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Inside Higher Ed
Presidents Divided on Community College
Bachelor's Degrees
By Ashley A. Smith
April 12, 2019
Community college and university presidents are sharply divided over
whether two-year institutions should offer bachelor's degrees, a new
Inside Higher Ed survey finds.
Two-year college presidents want to offer more bachelor's degrees
because they believe such programs would help close racial, ethnic and
economic gaps in degree attainment. But four-year college presidents
are skeptical of the idea and have fought against proposals that would
increase bachelor's degree availability at community colleges. They are
concerned about the quality of a bachelor's degree from a community
college and see the push as evidence of mission creep.
This is among the key findings of Inside Higher Ed's 2019 Survey of
Community College Presidents, which you can download free here. The
fifth annual survey, released today in advance of the annual meeting of
the American Association of Community Colleges and conducted by Gallup,
is based on responses from 235 two-year college leaders. (Responses to
some questions come from a larger pool of 784 respondents to Inside
Higher Ed's Survey of College and University Presidents.)
The community college presidents' survey also found that many of these
leaders believe that the push to make all public higher education free
would hurt their institutions. These presidents say they face an
increasingly complex set of challenges such as declining enrollment,
shrinking budgets and a lack of clear transfer pathways to universities
as pressure builds from lawmakers and their communities to improve
graduation rates.
The Inside Higher Ed survey asked a broad set of questions about
community college bachelor's degrees at a time when half the states
have now enabled two-year institutions to award such degrees.
The survey found that 75 percent of community college presidents would
like to see their campuses offer bachelor's degrees, even though only
one in 10 reported offering four-year degree programs on their
campuses. Only 1 percent of respondents said their college offers a
wide range of four-year degree programs.
Eighty percent of community college presidents agreed that their
institutions are in a strong position to offer bachelor’s degrees to
students who would not otherwise have access to those degrees because
of four-year universities' higher costs or distance from where students
live.
Joyce Ester, president of Normandale Community College, in Bloomington,
Minn., said individual colleges in the state would not be opposed to
offering bachelor’s degrees, but they would have to be programs that
meet local employment and economic needs. The state doesn't allow
community colleges to award four-year degrees, according to research
from New America.
“Across the country students should have the ability to gain
baccalaureate degrees in a cost-effective way that fits their situation
and still meets all the academic expectations of their programs,” Ester
said. “It would have to be program-specific degrees -- it shouldn’t be
carte blanche.”
Sixty-eight percent of the presidents surveyed at public and private
four-year institutions disagreed with the idea that community colleges
should be allowed to offer bachelor’s degrees. Only 12 percent of
four-year presidents support the idea.
Many of the four-year college presidents surveyed, 47 percent, also
disagreed with the belief that the educational attainment gap between
racial groups could be narrowed if community colleges offered four-year
degrees. Opposition to four-year degrees at community colleges came
mostly from presidents of public four-year institutions.
Wyoming in March became the latest state to allow community colleges to
offer four-year degrees. But the community colleges faced opposition
from the state’s only four-year institution, the University of Wyoming.
Laurie Nichols, president of the University of Wyoming, said in an
email that the state does not have the population to support "eight
college universities," which is how she describes UW and the seven
community colleges that will now offer bachelor's degrees.
“We can learn from surrounding states that have created too many
four-year colleges -- also on spare populations -- and struggle to
support them,” she said. “This move would also create extensive
duplication of programs, courses and faculty. Duplication is very
costly to a state.”
Before passage of the bill granting Wyoming community colleges access
to four-year degrees, Nichols called for more time to research the
issue and said the university was willing and ready to collaborate with
community colleges.
Twenty-six states currently allow community colleges to offer at least
one bachelor’s degree program, said Mary Alice McCarthy, director of
the Center on Education and Skills with the education policy program at
New America, a Washington think tank. (See related essay by McCarthy
here.)
“As states try to increase the rate of bachelor’s degree attainment,
everyone is depending more and more on community colleges to get the
job done,” McCarthy said. “Right now, we’re depending on the system of
transfer, so why don’t we just be more direct about it? Rather than
having students chase after a bachelor’s degree and go through a
terrible transfer process … allow them to finish the degree where they
start.”
McCarthy said offering bachelor's degrees in Wyoming community colleges
makes sense because many people live in parts of the state without
access to a four-year public institution.
"We do need to be careful we're not just chasing cheap degrees," she
said. "We need to make sure these are high-quality degrees, and we need
a work-force focus. But I don't think there is any reason to believe
that a Miami Dade College or a Broward College can't produce a
high-quality bachelor's degree program."
Although more than half of states allow community colleges to offer
four-year degrees, each state varies on how broad those programs can
be. Michigan, for example, passed a bill in 2013 that allows community
colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees only in cement technology,
maritime technology, energy production technology and culinary arts.
State lawmakers have since regularly introduced new bills attempting to
expand the types of four-year programs the community colleges can
offer. Those proposals have so far failed to make it through the
Legislature.
