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www.ccweek.comDECEMBER 3, 2007VOLUME 20, No. 8

Thumbs DownDetroit-area voters give anemphatic “no” to extendinga tax hike for colleges.

Pg. 3

Student Editor SackedHanging a noose in anewsroom leads to firing ata Minnesota college.

Pg. 5

Able to Sue?A lawsuit could establishwhether California publicemployees can sue beforefiling grievance.

Pg. 11

No-Show JobThe wife of Alabama’sformer chancellor was paidfor 14 months after leavingher college job.

Pg. 12

Bickering Set AsideIn a rare display of biparti-sanship, a Congressionalpanel approves HigherEducation Act overhaul.

Pg. 14

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Sagging economies,new baccalaureatedegrees fueling jumpsin college enrollment.PG. 6

CountingHeads

Mont. PowerCompany Seeks2-Year TrainingProgram

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) —PPL Montana expects nearly halfof its technical employees to retirein the next seven years, creating280 job openings that it will behard-pressed to fill.

With few programs across thecountry and no post-secondary

programs in Montana to trainreplacements, the power companyand others like it are expecting ashortage of qualified workers.

PPL Montana has asked theMontana State University-BillingsCollege of Technology to start atwo-year degree to prepare powerplant technicians. The programwould train students to operatefossil-fuel power plants, gas-tur-bine facilities, water treatmentplants and other steam or electrici-

ty-generating facilities. The college has a process plant

technology program to train peo-ple to work in oil refineries.Because of some similarities intraining, students in the new pro-gram would attend the same class-es as process plant students thefirst year, technology college DeanJohn Cech said.

The second year, power plantstudents would have their ownspecialized courses.

One new faculty memberwould be hired for the program. Ifregents give their approval and theprogram is endorsed by the MSU-Billings Academic Senate, 25 stu-dents could start classes in fall of2008.

Officials said students whograduate from the new programcould make starting salaries of$50,000 to $60,000 and work theirway up to $100,000.

around the nation

Efforts by the Wayne Coun-ty Community CollegeDistrict to pass a 10-year

renewal of a 150 percent propertytax hike were rejected by voterson Nov. 6, but college officialsare bullish about their chances ofpassing the extension before itexpires in 2011.

The tax renewal, which wouldhave been an increase of 1.5mills, lost by 60-40 margin, withmost of the opposition comingfrom the suburbs. The tax passedeasily in the city of Detroit, but

was defeated in the suburbs bynearly a 2-to-1 margin.

Wayne County CommunityCollege District Chancellor Cur-tis L. Ivery said much of theopposition in the suburbs wasbased on an inaccurate perceptionof the college district as an urbaninstitution.

“The truth is that 40 percent ofour enrollment is from the sub-urbs,” Ivery said.

While disappointed with thefailure of the renewal, Ivery saidhe’s encouraged because the tax

renewal did better in every subur-ban community than the originaltax did in 2001.

“Obviously, our support inthe suburbs is not what we wouldlike it to be, but we are makingprogress,” Ivery said.

Just as it did in 2001, the taxrenewal prompted critics – large-ly from the Detroit suburbs – toaccuse the college of trying tosneak the issue on the ballot dur-ing an election when thereweren’t many big races thatwould typically bring out subur-

ban voters.Ultimately, Ivery believes that

the bad economic climate – whichhe described as bordering on arecession in Michigan — wasultimately what defeated the taxrenewal.

“I guess you could say wewere in the wrong place at thewrong time,” Ivery said.

Turnout for the Nov. 6 taxvote was extremely low, at 10percent, and Ivery said he thinksthat worked against the renewal.

The chancellor noted that

before the tax was approved in2001, the college district was thelowest-funded community col-lege in the state of Michigan .

Detroit College District Loses Bid for Tax HikeBY SCOTT DYER

www.ccweek.com December 3, 2007 3

Chancellor Walter L. Ivery

See Detroit, pg.13, col.1

newsbriefs

See Briefs, pg. 22, col. 1

T he new learning styles of thedifferent generations now attend-ing the nation’s community

colleges pose difficult challenges to plan-ners and administrators developing tech-nology infrastructures for the future.

That was one of the key themes emerg-ing from the 23rd annual Conference onInformation Technology, held last monthin Nashville and attended by more than2,300 people from around the country.

Sponsored by the League for Innova-tion for the Community College, the con-ference offered an opportunity for partici-pants to ponder how emerging technologyis changing both the art and the science ofeducation and instruction.

The keynote address was delivered byMark David Milliron, former league pres-ident and currently president and chiefexecutive officer of Catalyze LearningInternational, a North Carolina educationconsulting firm.

Milliron said the generations ofstudents now filling community collegeclassrooms – baby boomers, “GenerationX” and “the net generation” – have radi-cally different capabilities, experiencesand expectations when it comes to tech-nology.

For baby boomers, for example, thechief technological advance during theirlifetimes was television. Members of Gen-eration X, meanwhile, came of age asvideo games and their brethren took off.For the current generation, it’s the Internet,cellular, Ipods and Blackberries.

Studies have shown that the youngestgeneration of students now spends about12.2 hours online every week. That’sabout 50 percent more time than the aver-age baby boomer, Milliron said.

What that means is younger studentsare much more apt than their older coun-terparts to use text messaging and blogs tocommunicate with one another, and joinWeb communities such as Facebook orMySpace.

Educators must be mindful of the dif-ferences as they try to reach current stu-dents, and plan for future generations oflearners.

“We are preparing a learning systemfor multiple generations of learners,” hesaid.

The challenge is to integrate evolvingtechnologies as educators strive to bothengage students in meaningful learningexperiences and design new buildings oncollege campuses, Milliron said.

New technologies, some not eveninvented yet, pose a significant challengefor college officials, Milliron said.

“How do we build the infrastructure?”he said. “We are still segregating our con-versations about our buildings and ourtechnology.”

Creating infrastructures for technolo-

gy was also the focus of a speech deliveredby Randal D. Pinkett, president of chiefexecutive officer or BCT Partners, a man-agement and technology consulting firm.An entrepreneur and scholar, Pinkett wonwide notice in 2005 by winning the realityshow television program “The Appren-tice.”

