Though the community college leaders
who orchestrate various completion-agenda initiatives understand and support core concepts of lifelong learning
and would never refer to degree and
certificate outcomes as “terminal,” we
must make sure federal and state agencies that champion the goals of completion do not assume our (and their) work
is finished once a student receives his
or her initial degree or certificate.
A Liberal Education—As we create new pathways to success for our
students, we need to consider how to
infuse our programs with core values
and concepts from liberal education—
what the Association of American
Colleges and Universities calls Essential
MOST REFORM
EFFORTS TINKER
AROUND THE EDGES
OF TRADITION,
BUT THE COMPLETION
AGENDA HAS THE
POTENTIAL TO OPEN
WIDE THE DOORS
OF CHANGE.
Learning Outcomes—to ensure that
our graduates and certificate holders
are able to make informed decisions
and use clear judgment about how they
invest and spend their resources and
their lives.
A sound liberal education is designed
to liberate students from ignorance;
in our current society, ignorance
has many champions, with seductive
spokespersons in the national press and
among well-known political leaders. We
need to resuscitate Earl McGrath’s early
definition of general education—a com-
mon core of knowledge for the common
person—to help our students develop
coping skills, life skills, and team skills
so they can create a satisfying philoso-
phy by which to live and contribute to
the general welfare.
ments have expanded while resources
have been reduced; our faculty and
leaders are retiring in record numbers;
leadership and staff development programs so far cannot keep up with the
demand for replacements; our colleges
are primarily staffed by part-time faculty who instruct a student body that
is primarily parttime—not exactly the
best conditions for taking on a mandate
to change the world.
Community colleges nevertheless
will take on this job and do their best to
boost the number of degree and certificate holders in the next several decades.
As we engage the completion agenda,
we should consider several key questions: What to do when foundation
A Very Big Deal—The completion
agenda, as Lumina Foundation says,
is a Big Goal. The promise is no less
than making certain the United States
remains globally competitive. Community colleges have always had, as Frank
Newman once said, the toughest tasks
of higher education; with the completion agenda, community colleges now
must confront perhaps the toughest
task ever in higher education.
In many ways, community colleges
are up to the challenge: They have
the right philosophies and the right
programs, and are strategically located
in all the right places. But obstacles re-
main: Community college success rates
in the past have been dismal; enroll-
funds eventually dry up? How can
community colleges balance the needs
of other programs and students not
connected to or interested in the
completion agenda? As leaders, can we
use the completion agenda as leverage
for reforming other key components of
the college? How will community col-
leges adapt when a new administration
in the White House changes its course?
If the community college does not meet
the goals of this agenda, how will it be
perceived by the federal government,
state governments, foundations, and
the rest of higher education the next
time society comes calling?