“In a state that has one of the top forecasted declines in high school
population in the country, with 15 public universities and 40
independent colleges, it makes absolutely no sense to create, convert
and vastly expand the missions of our community colleges,” said Dan
Hurley, chief executive officer of the Michigan Association of State
Universities.
Hurley noted that many Michigan universities already offer bachelor’s
degrees at satellite centers located on community college campuses.
About 5,030 students are enrolled in these four-year degree programs,
and 1,452 bachelor's degrees were awarded to these students between
2017 and 2018, he said.
The state also has more than 760 transfer agreements between two- and
four-year institutions, Hurley said.
“It would really strike me as being unhelpful to convert the community
colleges into direct competitors as opposed to extensive
collaborators,” he said.
Ester, the Normandale president, said her campus has a similar
arrangement with three universities offering bachelor’s degrees on
their campuses. Normandale has about 14,000 students, 860 of whom are
enrolled in one of the 14 bachelor’s degree programs offered by the
three universities.
Transfer as a Barrier
One reason community colleges want to offer more bachelor's degree
program is that transfer barriers remain a challenge for students,
McCarthy said.
Eighty-one percent of the community college presidents surveyed by
Inside Higher Ed said the barriers were significant. And 67 percent of
two-year presidents said a lack of interest by public four-year
colleges prevents students from transferring from community colleges to
universities. Fifty-seven percent of community college presidents said
there is little interest from private four-year institutions to build
transfer pathways to those institutions.
“Transfer works in some places,” McCarthy said. “But every study around
transfer shows significant credit loss when students make the move.”
A Government Accountability Office study released in 2017 found the
average transfer student lost a full 43 percent of their credits, or
about 13 credits, which is the equivalent of a semester of course work.
McCarthy said some of the best transfer partnerships between two-year
colleges and universities exist in Florida, which also allows the
community colleges to offer four-year degrees.
“Valencia College and the University of Central Florida do work well
together, but Valencia also offers bachelor’s degrees,” she said. “That
hasn’t ruined anything for UCF. We don’t want Valencia and the other
colleges to duplicate things like liberal arts, but there are programs
they can do that UCF doesn’t. The Florida case shows this isn’t a
zero-sum game, and it doesn’t have to come at the expense of four-year
programs.”
Valencia offers bachelor’s degrees in nursing, computer science and
business leadership. One in four UCF graduates transferred from
Valencia.
Both institutions recognize they’re not going after the same market for
students, said Josh Wyner, chief executive officer of the Aspen
Institute for Community College Excellence. Valencia won Aspen’s
highest community college award in 2011.
“UCF enrollment is growing, and Valencia’s enrollment is growing
because people understand they’re not in competition,” he said. UCF
enrollment has steadily increased each year from about 56,000 students
in 2010 to nearly 69,000 students in 2018, according to the university.
Valencia enrolled about 41,300 full- and part-time students in 2010. In
2017, the full- and part-time student enrollment totaled more than
45,500.
Free College vs. Tuition-Free Community College
The survey also found that nine in 10 community college presidents
overwhelmingly expect to see free community college expand across the
country. They believe the free-college movement also has a positive
impact on the way two-year colleges are perceived by the public.
“Free community college is more appealing because it’s less expensive,
but people also view community colleges as open access, more accessible
and more in the community and attached to work-force programs,” said
Wesley Whistle, an education policy adviser at Third Way, a center-left
think that has consistently opposed free-college proposals.
But community college presidents worry that calls for free four-year
college hurt their efforts to expand free-tuition programs at two-year
colleges. Seventy-one percent of surveyed community college presidents
believe free four-year college hurts their institutions.
"There are better ways to address the affordability problem than free
college,” Whistle said. Third Way has recommended tripling the size of
the Pell Grant award and building federal-state partnerships that
incentivize states to reinvest in their college and university systems.
Wyner said the "devil is in the details" when it comes to tuition-free
community college programs, but he ultimately supports these programs
and their ability to make college more affordable for students.
Recent polling by the Campaign for Free College Tuition found support
for state governments, instead of Congress, to create tuition-free
programs. Respondents to that poll said they supported the idea of free
college because of successful tuition-free community college programs
in states such as Tennessee and Rhode Island.
Whistle said even though free community college programs are looked
upon more favorably, depending on how they are crafted, they still may
not help low-income students. "Last-dollar" programs, for example, may
only cover the costs of tuition and fees after all other federal and
state aid is used. Low-income students whose tuition is covered by
federal financial aid, such as the Pell Grant, would still have books
and other expenses not covered in a last-dollar program, he said.
The proponents of free community college also don't always consider if
two-year institutions have the resources to handle an influx of
students, Whistle said.
“If students enroll in an underresourced institution, you’re not doing
anything to make them better off,” he said. “It’s important for policy
makers to understand there is more nuance to this than just tuition.”
Declining Enrollment and Revenue
Seventy-three percent of community college presidents surveyed said a
lack of finances continues to be a problem for their campuses. And
nearly 70 percent said enrollment management is a big challenge.