But before he was hiredby Donald Trump, Pinkettwas instrumental in anexperiment designed tobridge the digital dividebetween the affluent andthe disadvantaged. For allthe technological advancesthat have made life easier,the poor and the uneducat-ed often don’t have accessto computers and are beingleft behind in the digital age and the econ-omy that goes with it, according to studies.

Pinkett’s explained that his experi-ment, which he undertook as a graduatestudent at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, unfolded at Camfield Estates,a 102-unit, predominantly minority hous-ing development in Roxbury, Mass.

In conjunction with MIT’s Center forReflective Community Practice, Pinkettand fellow student Richard O’Bryant setthe Community Connections Project. Theeffort gave all residents of CamfieldEstates free computers, placed inside their

homes. The computers came with training,equipment, software, and cable-modemInternet connectivity.

The results of the effort show thatcomputer technology can be critical inbuilding and strengthening communities,Pinkett said.

An assessment of theexperiment showed that thenew computers reinforcedand expanded local ties,increased awareness ofcommunity resources andimproved communicationamong neighbors. Mostimportantly, access to tech-nology helped residents ofCamfield Estates identify

themselves as learners capableof joining the Internet age, the

assessment found.Colleges can learn some lessons from

Camfield Estates, Pinkett said. It can pro-vide a roadmap for coordinating multipleactivities, developing a curriculum thatsupports community-based outcomes andsustaining the initiative over time.

Each college must forge their ownpath, however. Educators must understandtheir college’s social and cultural environ-ment. In addition, early in the process,they demonstrate the relevance of technol-ogy, stressing educational outcomesinstead of mere access.

League’s Technology Conference ExaminesChanging Students and Emerging Technologies BY PAUL BRADLY

4 December 3, 2007 www.ccweek.com

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COMMUNITY COLLEGE WEEK (ISSN 1041-5726) is published biweekly,24 issues per year, by Autumn Publishing Enterprises, Inc., PO Box1305, Fairfax, VA 22038, (703) 978-3535. Single subscription: $52 peryear; two years: $80. Canadian and foreign rates furnished uponrequest.

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CCWeek.com

Mark D. Milliron

Randal Pinkett autographs a copy of his new book, Campus CEO:The Student Entrepreneur’s Guide to Launching a Multimillion-DollarBusiness, at the recent Conference on Information Technology, spon-

sored by the League for Innovation in the Community College.

BOSTON (AP) — Foreignlanguage courses arebooming on American

college campuses, a new studyhas found, with enrollment inArabic more than doubling from2002 to 2006.

The latest figures from theModern Language Associationof America reflect a major pushtoward internationalization oncollege campuses, more govern-ment support for language studyand simply more interest fromstudents. Over four years, totalenrollment in language courseshas grown 12.9 percent.

Spanish remains the mostpopular subject, with more than823,000 students enrolled — up10.3 percent since 2002 andnearly four times higher than No.2 French.

But Arabic is the fastest-growing major language, break-ing the top 10 for the first timewith just under 24,000 enroll-ments, compared to about10,600 in 2002. The number ofinstitutions offering Arabic hasnearly doubled to 466, includingboth two- and four-year colleges.

Between 2002 and 2006,Arabic enrollment jumped from222 to 482 at Georgetown Uni-versity, from 37 to 156 at BostonCollege and from 65 to 184 atArizona State University.

Enrollments in languagessuch as Russian and Arabic havetraditionally spiked with worldevents, but Karin Ryding, amember of the language associa-tion and a professor of Arabic atGeorgetown, said she believes

these increases will stick. “Young people today under-

stand that the world is truly andinevitably smaller, and they’recoming to the study of Arabicwith serious, professional goalsin mind,” she said.

More than 200 less-commonlanguages — from Nepali toMacedonian to Native Americanlanguages like Crow and Black-feet — are now taught on collegecampuses. Enrollment in thosecourses is up one-third in thefour years that the MLA studied.

More traditional languages,while growing at slower rates,have held their own. Overall,foreign language enrollment(excluding Latin and ancientGreek) stands at about 1.5 mil-lion, or about two-and-a-halftimes higher than in 1960.

Besides growing interest inglobal affairs, the MLA andother experts point to severalfactors. Many schools have rein-stated language requirementsafter dropping them during the1960s and ‘70s. More studentsare also arriving with a head startfrom high school.

Emily Pollokoff, a student atEmory University in Atlanta, istypical of the new generation oflanguage learners. The second-

year student from Chicago isin her first year of Arabic andsecond year of Hindi, andplans to start Sanskrit nextyear.

“My interest in languagecomes from just wanting tounderstand people better,” shesaid. “There are so many ways

to connect with people — music,food, smiling. But languagebeing a specifically human phe-nomenon makes so much possi-ble.”

Pollokoff said her Hindiclass is full. Some students haveIndian or Arab heritage and wantto connect with their own cul-tures and families. Others haveno ethnic tie but are studyingsubjects ranging from businessto politics to environmental stud-ies and believe they’ll need lan-guage skills to succeed.

Colleges are offering morekinds of instruction. Dan Bayer,executive director of the lan-guage center at the University ofSouthern California, said thatafter introductory courses stu-dents there used to have fewoptions besides literature cours-es.

But many “are not reallyinterested in reading Moliere,”he said. Now USC has devel-oped other options, such as med-ical Spanish and Chinese forbusiness.

The study does not directlymeasure how well students arelearning, but it does differentiatebetween beginning andadvanced classes. In Arabic, itfound just 11 percent of all

enrollments were in advancedcourses, compared to 25 percentin Portuguese and 27 percent inRussian.

One reason for the gap islikely that colleges are strug-gling to attract instructors.

“There’s a dearth of reallyhighly trained people to teachArabic,’’ said Paula Debnar, act-ing associate dean of faculty atMount Holyoke College, awomen’s college in Massachu-setts. “This is such a changefrom five years ago when you’djust have students studyingSpanish and French.’’

Mount Holyoke is trying towork with other area colleges tocreate shared teaching positionsin Japanese and Arabic. In recentyears, it has hired three newSpanish professors, one in Ital-ian and a new Chinese instructor.

Elizabeth Dumont-McCaf-frey, a Mount Holyoke student,sat in on an Arabic class whilevisiting campus in high school.When she arrived, she talked toher parents and agreed it wouldbe a good subject to take.

