Opening the door to the Baccalaureate Degree

Community College Review, Fall, 2001 by Kenneth P. Walker

These students have been able to find success at the community college and want to continue that success in the pursuit of the baccalaureate degree. Community college leaders have a strong loyalty to these nontraditional students and believe they have an obligation to continue serving them beyond two years. As a community college president, some of the thoughts that have occurred to me are, "Why should we take these students up to two years of education and then say we are going to throw you out; you're on your own? Find the university if you can get in, if you can afford it, if you can get there, if you can overcome the obstacles that are in your way."

Facing the Critics

In my 27 years as a community college president, I have often heard the criticism that students who start at a two-year institution are significantly less likely to complete a four-year degree than students who begin at a four-year college or university. Completion rates of community college students have always been hard to quantify since many people who attend community college have no intention of getting a degree, much less pursuing upper division studies. In Florida, however, statistics show that degree-seeking community college students traditionally do as well or better in the upper division of the state university system as those who enrolled there as freshmen (Florida Division of Community Colleges, 1999). Indeed, permitting community colleges to offer selected baccalaureate degrees can only serve to enhance these success rates since it will make the option of upper division studies accessible to more students.

Perhaps the most vocal arguments posed against authorizing community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees is that it is an abandonment of the community college mission. James Wattenbarger (2000) says community colleges should stick to what they do best. "It would be difficult, if not impossible, to convince anyone that the bachelor's degree offered by a community college is as important as the one offered by a university or a four-year college. So the community college's bachelor's degree would always be known as a second-class bachelor's" (p. 4).

In my view, this is a faulty assumption. The community college associate's degree is a first class degree, and the professors are known for their quality teaching rather than research. Community colleges are accredited by the same regional accrediting associations as universities, and the same standards would apply for our bachelor's degree. Community college students are not taught by graduate assistants in classes with as many as 500 people in them. They will continue to be taught by quality faculty who emphasize learning. For these reasons, the community college baccalaureate degree would become a first class degree.

Adding the baccalaureate degree to the mission of the community college is not shifting focus; it is adding a focus in order to increase the relevance of the community college in serving its students. Recently, I heard the community college baccalaureate degree movement in the United States compared to the conversion of the British Polytechnics to universities. This is an invalid comparison because community colleges that are seeking authority to offer the baccalaureate degree do not want to be turned into universities. What we are talking about is keeping the core values of the community colleges, but saying to the students, "We are not going to get you halfway there and then abandon you. We are going to take you all the way to the baccalaureate degree."