Are we shutting her out? Dual degree and transfer agreements between state four-year and community colleges were once an open door to universal access. Now, for many, those doors may be closing

University Business, May, 2004 by Rebecca Sausner

"The community and both institutions supported this agreement and we now work closely together as planned," says Tom Furlong, senior institutions VP for Baccalaureate Program and University Partnerships at St. Petersburg College (which dropped the "junior" from its name).

From Pipeline to 'Swirl'

Optimists see the tension brewing between community and senior colleges, and the CCB movement (not to mention the rise of for-profit institutions), as the natural fallout of a fundamental shift underway in the American higher education landscape.

"You can't use the pipeline metaphor anymore," says Milliron. "The context of higher education is no longer about the full-time residential student--they comprise less than 20 percent of higher ed students. We're really moving from a 'pipeline' model to a learning 'swirl' that fully enables people to team for a lifetime. That's a new thing for our country; we didn't develop our system to do that."

But this shifting sand doesn't make today's access issues--created by fiscal and capacity constraints coupled with population surges--any less urgent. And failure to ensure funding and seats for all who would apply to both community and senior colleges will probably have the net effect of restricting minority access to higher education, say the pundits.

"The vast majority of students in higher education are going to be able to survive this crisis, whether it be fee increases or whatever," says Lay of California's Community College League. "But 10 years from now, we'll probably be able to say it was the most under-prepared and economically disadvantaged students who were the casualties."

If this eventuality is unacceptable, say the prognosticators, now is the time for traditional publics and privates, along with community colleges, to re-examine their programs, students, and funding sources.

"I really think this can be a positive thing," says Floyd. "Universities can sharpen their mission, and community colleges can also sharpen their commitment to access. Higher education needs to wake up and see the opportunity before us, to sharpen our focus."

RELATED ARTICLE: Reauthorization debate on transfer.

In Congress, the debate surrounding the reauthorization of the higher education act has included the issue of transferring credits, with Rep. Howard (Buck) McKeon (R-CA) and eight co-sponsors proposing that the federal government intervene in the transfer process that has until now been governed by individual institutions. The issue has been introduced in several formats, but the key component of the proposals would require that institutions accept credits as tong as they coordinate content with a class offered by the accepting university, and as long as the student has achieved the requisite performance level. This would prevent universities from basing their acceptance decisions solely on the accrediting body of the transferring university.

The argument in favor of this credit transfer proposal posits that since federal funds are used to pay for student education, when students have to repeat coursework because credits were not accepted at a second school those Federal funds are wasted.