Community College: Closing the Gap on a Widening Disparity

One of the more recent articles in the New York Times addressed the 22.7 percent enrollment decline among Community Colleges that has “eliminated what had been one of higher education’s bright spots.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/world/freshman-enrollment-drops-significantly-at-us-universities-and-community-colleges.html

and the more specific impact on Black, Latino and low-income students who enter the higher educational system.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/world/freshman-enrollment-drops-significantly-at-us-universities-and-community-colleges.html

Within the framework of the COVID-19 pandemic, the enrollment decline is understandable, but still disturbing. While higher education is not the ONLY path to the ‘pursuit’ of happiness, it is a path in which organizations have a dependent relationship and a pipeline for their employment needs. Admittedly, my early pandemic conversations with colleagues in business and higher education reflected my absolute certainty that if the lockdown extended into the Fall semester, there would be an uptick in the enrollment of first-year and ‘stop out’ students at Community Colleges. I thought my logic and predictive prowess was sound and unwavering. It was clear, at least in my mind, that the less expensive and available Community College institutions would be a positive beneficiary in the unrelenting negative ripple of COVID-19. I didn’t just hit a wall with my logic, I hit a wall perched on a cliff that descended into a dark vortex. Granted, those early COVID-19 discussions did not take into account the extended downward economy, the 30 million unemployed, the persistent closing of small businesses, the political bruhaha and the resulting long lines of cars at Forgotten Harvest, the backlog of people applying for unemployment compensation, the continuous furloughs/downsizing and the emerging COVID-19 fatigue. I made a prediction that was flawed in so many ways that I would be remiss in not acknowledging that truth and, as someone who taught an ‘Ethics in Business’ course, hypocritical in the face of new and compelling evidence. 

So, let me reframe the thinking by making the case for the safety net of Community Colleges within the extended COVID-19 framework. First of all, my perspective is shaped by a number of factors. I am a ‘retired’ Professor of Management at Walsh College. Walsh is a business college with an upper division undergraduate curriculum that has a transfer relationship with all of the Community Colleges within the State of Michigan, I taught, full-time, at Lansing Community College in the Business Division and I have had the good fortune of teaching at Washtenaw Community College and Wayne County Community College. While I followed the traditional undergrad to grad at Michigan State University, I get the importance of the Community College experience. Consequently, at time when there racial, educational, economic, social, political and digital divide is widening, Community Colleges are the bridge that makes crossing the gap a lot easier. I am not just making the case for Community College bound students, I am also speaking to the sophomores, juniors and seniors who have had their process disrupted by COVID-19 and may be uncertain as to when they will return. The worst kept secret in the higher education industry is the fact that when students ‘stop out’, the longer they stay out, the greater likelihood that they won’t return. Those students, also, need a safety net even if it is only temporary. So, take the plunge into the Community College safety net for these reasons:

1.     There’s a compelling argument that human behavior requires some goal-directed discipline as a way to maintain mental focus away from less appealing distractions. Being enrolled in a class or two helps to focus thinking and behavior toward an attainable goal. Whether you start in a Community College or find yourself needing to maintain the academic momentum until you can return to your undergraduate institution, enroll and stay focused. If you are stopping out from an undergraduate institution, check with the academic advisors within your major and ask them “What courses will transfer back to your curriculum once the pandemic is over.” If the answer is ‘NONE’ go check with another advisor. Those institutions are not in a position, given the COVID-19 driven economy, to be less than collaborative.

2.     If it is a matter of funding, then go have a conversation with the financial aid representatives to see what is financially feasible. I am NOT advocating taking on a lot of or more debt! You want to see if there is a way of balancing what is available with what you are earning. Finances are, typically, a barrier but in this case may be a much softer barrier than is generally known. 

3.     For many low-income students the issue may be not having access to the internet. It is a likely digital barrier that many other students take for granted. If internet access is the issue, then having just spent the last 5 years working as a consultant with The Library Network (TLN) in Michigan, I can tell you that the local libraries are pumped, primed and positioned to help with the Internet access issues. Turn away from watching ‘The Defenders’ on Netflix for the nineth time and make an appointment to talk with a customer service rep at your local library. You won’t find a more supportive agency.

4.     If Freud was right when he assailed that, ‘Depression is just anger turned inwards’, then given the record level of emotionally depressed people, as reported by mental health officials, that’s a lot of anger tearing away on the insides of a lot of good people. Turn the anger outwards and focus it on something that will make you happy to learn. One of my furloughed colleagues decided, at age 63, to enroll at our local Community College to learn how to play the piano! I know it has helped his mood because he’s drinking less, and he has a more upbeat tone. 

Obviously, as an educator, I am concerned about any drop in enrollment within our k-12 and higher education institutions. While we understand the aesthetic and knowledge-driven appeal of higher education, there is, also, a practicality that sometimes sits in the shadows of ivy-covered walls and residence hall settings.  The practical necessity of Community Colleges as a vehicle for promoting, reinforcing and advancing individual life goals cannot be overlooked because of being depressed by the ‘New Normal’.

 Education doesn’t stop, nor should you!