“Community colleges are being asked to deliver more degrees of a higher
quality to a more diverse population without additional government
funding,” said Wyner, Aspen's president.
At St. Cloud Technical & Community College in Minnesota,
administrators have been looking for solutions to help students
struggling with food and housing insecurity, while also helping the
state reach its goal of having 70 percent of adults in the state with a
degree or certificate by 2025.
“Students don’t care about transfer when they worry about if they can
eat, pay their bills or are depressed,” St. Cloud president Aneesa
Cheek said. “We have to get back to really caring and using our
financial and human resources to demonstrate in our budgets that we
care about students. But that’s not easy … state funding has declined,
and federal financial aid hasn’t kept up as much as we’d like. It’s a
tight rubber band stretched to the maximum.”
Minnesota is one of 30 states that has a higher per-student state
appropriation than it did in 2013 but is still funded at a lower level
than it was before the 2008 recession, according to a recent report by
the State Higher Education Executive Officers association. Minnesota
funded institutions at $8,437 per full-time equivalent student in 2008.
As of 2018, that figure had decreased to $7,758.
Many community colleges that relied on adult learners to fill classroom
seats, in addition to traditional high school graduates, have been hurt
by enrollment declines. Older adult learners in particular are less
likely to enroll when the economy is performing well.
The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education projects the
number of high school graduates to remain flat from now until 2023 and
to decrease after 2025 from about 3.5 million graduates per year to
about three million.
“Enrollment is always going to be a significant issue, because we’re in
the people business and the education business,” said Ester, the
Normandale president. “A lot of schools are seeing bigger declines, but
we’ve flattened off and I’m very grateful for that.”
Enrollment at Normandale was at 7,440 students in 2011 and has hovered
around 6,850 students for the last five years, according to the
college's data. Ester said the college’s high school dual-enrollment
programs have helped stabilize the campus population. From 2011 to
2018, the high school student enrollment at Normandale more than
doubled, from 519 to 1,094 students.
Over all, community colleges nationally are operating under different
levels of state and local funding while trying to serve different
constituents, such as students, faculty and local communities, and
being innovative.
“With all of these different things going on, it’s important for us to
be innovative,” Ester said. “When you’re worried about keeping the
lights on, it’s hard to innovate, but that’s what our students deserve
and what they expect.”
Six in 10 community college presidents surveyed said they worry some
education reforms expected to improve graduation rates at two-year
colleges may not actually increase student learning.
“At the center of our discussions is equitable student outcomes and
acknowledging that learning is about quality and rigor,” Cheek, the
president of St. Cloud, said. “It’s not about how do we change the
student, but how do we change, through pedagogy and practice, our
systems and policies?”
The challenge and expectation are that community colleges will maintain
quality, a rigorous curriculum and the overall learning experience for
students while improving the way that education is delivered to
students, she said.
The Presidential Pipeline
Cheek is one of the newer community college presidents -- she has been
at St. Cloud for nine months. There have been concerns over the past
decade about filling open presidential positions as many community
college presidents reached retirement age.
Fewer presidents surveyed -- 17 percent compared to 26 percent a year
ago -- indicated they plan to retire in the next two years. That
percentage is smaller because many of those positions have been filled.
In North Carolina, 34 out of 58 presidents started those positions in
the past three years, said Audrey Jaeger, executive director of the
Belk Center for Community College Leadership at North Carolina State
University.
“The issue is [now] less about how many are retiring but how can we
prepare current and future presidents for these complex jobs,” she said.
Current community college presidents were also split on whether there
is an impressive pool of potential two-year leaders available to take
their places.
37 percent agreed that there is a strong pool of potential community
college leaders.
34 percent remained neutral on the question.
28 percent disagreed and do not feel there is a strong pool of future
leaders.
The presidents who were skeptical of the pool of potential two-year
leaders said there are not enough clear paths to the presidency.
43 percent of community college presidents agree there are no clear
paths to prepare for the presidency.
39 percent disagreed and believe there are clear paths.
60 percent said there are too few minority candidates for community
college presidencies.
42 percent said there are too few women candidates.
"We have to go after the talent,” Jaeger said.
At N.C. State’s doctoral program for community college leaders, Jaeger
said there are candidates and future students who have the potential to
be great leaders, but often they need scholarships to pursue a
doctorate or encouragement to pursue becoming a president.
Cheek, who is African American, said she didn’t take the traditional
route to become a president. She worked in the corporate sector for
about 10 years before taking a position in the president’s office at
Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, and received encouragement
from the college's president, Steven Johnson, to pursue the
presidential pathway.
Cheek views her role as president as fulfilling the goal she set to
help improve her community when she left the corporate workplace.
“If employers say students are not ready, then we've failed,” she said.
“If our transfer institutions say they’re not ready, then we’ve failed.
Extending how we measure ourselves and hold ourselves accountable has
to extend beyond our institutions. We are trying to improve the
economic and social mobility for students, and if they’re not able to
navigate the next leg of their journey, we have more work to do.”
See charts at Inside Higher Ed
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