“I absolutely love it. It’s myfavorite class,’’ she said. “I justlove being able to watch Al-Jazeera and be able to hear thedifferent perspectives.’’

Other languages with majorenrollment jumps since 2002were Chinese, in which enroll-ment rose 51 percent to about51,600, and American Sign Lan-guage, which is now the fourth-most studied foreign languagewith about 79,000 students, up30 percent over four years.


Foreign Language Courses Boom at U.S. Colleges

Newsroom Noose Fuels Campus Debate in Minn.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)— A noose hung froma newsroom ceiling

has led to the firing of the newseditor of the Minneapolis Com-munity and Technical Collegecampus newspaper.

Gabriel Keith said that whenhe taped it to the ceiling on Oct.10 as a reminder for studentreporters to turn in their storieson time he didn’t realize theracist implications of the nooseand the memories they stir oflynchings.

`Ì am definitely aware of itnow,” Keith said.

Accusations have been fly-ing, both about the incident andthe college’s response. Somestudents find it difficult tobelieve Keith, 26, didn’t know

what he was doing. Two studentgroups rallied to express out-rage.

``We are angry,” said LisaDean, 31, president of Associ-ates of Black Collegians, a stu-dent group. ` If we do not nip itin the bud, it will spread and alot of students may not want toattend this college because ofracism.’’

Keith, who is white, said hejust meant it as a joke.

Two other students in theroom, both of whom are black,said they tried to talk Keith outof doing it.

`Ì said, ‘It’s not a good idea,don’t hang up the noose, whynot put something else up,’”’said Sita Hinds, 30, the businessmanager for the paper.

After a few uncomfortableminutes, in which Keith saidSenah Yeboah-Sampong, 22, theonline editor, told him, `Ìf youdon’t take it down, I will,’’ Keithtook it down and threw it in thetrash. When the paper’s editor,Margaret Campbell, 20, who iswhite, learned of the incidentshe fired Keith.

Keith said he was unaware atthe time of recent incidents, suchas the nooses white high schoolstudents hung from a tree inJena, La., last year after blackstudents asked to sit there.

“I heard about something todo with a noose, but I didn’teven think of it,’’ he said. ` Idon’t watch the news.”

Nonetheless, Hinds andYeboah-Sampong filed com-

plaints. The college investigatedand found ``the incident was notintended to target an individualor group of individuals based onrace,’’ said Laura Fedock, inter-im associate vice president foracademic and student affairs.

Earlier this year atMacalester College in St. Paul,college officials condemned anincident at a campus house partywhere a student in blackfacewore a noose around his neck,accompanied by a studentdressed as a Ku Klux Klan mem-ber.

This fall, Hamline Universi-ty in St. Paul suspended six foot-ball players from the team forwearing blackface and dressingas African tribesmen during anoff-campus Halloween party.

More than 200 lesscommon languagesfrom Nepali to Mace-donian are beingtaught at colleges.

C ommunity collegesand other public,two-year institu-tions provide abroad range of per-

sonal, professional, and academictraining and development opportu-nities to a diverse array of commu-nities. A significant portion ofthose opportunities take the formof academic programs that lead toa degree, certificate or other for-mal award. It is this portion thatwe examine in our annual “fastestgrowing” analysis.

We’ve been tracking growthamong U.S. public, two-year col-leges in this annual analysis since2001. This year, we introduce onesignificant change. In previousyears we restricted our attention tocolleges that are included in the“public, two-year” sector withinthe federal Integrated Postsec-ondary Education Data Set, knownas IPEDS. However, as morecommunity colleges add limitedbachelor’s degree offerings, ourrestriction precluded an increasingnumber of institutions that servethe core community college mis-sion. In this year’s analysis, weexpand our domain to include the37 institutions that fall within the“public, four-year” sector but areconsidered to be associate collegeswithin the Carnegie Classificationsystem, because fewer than 10 per-cent of their annual awards are atthe baccalaureate level or higher.

This change has a relativelymodest impact on the four Top 50lists included in this analysis: onlyfive of the 200 listed institutionsrepresent this added category andthey are flagged to indicate theirstatus. The change has a morenotable impact on the trend datathat we review in this introduction,after we consider in greater detailthe sources, limitations, and inter-pretation of the analysis.

The SourceThe Fall Enrollment Survey is

part of the IPEDS data collectionseries administered by the Nation-al Center for Education Statistics,or NCES, a division of the U.S.Department of Education. The

center contacts virtually everypostsecondary institution in theU.S. and its protectorates andobtains a very high response rate.This response rate is stimulated bythe potential penalty that institu-tions face for non-compliance—specifically, they can lose theirqualification for enrolling studentswho obtain federal financial aid.

The IPEDS Enrollment Surveyasks for fall semester enrollmentand is collected during the springsemester. NCES administers theWeb-based survey to more than7,000 postsecondary institutions.Among the colleges included inthis analysis, the response rate isvery close to 100 percent...eventu-ally. When we conduct our analy-sis, we use a preliminary releasefile because not every institutionthat will eventually reply has yetdone so. However, for the type ofinstitutions that we include, thevast majority have responded.

In order to enable reliableanalysis of the data, NCES issuesvery specific definitions as towhom to include in the counts.Specifically, they ask institutionsto report “all students enrolled incourses creditable toward a diplo-ma, certificate, degree or other for-mal award.” In other words, theydo not collect enrollments relatedto what is commonly called “non-credit” instruction. Since non-credit instruction is a very largecomponent of many public, two-year college missions, it is impor-tant to note that the survey doesnot reflect a large portion of manyof these college’s students.

Our Selection CriteriaFollowing a practice that

NCES uses in its own reporting,we restrict our attention to the TitleIV eligible institutions, that is,those that are accredited by eithera regional or specialized postsec-ondary accreditation agency. Wealso consider only those institu-tions located in the 50 states andthe District of Columbia, exclud-ing institutions in Puerto Rico andother “outlying areas,” such asAmerican Samoa, Formosa,Guam, etc. Finally, we exclude

U.S. service academies, whichtypically offer courses in dispersedlocations across the globe.

