The rapidly changing job market demands a dynamic response from our education system. At Oregon’s Blue Mountain Community College (BMCC), where I serve as president, we are laser-focused on creating effective college-to-career pathways for students. Our Career Pathways initiative takes a systemic approach to supporting students and connecting them with employers. Whether it’s working with […]
Opinion
It’s Time for Our Colleges to Embrace Change
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities These words describe the world in which community college leaders operate today. In my more than 35 years in higher education, there has […]
Working With K-12 Schools to Create Student Pathways
The key to student success lies in our ability to create pathways to degree completion for every student. But these pathways don’t begin on college campuses. In almost every case, they begin before that — in our nation’s K-12 schools. That’s why, at Seminole State College of Florida, we work closely with Seminole County Public […]
Finding New Revenue Streams to Fund College Success
If we hope to meet President Obama’s challenge to educate and train an additional 5 million community college graduates by 2020, while maintaining quality programs with top faculty and staff, we must recognize the need for community colleges to receive adequate funding and to implement a workable business model. Four years ago, I wrote a […]
Improving Student Outcomes Through Partnership
We face severe challenges in college readiness and completion in the United States. The high school graduation rate is just north of 70 percent. For African American, Hispanic and low-income students, the rate hovers at slightly more than 50 percent. Of those who do graduate, only half are prepared to succeed in college. For those who […]
Economic Growth, Economic Prosperity, and the new WIOA
In the wake of President Obama signing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act into law July 22 and as Vice President Biden releasing his action plan for a more effective, job-driven training system, it’s worth taking stock of how the country and its workforce are faring in the recovery. There is much to celebrate. Unemployment […]
Student Debt: Let’s Talk Solutions
Interest rates for student loans went up at the beginning of this month and every major newspaper from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal is talking about the critical issue of student debt. But while all the headlines are focused on the problem of college affordability, we want to talk about the […]
A Crisis of College Readiness
It’s no secret that our institutions face a national crisis of college readiness. Each semester, large numbers of students arrive on our campuses unprepared for the rigors of college-level work. In addition to the financial and emotional burdens that accompany the reality of testing into developmental courses is an uphill struggle to degree completion that […]
Redefining Our Role in Higher Education
In an era of diminishing resources, higher education institutions are increasingly being asked to do more with less. A recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that “forty-eight states … are spending less per student than they did before the recession.” Another study from the Georgetown University Center on Education and […]
Shock the System: True Reform Requires Diversification
Empowering Community Colleges to Build the Nation’s Future: An Implementation Guide provides targeted outcomes outlining the “Next Big Things” in the American Association of Community Colleges’ (AACC) 21st-Century Initiative. The guide implores the nation’s community college leaders to stop looking backward and instead move courageously forward. Many of our colleges have already started on this […]