New fabric

New England Journal of Higher Education, The, Summer 2001 by Sbrega, John J

A Community College Spins Partnerships in Southeastern Massachusetts

During recent inaugural activities at Bristol Community College (BCC), David Pierce, president emeritus of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), reviewed the history and unprecedented growth of two-year public colleges since Joliet Junior College of Illinois opened with six students in 1901 as an experimental postgraduate high school program. Today, the community college movement has grown to 1,132 institutions, educating 10.4 million students each year, including about 44 percent of all U.S. undergraduates.

The new AACC mission statement boldly asserts that the community college is the premier institution for lifelong learning, transfer, vocational and remedial programs.

Pierce, like many others, sees critical challenges for these distinctly American institutions. Among them: equity, credentialing mixed with certification of skills and competencies, new formats (e.g. applied baccalaureate, dual enrollment, e-learning, etc.), workforce training and economic development His observations couldn't be more relevant to New England.

The region's community colleges have provided a vital entry point for underprepared students and underserved populations since the GI. Bill of Rights breached economic and social barriers to educational opportunity after World War II. New Hampshire Community Technical College-- Manchester/Stratham traces its roots to 1945, and my father taught at Holyoke Junior College, now Holyoke Community College, as early as 1946. But New England's community colleges truly blossomed in the decades of the 1960s and the 1970s. Between 1960 and 1973, New England experienced an explosion in 37 new two-year colleges, including 15 in Massachusetts, 14 in Connecticut, and the new Community Colleges of Rhode Island and Community College of Vermont.

(To be sure, private two-year colleges have a long history of service to the region. Casco Bay College traces its beginnings to 1863; Dean College to 1865; Champlain College to 1878; McIntosh College to 1896; Post College to 1890; and Fisher College to 1903.)

New populations

As the face of New England changes, it is imperative that everyone who aspires to a better life through education has access to college. Tuition and fees have been on a troubling trend, and community colleges particularly must ensure that their costs do not impose limitations on access.

The 2000 census indicates that the total population of southeastern Massachusetts has risen to just under 600,000. Earlier census data reveal that only 66 percent of the area's population had completed high school, compared with 80 percent statewide. Moreover, while 27 percent of Massachusetts residents age 25 and older hold bachelor's degrees or higher, the figure in southeastern Massachusetts is 16 percent. The area's underachievement in education is echoed in its grim economic profile. In 1999, unemployment rates

in many southeastern Massachusetts communities exceeded the state average of 3.2 percent and even the national average of 4.2 percent. (The few exceptions included Plainville, North Attleboro, Mansfield, Norton and Mattapoisett.) Per-capita income in Fall River and New Bedford, meanwhile, is 29 percent below the state average.

Former Miami-Dade Community College President Robert McCabe, now a senior fellow at the League for Innovation in the Community College, noted in his landmark 2000 study titled No One to Waste: "Immigrants and Hispanics will account for most of the population growth in the next 50 years. These populations are disproportionately underprepared for 21st century employment, presenting a daunting task for education." This national situation mirrors demographic trends in southeastern Massachusetts. For the period 1990 to 2010, Fall River's minority population is projected to grow by 52 percent, while New Bedford's will grow by 63 percent.

New models

At the same time, employers are increasingly impatient with old-fashioned, time-specific modes of instruction. Traditional 15-week semesters may have made sense in less technological times and for certain segments of the population. But this format now has become a hindrance to workforce development.

We must be prepared not only to grant credit-bearing credentials (e.g. degrees, certificates, courses, letters of recognition) but also to certify specific skills, competencies and abilities (some of which are acquired through non-credit instruction). Moreover, abbreviated, concentrated formats and distance learning offerings seem ideally suited to meeting employer needs without sacrificing quality or eroding academic standards. Nearly all community colleges have created training centers that specialize in developing course formats tailored to individual companies' needs. The center at the Community College of Rhode Island, for example, has conducted on-site training at Stanley-Bostitch, while the center at BCC has fostered a close relationship with Texas Instruments.

Some community colleges offer "applied baccalaureate" degrees in occupational/technical fields. The degrees, requiring about 120 semester credits, emphasize work skills and address employers' needs for expanded, post-associate instruction that adopts a more practical, hands-on approach than the traditional bachelor's degree in technical fields. Depending on its scope, the degree can be either a bachelor of applied science or a bachelor of applied technology. Mary community colleges envision offering applied baccalaureate degrees as an extension of their existing associate in applied science degrees; Springfield Technical Community College, for one, is already developing a proposal to offer this degree. My preference would be to integrate these new degrees within the framework of our existing partnerships with bachelor's degree-granting institutions. In other words, community colleges could continue their highly successful traditional pattern of offering freshman and sophomore courses, while partner fouryear institutions would provide the upper-level courses culminating in the applied baccalaureate degree. Thus, only in those (rare?) cases when a baccalaureate-granting institution chooses not to respond to a demonstrated need would a community college accept responsibility for offering the applied baccalaureate. The state of Arizona has drawn up elaborate procedures to follow this protocol which would abide by the spirit of long-established practice within the world of higher education and would disrupt only minimally existing areas of responsibility.