As already noted, we expanded

our selection criteria this yearbeyond the “public, two-year” sec-tor to also include institutions thatoffer limited baccalaureate pro-

grams but still fall within theCarnegie Classification category,“Associate Colleges.” Finally, wecan only analyze growth for insti-

Analyzing The Data

BY VICTOR M. H. BORDEN


The canpus of Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, N.Y., which grew by 13.7percent from Fall 2005 to Fall 2006, making it the second fastest-growing community

college with an enrollment between 5,000 and 9,999 students.

Special Report: Fastest-Growing Community Colleges

Postsecondary Enrollments by Institutional SectorFall 2006 Institutions Fall 2005 Fall 2006 Enrollment

Percent Percent Percent Sector Number of Total Enrollment Number of Total Chg.Public, 2-yr & 4-yr "Associate"* 1,181 18 6,470,237 6,540,219 36 1.1Public, 4-Year "Associate" 37 0.6 235,951 264,790 1 12.2Public, 2-year 1,144 18 6,234,286 6,275,429 34 0.7Other Four-Year 2,598 40 10,747,193 10,962,421 60 2.0Public 602 9 6,586,425 6,678,067 37 1.4Private, nonprofit 1,545 24 3,411,638 3,474,179 19 1.8Private, for-profit 451 7 749,130 810,175 4 8.1Other Two-Year 1,042 16 378,045 373,909 2 -1.1Private, nonprofit 205 3 59,451 54,937 0 -7.6Private, for-profit 837 13 318,594 318,972 2 0.1Less Than Two-Year 1,663 26 308,284 313,906 2 1.8Public 216 3 42,588 50,431 0 18.4Private, nonprofit 86 1 12,397 13,769 0 11.1Private, for-profit 1,361 21 253,299 249,706 1 -1.4Total 6,484 100 17,903,759 18,190,455 100 1.6NOTES. INCLUDES ONLY INSTITUTIONS ELIGIBLE FOR TITLE IV FUNDING THAT ARE LOCATED IN THE 50 STATES OR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND EXCLUDES SERVICEACADEMIES AND INSTITUTIONS. *THIS CATEGORY INCLUDES BOTH PUBLIC, TWO-YEAR INSTITUTIONS AS WELL AS INSTITUTIONS THAT ARE CLASSIFIED AS PUBLIC,FOUR-YEAR, BUT ARE ALSO CONSIDERED AS "ASSOCIATE'S COLLEGES" DUE TO LOW PERCENTAGE OF BACHELOR'S DEGREES CONFERRED (10 OR LESS).

SOURCE:: COMMUNITY COLLEGE WEEK ANALYSIS OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DATA (IPEDS).

The Big PictureNumber of Public, Two-Year and "Associate" Four-Year Colleges and Award Program Enrollments by Size Category

Fall 2006 Institutions Fall 2005 Fall 2006 EnrollmentPercent Percent Percent

Size Group Number of Total Enrollment Number of Total Change< 2,500 467 40% 537,501 548,052 8% 2.0%

2,500 - 4,999 282 24% 1,068,491 1,031,714 16% -3.4%5,000 - 9,999 248 21% 1,690,767 1,739,608 27% 2.9%

10,000 + 184 16% 3,173,478 3,220,845 49% 1.5%Total 1,181 100% 6,470,237 6,540,219 100% 1.1%

NOTE. INCLUDES ONLY INSTITUTIONS ELIGIBLE FOR TITLE IV FUNDING THAT ARE LOCATED IN THE 50 STATES OR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND EXCLUDES SERVICE ACADE-MIES AND INSTITUTIONS.

SOURCE:: COMMUNITY COLLEGE WEEK ANALYSIS OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DATA (IPEDS).

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tutions that reported their enroll-ments for both the start (Fall2005) and end (Fall 2006) pointsof our one-year time frame. Thesecriteria yield a total of 1,181 col-leges.

Data IntegrityWhen we initially generate the

data, we find emerging to the topof each list cases where the levelgrowth seems suspiciously high,like an institution that doubles ortriples its size in one year. We ver-ify the data for these extremecases by looking for corroboratingsources. We contact individuals atthese institutions, check their Websites, or look at the data main-tained by state and system officesthat also survey the institutionsregarding enrollment. If an institu-tion informs us that the numbersthey reported through IPEDS isincorrect or misleading, weremove them completely from theanalysis.

There are several reasons whythe data we see in the IPEDS sur-vey may not represent growthauthentically. First, there is humanerror, where incorrect numbers arereported in one year or the other.This doesn’t happen very often. Aslightly more common reason forinconsistent data is changes inreporting practices, such as whena new staff member takes over thereporting function and interpretsdifferently the definition providedby NCES. But perhaps the mostcommon source of inconsistentdata is changes in enrollment poli-cies and practices. One particulararea that has become problematicin recent years is how to countdual enrollments, that is enroll-ments among high school studentstaking college-level courses thatcount both toward their highschool graduation requirementsand, potentially toward subse-quent college matriculation.

One interesting example ofsuch a change occurred through-out the state of Oklahoma, wherea growing “Cooperative AlliancesAgreement” has facilitated a largeexpansion in dual credit and otherenrollments credited toward Okla-homa Technology Centers.Unfortunately, it is not possible totell how much of the apparentgrowth is related to a differentaccounting practice and howmuch is related to an actualincrease in participation promotedthrough this more integrated andcomprehensive approach.Because of this, we excluded theindividual Oklahoma technologycenters from our lists.

The bottom line on dataintegrity is that we do our best to


A Look Back

The Titans ofthe CommunityCollege WorldBY JAMILAH EVELYN

WASHINGTON — What’s thebiggest community college in thecountry? Take your pick: Miami-

Dade Community College. The Los AngelesCommunity College District. MaricopaCommunity Colleges. Each can lay claim tothe No. 1 spot.

All that really counts is whodoes the counting, how the count-ing’s done and what they’re count-ing. Confused? So are many com-munity college officials, who saythey’re not even sure it makes that much dif-ference in the end.

But of course, big-time bragging rightsare at stake here. And so while many officialsat two-year institutions insist on-the-recordthat they really don’t give a darn, their nextquestion usually is: “Well, who is thebiggest.”

Community College Week set out to findout. The newspaper, analyzing the mostrecent U.S. Department of Education dataavailable, has ranked the 100 Top LargestCommunity Colleges and the 25 Top LargestCollege Districts.

