College Crush

College Crush

Bachelors' degrees were once the province of universities. But that's changing as

community colleges start offering them, prompting questions about their mission.

education by Jean Gruss | Editor/Lee-Collier

Are community colleges straying from their mission?

There's a move underway by a growing number of community colleges - including at least three on the Gulf Coast - to offer bachelors' degrees. Although at first blush it may seem like a logical expansion of their current missions, the move may in fact transform these colleges into institutions that closely resemble their state university counterparts.

This shift is important to local and regional employers who look to community colleges as valuable sources of labor for technical and vocational professions. Community colleges have long provided an open door to students seeking two-year degrees with reasonable tuition costs that help them land a job.

Now, some wonder whether offering bachelors degrees threatens community colleges' affordability and ability to quickly provide trained labor to industries ranging from health care to education and technology.

But community colleges' survival may depend on offering bachelors' degrees, now widely considered passports to better jobs in many industries. If they don't offer them, others will. Competition from online universities and for-profit entities is threatening to take away their role as the leading workforce educators. While academics say there's room for more providers of bachelors' degrees, competition in academia is as fierce as it is in the corporate world.

St. Petersburg College was the first community college in the state to offer bachelors' degrees. It had the political clout with State Sen. Don Sullivan of St. Petersburg to get a special bill through the state legislature in 2001 so it alone could offer the higher degrees. That opened the floodgates and this year the legislature has permitted nine community colleges to offer bachelors degrees as part of a pilot program that includes Edison State College in Fort Myers. Although it's a pilot program, others are lining up applications to offer bachelors' degrees, including Manatee Community College.

Faced with a funding crunch as government revenues dwindle from a slowing economy, community colleges persuaded the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission to add an amendment to the state constitution on November's ballot that gives counties the option to raise their sales taxes for community colleges. It's the only amendment on the ballot that seeks to raise taxes.

While most community college presidents on the Gulf Coast acknowledge that asking counties to raise the sales tax in an economic downturn would be practically impossible, they'd like to see the amendment pass so they might be able to count on that source of funding when the economy rebounds. One exception is Manatee Community College, whose board of trustees recently has urged voters to vote "no" on the amendment because it would create a two-tiered system that would give an unfair advantage to colleges whose counties had approved a tax increase.

More BAs needed

Community colleges argue that the state university system turns away thousands of prospective students because of caps on enrollment. Why can't community colleges pick up the slack?

"The universities keep clamping down on admission requirements," argues Carl Kuttler Jr., president of St. Petersburg College.

In their vision statement for elevation to "state college" status offering bachelors' degrees, community colleges say Florida ranks in the third quartile of states with populations between the ages of 25 and 44 who have bachelors' degrees. To elevate Florida to the status of "10 most productive states" by 2027, the state needs to supply 2.15 million graduates with bachelors' degrees and state universities can't do it alone.

There's certainly no lack of demand now. For example, enrollment at Edison is up 14% this year and direct public support for the Edison College Foundation more than tripled for the year ended March 31, 2007, compared with the prior year, tax filings show.

Community college presidents say they work with state universities to prevent overlap and offer bachelors' degrees in areas that are related to high demand in the job market. They've done this in part to mitigate universities' opposition to the expansion of bachelors' degrees.

Kenneth Walker, president of Edison, is blunt about how community colleges won permission to offer bachelors' degrees: "What really makes it happen is political clout." Specifically, one of Edison's local trustees, Linda Taylor, was appointed to the state board of education.

William Merwin, the former president of Florida Gulf Coast University, says he agreed to Edison State College's request to offer bachelors' degrees a few years ago despite opposition from his predecessor, Roy McTarnaghan. "I thought it was inevitable," says Merwin, who is now a fundraising consultant. "They'd been trying to do this for 10 years."

Eventually, Merwin says he believes Edison and other community colleges will offer many of the same bachelors' degrees in liberal arts and other subjects as FGCU and other state universities. "It's bound to happen," Merwin says. Merwin himself is a product of state colleges in Wisconsin, which broadened their roles much like Florida community colleges are doing today and eventually became part of that state's university system. "I know the expenses went up," he recalls.

Even community college presidents acknowledge that might happen. "There will be a conversation about what we do about liberal arts education," says Kuttler. "You can see the handwriting on the wall."

Tuition is no small matter. Community colleges have the distinct advantage of having low tuition for a college education. Employers are particularly sensitive to that because community colleges are the training grounds for so many of their employees. For example, in the Fort Myers area the cost per credit hour for the baccalaureate program at Edison State College is $87.75, less than the $132.29 at FGCU and $450 at Hodges University.

Merwin says costs will be a factor because community colleges can teach two-year degrees with lower-cost instructors. But for bachelors' degrees, community colleges will have to pay more for instructors with higher degrees. Community college presidents agree tuition for bachelors' degrees programs may cost more, but they say they will still be lower than universities because they won't pay for professors to do research.

Still, managing costs is always a challenge in inflationary academia. "Funding is a very difficult issue in the short run," says Willis Holcombe, chancellor of the state's community college system. "The current economic situation is difficult for everybody."

While many community college presidents support the November ballot amendment giving counties the ability to raise sales taxes to fund community colleges, they acknowledge it is unlikely any county will raise taxes because of the economic downturn. Many community colleges work across county lines, so there's the additional challenge of raising taxes in several counties.

Shedding second-class image

Edison dropped the "community" from its name in 2004 because of the word's negative connotation. "It helped with the feeling of pride," says Kenneth Walker, president of what is now Edison State College. "It was rebranding."

Walker says community colleges can retain open-door admissions and be responsive to the needs of local and regional employers while offering bachelors' degrees in areas such as nursing and education. It's also considering building dormitories. "The secret of FGCU's success is [student] housing," Walker says.

But all of these changes aren't set in stone. The pilot program and a separate state task force are working on determining the direction of change. For the pilot program, the state essentially told Edison and eight other community colleges: "You are now state colleges; now go figure out what that is," Walker chuckles.

And the funding issues may get contentious, especially if the state faces more severe cutbacks from the economic downturn. "There's always competition for dollars," says Lars Haftner, president of Manatee Community College. "Both systems want their fair share and they never get their fair share."

But community college presidents say their schools are a better deal than universities or private colleges, especially important now that economic development has become a priority in the downturn. "Taxpayer dollars are being spent to put people in the workforce," Haftner says.

But if they stray from the mission of helping employers fill vacancies, someone will take their place. "[Employers] look to the public sector, but if they don't do it, the businesses will do it themselves," says Merwin.

REVIEW SUMMARY

Industry. Higher education

Sector. Community colleges

Key. Open access and lower tuition costs are the keys to training future workers in Florida.