Mentoring at Community College: Helping Students Succeed

Nevada has traditionally had one of the most liberal enrollment policies for students who want to attend community college. Until recently, students did not even need a high school diploma or equivalent to take classes at one of these institutions. However, booming enrollment and low graduation rates have forced these schools to take a second look at their admission requirements. In addition, Nevada community colleges are seizing the opportunity to restudy how they calculate tuition and fee rates for each academic year.

Diploma Now Required

According to a brief report in the Houston Chronicle, about half of all the college students in Nevada attend one of the state’s community colleges. At the College of Southern Nevada, there are around 44,000 students currently enrolled. However, the president of CSN, Michael Richards, said that of that number, only about nine percent graduate from college each year. Richards asserts that in order to make community college students more successful, they need to be better prepared for the rigors of higher education.

Maria Sheehan, president of Truckee Meadows Community College agrees. She told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the primary goal of the new admission requirements would be to see more students succeed once they were enrolled at a community college.

“It’s not about limiting access,” Sheehan told the Review-Journal. “It is not about being punitive. It is not about denying access to career changers.”

The new requirement was adopted by the higher education system’s Board of

Community colleges across the country are growing by leaps and bounds for a variety of reasons. Some displaced workers are returning to school to gain additional training in industries that are currently hiring. High school graduates who are unable to afford tuition at a four-year university are now looking to community colleges as a viable option – at least in the short term. Finally, the focus on community colleges by President Obama has resulted in more Americans considering this option for continuing their education.

While growth at community colleges is good news for the schools and students nationwide, the additional enrollment has posed a problem for some schools that simply don’t have the space to accommodate a larger student body. The answer for some has been to look for ways to expand their campuses to allow for more classrooms and more student opportunities. We’ll take a look at a handful of the community colleges that are preparing for the expansion process this year.

Location, Location: New River Community College Looking for a Place to Expand

New River Community College is one school that is literally bursting at the seams. According to a report in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, this West Virginia school is feeling the growing pains of an expanding student body. The school is eyeing a number of locations in the community to grow the current campus they share with Mercer County Technical Education Center on Stafford Drive.

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Community colleges have traditionally adopted an all-inclusive policy when it comes to the students who want to earn an associate degree or professional certificate after high school. Unfortunately, the willingness to let all students into the programs, regardless of their high school academic records, has left many community colleges across the country with dismal completion rates, compared to many of the four-year institutions that carefully screen applicants prior to admittance. Some schools have met this problem head-on, developing remedial programs that actually work to keep college student in school until graduation. Some of the states where these schools are located recently received a financial boost from Complete College America, a non-profit organization solely committed to increasing community college completion rates nationwide.

The Problem in Texas

Texas is one of the states in the country that has struggled with getting community college students all the way to graduation. According to a report in the Texas Tribune, 48 percent of community college students in the state require some form of remedial education or additional assistance to get up to speed academically so they can handle the rigors of higher education. Nearly 38 percent of those students do not measure up in their math skills when they graduate from high school – a fact that directly impacts a student’s ability to succeed in college. To help many of these students, colleges currently offer remedial math classes to bring them up to par.

The events of 9-11 made their mark on the lives of every American, as well as others around the globe. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of 9-11, and community colleges are finding unique ways to commemorate the date. While many of the events are scheduled for campuses in the state of New York, where the World Trade Center tragedy occurred, other colleges around the country are also hosting events to remember those who lost their lives, family members, first responders, and others whose lives were changed forever on that date. We’ll take you to some of the campuses that are planning special events across the nation.

Cayuga Community College to Display Piece of World Trade Center

Cayuga Community College in New York is proud to be home to one of the few remaining pieces of the World Trade Center today, according to a report at YNN. The school will display an exhibit that includes the artifact, titled the New York Remembers Tribute. The exhibit will also showcase the role played by the college during the events of that fateful day. While emergency crews headed out in mass to save those trapped in the World Trade Center rubble, Cayuga’s NASA Center took in information from satellites on 9-11 and passed that data along to the police and firefighters working at Ground Zero. During the early hours of the tragedy, these photos were the only information workers had to use to navigate the wreckage that just hours