The rankings (see accompanying charts)are based on the colleges’ total full- and part-time student enrollment. Students enrolled innoncredit, continuing education and generalequivalency diploma courses were excluded.

Federal officials do rank the nation’s1,250 community, junior and technical col-leges by enrollment. But National Center forEducation Statistics officials say that the col-leges do not report those numbers all thesame way.

“We have in the past requested that theyreport their enrollments in a uniform standard— by the fall head count of each independentcollege, for example,” says NCES statisticianSam Barbett. “But we’ve never gotten themall that way. In the end, it’s really up tothem.”

The result? An institution like southern

Florida’s Miami-Dade Community College— with its six campuses and nearly 50,000full-time students – snatches the numero unodesignation.

Next up: the entire Houston CommunityCollege System, which is comprised of fiveindependent colleges with nearly 40,000 full-time students.

“We report our numbers as one systembecause we are accredited as one system,”explains Dr. Ruth Burgos-Sasscer, the Hous-ton system’s chancellor. But she acknowl-edges that “you do have to make sure you’relooking at apples and apples.” Unfortunately,

lots of oranges make it onto the list.The fall head counts for multi-

college systems, multi-campus col-leges and single-campus institutionsall are tossed into the same ranking,regardless of those organizationalconsiderations. That makes even-handed comparisons difficult.

Hence, those seeking a fair anddefinitive answer on which college isthe biggest may have to wait withbaited breath, perhaps eternally. Orat least until every institution inevery state agrees to report its num-bers the same way

Because an urban, five-collegewhopper like the Houston systemwill always outweigh a single-cam-pus institution like suburban LosAngeles’ Mt. San Antonio College inWalnut, Calif., which is the highest-ranked, single-college, single-cam-

pus two-year institution at just under 23,000students.

And when it comes to making themselvesappear large, experts say that college officialssavvy with numbers crunching can add non-credit learners, GED students and even occa-sional library patrons until the proverbialcows come home.

Moreover, higher education officialsacross the country, like Dr. Victor Borden,director of information management andinstitutional research at Indiana University,beg the question: “What’s so good aboutbeing large anyway?”

See Analysis pg. 10, col. 1

10 Top Largest Community Colleges, 1995-96Ranked by Total Full- and Part-Time Student Enrollment

RANK COLLEGE STATE TOTAL FULL-TIME PART-TIME1. Miami-Dade Community College Fla. 48,795 15,584 33,2112. Houston Community College Texas 38,493 10,062 28,4313. Northern Virginia Community College Va. 35,337 8,759 26,5784. College of DuPage Ill. 29,698 8,413 21,2855. Pima Community College Ariz. 27,177 6,961 20,2166. City College of San Francisco Calif. 26,933 6,687 20,2467. Broward Community College Fla. 26,435 7,720 18,7158. Tarrant County Junior College Texas 25,273 7,653 17,6209. Austin Community College Texas 25,209 6,497 18,712

10. Oakland Community College Mich. 24,732 5,006 19,726

The predecessor to Community CollegeWeek’s annual special report on theFastest-Growing Community Collegeswas a look at which community collegeswere the largest. It all started when theMaricopa Community College Districtsent us a press release some 10 yearsago announcing that they had recentlysurpassed the Los Angeles CommunityCollege District as the largest in thecountry. We wondered what exactly they

were counting and really, what differenceit made anyway. The resulting story,excerpted below, asked those questionsand ran alongside charts that ranked the100 largest community colleges in thecountry and the 25-largest community-

college districts. It became an annualspecial report but later evolved into thefastest-growing. A few years of reportingon the subject taught us that how fast acollege was growing was more meaning-ful than its size.

vaultsvaultsthefrom

Cover: CommunityCollege Week,Dec. 28, 1998

issue

weed out obvious errors but we donot uncover every case. And evenif the data are technically correct,they will not necessarily agreewith enrollment counts you findon a specific college’s Web site orwhen you contact an official at thecollege who may use different def-initions.

The Top 50 Colleges ListsAs in prior years, we provide

four Top 50 growth lists as deter-

mined by the size of the institution.By doing so, we accommodatetwo issues when comparinggrowth: for large institutions, rela-tively large numerical changesrepresent smaller percentageincreases; for small institutionssmall numerical changes result inrelatively larger percentageincreases. By stratifying institu-tions into four categories based onFall 2006 enrollment (less than2,500; 2,500 to 4,999; 5,000 to

9,999; and 10,000 and over), wereduce the size confound in ourcomparisons.

If we did not stratify institu-tions by size, the Top 200 percent-age growth institutions wouldinclude 100 in the smallest sizegroup, 49 from the second group,38 from the third size group, andonly 13 from among the largestinstitutions. The Top 50 in overallpercentage growth would include40 from the first group and only 2institutions from the largest group.Conversely, if we examinedabsolute numerical growth among

all institutions, the Top 200 wouldinclude 78 of the 10,000 and high-er enrollment group, 73 from thenext largest group, 36 of the sec-ond to smallest size category andonly 13 institutions from thesmallest size group. The Top 50numerical increases would include32 institutions from the largest sizecategory and none of the smallestsize institutions.

With our stratification in place,the resulting four lists are eachordered by percentage growth,which is the current year enroll-ment minus the prior year’s enroll-

ment, divided by the prior year’senrollment. As generally expected,the leading percentage increasesare highest among the smallestsize institutional category and low-est among the largest size institu-tional category.

