City College Of San Francisco Faces Accreditation Loss, Shut-Down

Students entering the California Community College system will now have another tool to help them choose a degree program and motivate them to complete that program. Through a new online tool, California students will be able to see how much they can earn with the various degrees offered through their school. The tool was recently unveiled by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office.

Introducing Salary Surfer

The new website, dubbed Salary Surfer, allows students to track a person’s potential salary in California for five years after earning a two-year degree. The site uses data from graduates across the state, to compile significant information that can help students choose the best degree program for them. The Huffington Post reports that Salary Surfer shows the median annual incomes for 179 of the most popular community college programs in the state.

The website does not include data on students that transfer to four-year institutions. It does not have information on federal employees or self-employed graduates. Graduates that move out of state are also not included in the salary averages listed at Salary Surfer.

EdSource reports that Salary Surfer is the first online database of its kind in the state. The website tracks average annual salaries for the various programs two years after graduation, and again five years after graduation. Students can see how much they might expect to make in their discipline and compare that to what they were making prior to graduation.

At a time when more focus is on community colleges as a viable and cost-effective option in higher education, leadership at these schools appears to be in crisis. According to a recent report from the Aspen Institute and Achieving the Dream, a large percentage of community college presidents are slated for retirement over the next five years. Even more concerning is the fact that few appear poised to take over the helms of these institutions, leaving some to wonder where the direction of the community college system is headed.

The new report, titled, “Crisis and Opportunity: Aligning the Community College Presidency with Student Success,” was released at a National Forum in Washington D.C. in June. The report details the challenges facing community colleges in the upcoming years as they work to keep their key leadership positions filled with qualified candidates. The report identifies some of the specific problems that could contribute to a presidential shortage of community college presidents nationwide. It also provides recommendations that community colleges can follow to ensure their leadership does not suffer from the loss of a large number of current presidents in the next few years.

This lengthy video from the Aspen Institute describes the report in detail.

Primary Concerns Over the Coming Leadership Shortage

According to a recent report at Inside Higher Ed, more than 40 percent of the current community college presidents may retire

Community college is often the choice for women seeking higher education. These institutions typically provide many features adult female students need, including proximity to their homes and affordable tuition rates. However, one primary barrier consistently interferes with a woman’s ability to complete her community college education, according to a recent report.

Primary Barrier for Student Parents: Affordable Child Care

The majority of student parents at community colleges today are women who are trying to juggle family, work and school responsibilities as they pursue higher education. A new report released by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) shows that the largest obstacle facing this student demographic is access to affordable child care. Unfortunately, Raw Story reports that these findings have been released at a time when federal funding for child care is dwindling across the country.

In this TEDTalk, Heather Wylie, a first-generation college student from a low income, rural Northern California community, talks about how she became a college professor in large part because of connections she made with individuals, ideas, and communities. In this talk, she challenges us to change the conversation from community colleges as places of last resort to institutions of innovation inspiration and social change.

The report, titled, “Women in Community Colleges: Access to Success,” was officially released just before Mother’s Day. The authors of the report, Andresse St. Rose and Catherine Hill, used a variety of

Recent tragedies at schools nationwide have caused many community colleges to take a serious look at their security policies. At the forefront is whether guards and officers on community college campuses should be allowed to carry firearms. While some college administrators make good arguments for the allowance of weapons, others have equally compelling arguments against the practice. These community colleges offer a small sample of the schools that are grappling with the issue of guns on their campuses.

Holyoke Community College Heeding Massachusetts Report

Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts is looking in-depth at the possibility of arming campus guards after a report on campus violence prevention was released for Massachusetts schools. The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education report recommends that “sworn campus police officers should be armed and trained in the use of personal or specialized firearms.” The report was compiled in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech mass shooting in 2007 and another incident at Northern Illinois University in 2008.

According to mLive, the Holyoke Community College Campus Safety Committee is now considering arming the school’s nine full-time police officers. All employees, including Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Academy graduates or the Massachusetts State Police Training Academy, are not allowed to carry guns on campus. However, after a lockdown situation on the college campus in February, the question of armed guards to handle active shooter situations was once again raised.

The Holyoke Community College Campus Safety Committee was formed by the chairwoman of