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

"At STCC, there was a particular regional need for a highly applied bachelor's degree. The only other place that could do it was the University of Massachusetts, and it wasn't in their mission to offer an applied degree," Drumm says.

STCC is currently awaiting a decision by the board of higher education on its proposal to offer a bachelor's degree in applied engineering technology. If approved, Drumm said, the program would be a collaborative effort with the University of Massachusetts.

Dr. Joani Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, said the national nursing and teaching shortages also are spurting community colleges to offer bachelor's degrees that could help alleviate the shortages. But Finney cautioned against all community colleges jumping on the bachelor's-degree bandwagon.

"I think mission creep is a big concern. Everybody wants to be within the Carnegie Classification, clawing your way up the ladder so you can justify charging students more," she says. "In higher education we tend to put a lot of emphasis on the prestige of a research institution, which is the top of the heap, instead of rewarding other institutions for doing other things."

Finney said public interest and need must exist before a community college offers four-year degrees.

THE UPSIDE ...

Many educators agree with Finney that community colleges should proceed with caution along the path to a baccalaureate. But if the programs are done right, they say, there is a world of good to be done.

Miami-Dade's Vicente said his school's program would help end Florida's severe teacher shortage.

"If there's a strength we (community colleges) have, it's the fact that we can mobilize our resources in order to meet community needs, and this (the bachelor's degree program) is a perfect example," he says. "We are meeting local work-force needs, meeting student needs and we are being part of a solution."

Vicente emphasized that Miami-Dade has no intention of straying from its mission as a community college, and that it will seek to offer bachelor's degrees only in fields where four-year schools can't meet the demand.

Dr. Kenneth Walker, president of Edison Community College in Fort Myers, Fla., which offers bachelor's degrees in conjunction with seven different four-year institutions, said bachelor's degree programs are a natural part of the evolution of the community college.

"Needs change as colleges change, and colleges are just like corporations. If corporations don't change, they begin to fail and they go out of business, and colleges have to be the same way," he says. "Community colleges are not what we were 100 years ago. We've evolved ... we changed as the needs of society changed. Now there's a need for more bachelor's degrees, especially in nursing and teacher preparation. We have the facilities, the faculty and the student demand. Why shouldn't we respond to the changed needs in our society?"

Canada's Perez said colleges that offer access to four-year degrees on campus are helping universities glutted with applicants--especially those in California.