There are two notable excep-tions. The single largest institu-tional growth is found in the sec-ond size category (2,500 to 4,999students) where the Wabash ValleyCollege campus of Illinois EasternCommunity Colleges grew bymore than 50 percent, from anenrollment of 3,155 in Fall 2005,


1 Winter Park Tech Fla. 398 574 176 44.22 Louisiana Technical College-River Parishes Campus La. 417 599 182 43.62 George Stone Career Center Fla. 516 741 225 43.64 Louisiana Technical College-Ascension Campus La. 188 259 71 37.85 Southern Arkansas University Tech Ark. 1768 2397 629 35.66 Bay Mills Community College Mich. 406 550 144 35.57 Independence Community College Kan. 910 1201 291 32.08 Coffeyville Community College Kan. 244 316 72 29.59 Eastern New Mexico University-Ruidoso N.M. 624 805 181 29.0

10 South Louisiana Community College La. 1880 2424 544 28.911 Ivy Tech Community College-Whitewater Ind. 1656 2094 438 26.412 Northwest Indian College Wash. 495 623 128 25.913 Louisiana Technical College-Folkes Campus La. 468 580 112 23.914 Northwest Technical College Minn. 885 1095 210 23.715 Louisiana Technical College-Baton Rouge Campus La. 1028 1255 227 22.116 York County Community College Maine 874 1061 187 21.417 University of South Carolina-Salkehatchie S.C. 733 883 150 20.517 Little Big Horn College Mont. 259 312 53 20.519 Salina Area Technical School Kan. 262 315 53 20.220 Copiah-Lincoln Community College Miss. 1982 2362 380 19.221 Navajo Technical College N.M. 333 392 59 17.721 Cankdeska Cikana Community College N.D. 198 233 35 17.723 Westside Tech Fla. 526 618 92 17.524 Ivy Tech Community College-Southeast Ind. 1627 1910 283 17.425 Louisiana Technical College-Young Memorial Campus La. 786 921 135 17.226 Randolph Community College N.C. 1988 2319 331 16.627 Mid Florida Tech Fla. 1758 2042 284 16.228 Potomac State College of West Virginia University W.V. 1279 1485 206 16.129 Tillamook Bay Community College Ore. 299 346 47 15.730 Waycross College Ga. 880 1017 137 15.631 Stone Child College Mont. 344 397 53 15.432 Ranger College Texas 756 872 116 15.332 McFatter Technical Center Fla. 665 767 102 15.334 Louisiana Technical College-Northeast La Campus La. 218 251 33 15.135 Minot State University-Bottineau Campus N.D. 523 601 78 14.936 Lake Area Technical Institute S.D. 1031 1182 151 14.637 First Coast Technical Institute Fla. 667 763 96 14.438 New Mexico State University-Grants N.M. 608 695 87 14.338 East Georgia College Ga. 1503 1718 215 14.340 Blue Ridge Community and Technical College W.V. 1711 1953 242 14.140 Kent State University-Geauga Campus Ohio 931 1062 131 14.142 Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College Wisc. 505 574 69 13.743 Garrett College Md. 647 734 87 13.443 Illinois Eastern Community Colleges-Frontier Community Coll Ill. 2164 2453 289 13.445 Carolinas College of Health Sciences N.C. 467 529 62 13.346 Ivy Tech Community College-Columbus Ind. 2032 2300 268 13.247 Northwest Iowa Community College Iowa 1082 1224 142 13.147 University of South Carolina-Union S.C. 321 363 42 13.149 Black River Technical College Ark. 1703 1918 215 12.649 Haywood Community College N.C. 2023 2278 255 12.6

*CLASSIFIED AS A FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE BECAUSE OF MODEST BACCALAUREATE DEGREE OFFERINGS BUT INCLUDED AS AN "ASSOCIATECOLLEGE" WITHIN THE CARNEGIE CLASSIFICATIONS FOR POSTSECONDARY INSTITUTIONS.

SOURCE: COMMUNITY COLLEGE WEEK ANALYSIS OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DATA

Fall2005

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Fall2006

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PercentChangeStateRank /Institution

Change

Less than 2,500 students* Ranked by percent change in headcount

Fastest-GrowingPublic Two-YearColleges

TOP 50


TOP 50

1 Illinois Eastern Community Colleges-Wabash Valley College Ill. 3155 4840 1685 53.42 Berkeley City College Calif. 3723 4452 729 19.63 Ivy Tech Community College - Bloomington Ind. 3378 3966 588 17.44 Mid Plains Community College Neb. 2607 3030 423 16.25 Wytheville Community College Va. 2488 2880 392 15.86 Mitchell Community College N.C. 2283 2642 359 15.77 Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College Utah 2494 2863 369 14.88 Middle Georgia College Ga. 2677 3051 374 14.09 Pearl River Community College Miss. 3947 4497 550 13.9

10 Pierce College at Puyallup Wash. 2688 3041 353 13.111 Hill College Texas 3089 3490 401 13.012 Northland Community and Technical College Minn. 3654 4120 466 12.813 Motlow State Community College Tenn. 3407 3833 426 12.513 Bainbridge College Ga. 2473 2781 308 12.515 Crowder College Mo. 2615 2930 315 12.016 Barton County Community College Kans. 3821 4263 442 11.617 Ivy Tech Community College-South Central Ind. 2995 3319 324 10.817 Pinellas Technical Education Center Fla. 2359 2614 255 10.817 Nash Community College N.C. 2491 2760 269 10.820 Howard College Texas 2721 3006 285 10.521 James A Rhodes State College Ohio 3058 3369 311 10.222 Temple College Texas 3897 4279 382 9.823 Cleveland Community College N.C. 3047 3341 294 9.623 Middle Georgia Technical College Ga. 2351 2577 226 9.625 Aims Community College Colo. 4455 4880 425 9.526 Carl Albert State College Okla. 2501 2722 221 8.826 Reading Area Community College Pa. 4143 4492 349 8.426 Lake-Sumter Community College Fla. 3359 3641 282 8.426 Ivy Tech Community College-Kokomo Ind. 2835 3072 237 8.430 Great Basin College* Nev. 3095 3349 254 8.230 Allen County Community College Kans. 2537 2745 208 8.232 Lake Washington Technical College Wash. 3599 3890 291 8.133 Gateway Community and Technical College Ky. 2952 3189 237 8.034 State Fair Community College Mo. 2916 3143 227 7.835 Sheridan College Wyo. 2849 3066 217 7.635 South Central College Minn. 3166 3406 240 7.637 Indian Hills Community College Iowa 3677 3954 277 7.537 Kishwaukee College Ill. 4348 4675 327 7.539 Saint Cloud Technical College Minn. 3521 3773 252 7.240 Piedmont Virginia Community College Va. 4163 4451 288 6.940 Danville Area Community College Ill. 2728 2916 188 6.942 Delaware Technical and Community College-Terry Del. 2569 2744 175 6.842 South Puget Sound Community College Wash. 4529 4837 308 6.842 Ivy Tech Community College-Northwest Ind. 4281 4570 289 6.845 Southern Maine Community College Maine 4487 4785 298 6.645 Augusta Technical College Ga. 4171 4445 274 6.647 Lower Columbia College Wash. 3073 3268 195 6.348 Mid Michigan Community College Mich. 3276 3480 204 6.248 Jackson State Community College Tenn. 3859 4099 240 6.250 Madisonville Community College Ky. 3769 3997 228 6.0

*CLASSIFIED AS A FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE BECAUSE OF MODEST BACCALAUREATE DEGREE OFFERINGS BUT INCLUDED AS AN "ASSOCIATECOLLEGE" WITHIN THE CARNEGIE CLASSIFICATIONS FOR POSTSECONDARY INSTITUTIONS.


