to the family income, and they can't leave home because the families can't afford to lose that source of income," Perez says.

Canada offers four-year degrees in conjunction with the Hayward, San Francisco and Monterey Bay campuses of California State University, because if the college's students had to drive to these schools, they'd have to reduce their hours at work, Perez said. And that would create a financial burden their families just couldn't bear.

Even in areas where there are many universities within easy reach, some two-year college officials say, they may not offer the bachelor's degrees that students need.

Dr. Kevin Drumm, vice president of enrollment management/student and public affairs at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) in Springfield, Mass., said another reason community colleges seek to offer bachelor's degrees is because four-year institutions don't offer bachelor's degrees in certain fields, such as applied science.