Is Contraception the Answer for College Completion Rates?

Community colleges nationwide have faced serious budget cuts that have forced them to make difficult decisions regarding the best ways to serve their students. In the case of Santa Monica College, a proposal to change the pricing structure of certain classes has been met with both applause and protest. Should community colleges be able to charge different prices for their more popular courses? Santa Monica is dealing with that issue right now.

Program Completion Delayed Due to Insufficient Course Offerings

According to a report at FOX News, Santa Monica College has been forced to reduce class offerings over the past three years due to significant California budget cuts that have left the school, like others around the country, scrambling to find enough resources to adequately meet student needs. Unfortunately, the practice of cutting classes has left many students in a serious bind. Students who were poised to complete degree programs or transfer to a four-year university have not been able to get the core classes they need to complete their requirements.

“Demand is huge across the board,” Bruce Smith, a spokesman for Santa Monica College, told FOX News. “The question is can we continue to keep cutting and cutting classes. It’s pretty devastating.”

This video from the Associated Press reports on how the board of trustees at Santa Monica College voted Friday to postpone a two-tiered fee scale that brought angry campus protests where students were pepper-sprayed.

College students have traditionally been known for their willingness to exercise their First Amendment rights,and today’s students are no exception. In fact, college students have been voicing their opinions on everything from community college reorganization to tuition hikes, with protests from coast to coast. Check out two of the issues on either side of the country that currently have many community college students up in arms.

California Students Protest Tuition Hikes, Education Cuts

On the West Coast, college students have come out in droves to protest deep state budget cuts that have resulted in higher tuition rates and cuts to classes and student services. The UC Berkeley News Center reports that an estimated 8,000 students flocked to Sacramento earlier this month to stage a mass demonstration on the steps of the state capitol. The crowd included students, faculty, and administrative staff from the state’s universities and community colleges.

“Students, faculty, staff, administrators – we are all on the same side in wanting to maintain a strong university, and there was real consensus among the deans that taking the bus to Sacramento today would be a good thing to do,” Kim Voss, acting dean of social sciences at Berkeley, told the UC Berkeley News Center. The news service reported that more than 50 students and staff traveled from the college to Sacramento to support the protest movement.

A campus-wide email was sent out at the school, encouraging those who could to head to Sacramento to make

A number of community college students from around the country are headed to NASA to help design robotic rovers for Mars exploration. The 92 students chosen for the project were carefully selected after participating in interactive online assignments throughout the school year. They will be headed to a NASA center this scramento Bepring to complete their tasks. The National Community College Aerospace Scholar program designed the project, with sponsorship from NASA, and will include students from 24 different states across the country.

This video discusses the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars program.

The Purpose of the Program

According to a press release on the NASA website, the program is based on the Texas Aerospace Scholars program, which was originally created as a partnership between the state’s education community and NASA. The purpose was to get more students excited about STEM areas of study, particularly science and engineering. This particular project, through the National Community College Aerospace Scholar program and NASA, is designed to offer hands-on opportunities in STEM fields that will inspire more students to enter those fields after they finish college.

“I am so proud of the Community College Aerospace Scholars program,” Leland Melvin, NASA’s associate administrator for education, stated in the press release. “Community colleges offer NASA a great pool of STEM talent critical to our scientific and exploration initiatives. They also serve a large portion

The face of the community college student appears to be changing in more ways than one, as a slow economy and skyrocketing tuition rates at four-year schools have begun to take their toll. A recent study by student loan provider Sallie Mae found that more students from high-income families are moving to community college right out of high school, thanks to lower tuition costs and better career options. It also seems that the attitude toward community college education is improving as more students see this path as a viable option for a bright future.

The Changing Demographic

The report on the Sallie Mae website, “How America Pays for College 2011,” explains that in the past four years, many families across the country and from all income brackets have shifted from four-year institutions to two-year community colleges. This shift could be a factor in why middle- and high-income families have been able to reduce education costs and take less money from income and savings to pay the price for higher education.

The study found that during the 2009-2010 academic year, 12 percent of high-income families (families making $100,000 or more) sent students to two-year colleges. The following school year, that percentage went up to 22 percent. That increase correlates with a drop in four-year college enrollment during the same time frame, which shifted from 56 percent during the 2009-2010 school year to just 48 percent the following year. This group also reported