Fall2005

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Fall2006

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Change

2,500 - 4,999 students* Ranked by percent change in headcount

Analysis, from page ?, col. ?

to 4,840 in Fall 2006. The otheroutlier is found in our largest insti-tutional size category, where thefastest growth of 30.5 percent isrecorded by Wayne County Com-munity College District, whichincreased from 14,764 to 19,265 inone year.

Overall Enrollment TrendsIn prior years, we summarized

the overall enrollment growth ofour target institutions by first plac-ing them within the context of allaccredited postsecondary institu-tions. We do so again this year buthave had to make some changes to

our summary table to accommo-date the inclusion of four-yearassociate colleges in our targetgroup.

The first table presented in thisintroduction shows this summary,with the public, two-year and four-year associate colleges shown aspart of the target population. Therest of the table shows the remain-der of four-year institutions (pub-lic baccalaureate and higher, aswell as some specialized institu-tions and all private, nonprofit andprivate for-profit), the remainingtwo-year institutions (private, non-profit and private, for-profit), as

well as institutions that offer lessthan two-year awards (public, pri-vate, nonprofit and private, for-profit).

Our target category accountsfor just less than one-fifth, or 18percent, of all postsecondary insti-tutions but enrolls more than one-third, or 36 percent, of all students.Comparatively, four-year institu-tions (excluding the associate col-leges) account for more than twiceas many institutions, or 40 percentof the total, but not quite twice asmany enrollments at 60 percent ofthe total. The remaining categoriesaccount for more than one-half of

all institutions but only four per-cent of all enrollments.

Enrollment among the public,two-year and four-year associatecolleges increased by just morethan one percent between Fall2005 and Fall 2006. However, theincrease was much more evidentamong the small group of four-year associate colleges thanamong the larger group of public,two-year institutions. It may seemincongruous that this group expe-rienced so much growth but onlyfive institutions show up in thefour Top 50 lists. That is becausethis growth is more a product of an

increase in the number of institu-tions in this category than amongthe growth of existing institutions.Although not shown in the table,there were only 34 such institu-tions that produced the Fall 2005enrollments. The three institutionsthat joined the ranks between Fall2005 and Fall 2006 are responsiblefor the majority of this apparentenrollment growth.

The rate of growth for otherfour-year colleges was higher thanamong our target group, especiallyamong the small “for-profit” com-



TOP 50


TOP 50

1 Navarro College Texas 6451 7406 955 14.82 Onondaga Community College N.Y. 8263 9394 1131 13.73 John Tyler Community College Va. 6314 7165 851 13.54 Shasta College Calif. 7670 8694 1024 13.45 Thomas Nelson Community College Va. 8595 9718 1123 13.16 Lee College Texas 4743 5361 618 13.07 Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Miss. 7806 8822 1016 13.08 Taft College Calif. 8466 9527 1061 12.59 Gainesville State College* Ga. 5981 6717 736 12.3

10 Folsom Lake College Calif. 6337 7115 778 12.311 Waukesha County Technical College Wisc. 6386 7123 737 11.512 Crafton Hills College Calif. 4862 5406 544 11.213 Stark State College of Technology Ohio 6857 7611 754 11.014 Coastline Community College Calif. 7059 7776 717 10.215 Pulaski Technical College Ark. 7685 8455 770 10.016 Guilford Technical Community College N.C. 8984 9851 867 9.717 Niagara County Community College N.Y. 5422 5932 510 9.418 College of Alameda Calif. 5238 5726 488 9.319 Northampton County Area Community College Pa. 7019 7664 645 9.220 City Colleges of Chicago-Harold Washington College Ill. 7613 8302 689 9.121 Ivy Tech Community College-Wabash Valley Ind. 4846 5267 421 8.722 Minnesota State Community and Technical College Minn. 5631 6093 462 8.223 Mountain View College Texas 6494 7022 528 8.124 Seattle Community College-Central Campus Wash. 6271 6780 509 8.125 Northwest Vista College Texas 8870 9568 698 7.926 Lehigh Carbon Community College Pa. 6564 7076 512 7.827 Minneapolis Community and Technical College Minn. 7727 8316 589 7.628 Pellissippi State Technical Community College Tenn. 7686 8257 571 7.429 Hawkeye Community College Iowa 5272 5663 391 7.430 Everett Community College Wash. 6666 7141 475 7.131 Northern Oklahoma College Okla. 4797 5135 338 7.032 Edmonds Community College Wash. 7581 8103 522 6.933 Gavilan College Calif. 4854 5185 331 6.834 Lord Fairfax Community College Va. 5492 5856 364 6.635 Ivy Tech Community College-Northeast Ind. 5584 5949 365 6.536 Morton College Ill. 4744 5049 305 6.437 Kaskaskia College Ill. 4764 5070 306 6.438 Monterey Peninsula College Calif. 8990 9553 563 6.339 Southside Virginia Community College Va. 4863 5162 299 6.140 Merritt College Calif. 6815 7225 410 6.041 Northeast State Technical Community College Tenn. 4860 5145 285 5.942 Iowa Western Community College Iowa 5092 5375 283 5.643 Columbia Basin College Wash. 5670 5985 315 5.644 Chandler/Gilbert Community College Ariz. 8940 9420 480 5.445 Eastern Arizona College Ariz. 5239 5520 281 5.446 New Mexico State University-Dona Ana N.M 6570 6921 351 5.347 College of Southern Idaho Ind. 7162 7543 381 5.348 Ivy Tech Community College-Lafayette Ind. 5742 6044 302 5.349 Ocean County College N.J. 8449 8886 437 5.250 Saint Johns River Community College Fla. 4847 5096 249 5.1

**CLASSIFIED AS A FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE BECAUSE OF MODEST BACCALAUREATE DEGREE OFFERINGS BUT INCLUDED AS AN "ASSOCIATECOLLEGE" WITHIN THE CARNEGIE CLASSIFICATIONS FOR POSTSECONDARY INSTITUTIONS.


