2009-2014

The state of Wyoming is demonstrating their commitment to higher education this month with the first ever community college summit. The summit, sponsored by the Wyoming Association of Community College Trustees, drew educators from around the state to discuss the changing role of community colleges and the best ways to meet student needs in the future. The governor of Wyoming, Matt Mead, was also on hand for the event, and addressed the gathering in regards to recent decisions made at the state level for community college and the importance of higher education for the state.

Summit Brings Colleges, Businesses Together

The Wyoming Community College Summit brought all seven of the state’s community colleges together and included more than 100 educators from those schools. The summit also saw participation from industry partners, business owners from the state who frequently hired community college graduates for their open positions. KWGN reports that these businessmen and women offered input into what their needs were in terms of employees.

“You’ll hear all of them today say, the community colleges are essential to their ability to hire and train productive employees and to grow their businesses,” Steve Bahmer, executive director for the Wyoming Association of Community College Trustees, told KWGN.

The meeting between business owners and community college officials could pave the way for new programs at local community colleges, based on the changing needs of businesses in the state. This type of coordination between the business world and higher

While it is important to track the progress and effectiveness of higher education in this country, current standards that apply across the board to both two and four-year institutions do not paint a full picture of the state of postsecondary education today. There are significant differences between four-year universities and two-year community colleges that are simply not addressed in the standards as they are currently written. In most cases, current assessment standards do community colleges an injustice, providing an inaccurate view of how well these schools educate their students.

The AACC and the VFA

The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is hoping to change the view of the community college system through a set of defined assessment standards designed just for them. According to the AACC website, the new Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA) is the first national accountability system created just for community colleges, taking their unique student demographics and purpose into consideration. The new metrics will be tested out by 58 community colleges initially, according to a brief report in the Chronicle of Higher Education, with the hope that other schools will adopt the framework in the future.

The VFA consists of three phase initiative that will encompass many aspects of community college success or failure. When the framework is completed, it will include:

• A technical manual that will offer an overview of measurement calculations
• A college framework to guide schools in assessing student learning outcomes
• A blueprint of data

In an effort to save money and streamline the higher education process, Connecticut has launched a merger of the state’s college system that would create a central board of governance for 12 community colleges, four universities and Charter Oak State College – an online college. The only state school that will remain independent under the new structure is University of Connecticut. While there are many that applaud this change as an effective way to improve the state’s college system overall, others are concerned about exactly how this new merger will impact individual schools with very different missions.

How the Merger Happened and What Students can Expect

According to a report at Inside Higher Ed, Connecticut state legislators launched the merger in July, when they created the new Board of Regents for Higher Education to oversee the institutions in the state. Two of the primary reasons for the decision was to save money on higher education overall, as well as to coordinate higher education in the state to ensure students received an education that would prepare them for a lucrative and available job in the future.

“The State of Connecticut has to look across higher education,” Gena Glickman, president of Manchester Community College, told Inside Higher Ed. Glickman added that the state needs to determine “whether or not we’re facile enough to meet the needs of each student.”

The new Board of Regents will consist of 19 board members, which have not yet been appointed,

Community colleges have been fertile breeding grounds for students who want to exercise First Amendment rights over the years. However, one group in Seattle that is trying to do the same may be overstaying its welcome on a local community college campus. Seattle Central Community College has become the makeshift campground for the newly formed movement Occupy Seattle. However, after weighing the costs involved with added security and clean-up crews that have become necessary since the group moved in, community college officials are now looking for a way to oust Occupy Seattle from their campus.

Strange Bedfellows

Occupy Seattle moved onto the campus of Seattle Central Community College after they were told by city officials they were not allowed to pitch their tents in a municipal park, according to a report at The Seattle Times. The community college appeared to be a prime location for the movement, since the school had no rules on the books in regards to camping on campus. A local teachers’ union even invited the movement in and offered them free classes to help expand their cause, according to Seattle Pi.

The publication also reports that officials of the community college were never warm to the idea of allowing members of the movement to set up shop on their grounds and tried to ban the group at first. Without a rule in place to prevent it, however, the response to Occupy Seattle eventually had to be a reluctant “yes.”

The community college system in Massachusetts received a “double whammy” this month, with two different reports citing similar problems with the state’s schools. The first report was released by the Commonwealth Corporation and the second, released just a few days later, was completed by the Boston Foundation. Both reports found the statewide community college system to be lacking in terms of preparing Massachusetts residents for industries in demand throughout the state. The good news is that the reports also issued recommendations to make community colleges a better deal for state students.

The Commonwealth Corporation Report

The primary concern of the Commonwealth Corporation report, titled “Critical Collaboration,” was the fact that Massachusetts community colleges are not properly aligning their training programs with the specific needs of the healthcare industry, according to a report at Sentinel and Enterprise. Currently, healthcare is the number one industry throughout the Boston area, accounting for 19 percent of all of the jobs in the city. However, while healthcare jobs are abundant in Massachusetts, both students and employers are finding the community college network increasingly difficult to navigate for the purpose of preparing students for employment and providing employers with adequately trained healthcare workers.

According to the report, community colleges are not creating important standards that ensure sufficient academic performance from students. Despite the fact that more students than ever are graduating from community colleges in the state, those with degrees are not properly matched to the workforce needs of the