Fall2005

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Fall2006

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Change

5,000 - 9,999 students* Ranked by percent chnage in headcount

1 Wayne County Community College District Mich. 14764 19265 4501 30.52 East Los Angeles College Calif. 23632 27481 3849 16.33 South Texas College* Texas 16233 18460 2227 13.74 Ohlone College Calif. 10557 11490 933 8.85 Mt. San Jacinto Community College District Calif. 11518 12493 975 8.56 Central Piedmont Community College N.C. 16636 17942 1306 7.97 Bakersfield College Calif. 14725 15850 1125 7.67 Houston Community College System Texas 39516 42526 3010 7.69 Ivy Tech Community College-Central Indiana Ind. 10433 11189 756 7.2

10 College of the Canyons Calif. 15947 17067 1120 7.011 Mt San Antonio College Calif. 27195 29079 1884 6.912 San Diego City College Calif. 15204 16203 999 6.613 Metropolitan Community College Area Neb. 13237 14098 861 6.514 Rio Hondo College Calif. 19012 20121 1109 5.815 Daytona Beach Community College* Fla. 11413 12064 651 5.716 Cosumnes River College Calif. 11342 11977 635 5.616 Kalamazoo Valley Community College Mich. 10585 11173 588 5.618 Pima Community College Ariz. 30884 32532 1648 5.319 CUNY La Guardia Community College N.Y. 13489 14185 696 5.220 Essex County College N.J. 10435 10972 537 5.120 Tidewater Community College Va. 23718 24938 1220 5.122 Des Moines Area Community College Iowa 16046 16853 807 5.023 Collin County Community College District Texas 18457 19332 875 4.723 Washtenaw Community College Mich. 12193 12768 575 4.723 Schoolcraft College Mich. 10606 11105 499 4.723 Madison Area Technical College Wisc. 14125 14789 664 4.723 Los Angeles Pierce College Calif. 17859 18690 831 4.728 J Sargeant Reynolds Community College Va. 11671 12213 542 4.629 American River College Calif. 30527 31908 1381 4.529 Antelope Valley College Calif. 11638 12156 518 4.531 Ventura College Calif. 11261 11757 496 4.432 Chaffey College Calif. 17188 17916 728 4.233 Greenville Technical College S.C. 13357 13893 536 4.034 Los Angeles Valley College Calif. 16130 16767 637 3.934 Palomar College Calif. 25146 26118 972 3.936 Long Beach City College Calif. 22641 23509 868 3.836 Sacramento City College Calif. 21784 22615 831 3.838 Reedley College Calif. 11374 11782 408 3.638 Pensacola Junior College Fla. 9858 10208 350 3.640 Austin Community College District Texas 31908 33039 1131 3.540 Trident Technical College S.C. 11407 11808 401 3.540 Brookdale Community College N.J. 13279 13745 466 3.543 Santa Ana College Calif. 32096 33203 1107 3.443 Fayetteville Technical Community College N.C. 9950 10290 340 3.443 Laney College Calif. 10975 11348 373 3.446 Jefferson Community and Technical College Ky. 14231 14707 476 3.346 Columbus State Community College Ohio 22014 22745 731 3.348 Suffolk County Community College N.Y. 21180 21859 679 3.248 Lorain County Community College Ohio 10196 10521 325 3.250 Rio Salado College Ariz. 17415 17952 537 3.1

**CLASSIFIED AS A FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE BECAUSE OF MODEST BACCALAUREATE DEGREE OFFERINGS BUT INCLUDED AS AN "ASSOCIATECOLLEGE" WITHIN THE CARNEGIE CLASSIFICATIONS FOR POSTSECONDARY INSTITUTIONS.


Fall2005

Enroll.

Fall2006

Enroll.


Change

10,000 or more students* Ranked by percent change in headcount

See Analysis pg. ?, col. ?

By Leaps and Bounds Three baccalaureate-granting community colleges revel in enrollment gains

By Harvey Meyer

Is there something in the waterat Gainesville State College,Edison College and Daytona

Beach Community College? Orare shamrocks, rabbits’ feet orhorseshoes a factor for thesecharmed community colleges?

Whatever it might be, allthree institutions feel lucky thesedays: All experienced double-digitenrollment growth from fall 2006to fall 2007. Coincidentally or not,all three recently launched bac-calaureate programs.

This is the first year thatCommunity College Week decid-ed to include two-year collegesthat offer bachelor’s degrees in ourannual ranking of the fastest-growing community colleges. Sowhen we noticed that as a group,their combined enrollmentsincreased by 12.2 percent from fall2005 to fall 2006, we decided totake a look at what was going on.(While data from our charts coversthe increases from fall 2005 to fall2006 because that is the latest yearfor which national data is avail-able, all three colleges were able toprovide, for the purpose of thisstory, their fall 2007 enrollmentnumbers).

Officials at the colleges would-n’t solely attribute their enrollmentgains to the four-year programs.They are among roughly 30 com-munity colleges nationally thatnow confer baccalaureate degrees,compared with 16 just two yearsago.

Instead, Gainesville, Edisonand Daytona Beach credit a clusterof factors for their enrollmentsurge. Edison experienced a 14.2percent increase, Daytona Beach,12.5 percent and Gainesville, 11.2percent.

Edison’s Experience

At Edison, whose presidentKenneth Walker heads the Com-munity College BaccalaureateAssociation, one four-year pro-

gram – the Bachelor of AppliedScience in Public Safety Manage-ment – has been offered since fall2006. Other programs on the hori-zon include secondary mathemat-ics and biology education, supervi-sion and management, elementaryeducation and nursing.

Noreen Thomas, districtprovost at Fort Myers-based Edi-son, says it’s uncertain just howmuch the four-year programs con-tributed to Edison’s 11,910 fall2007 enrollment, a jump of 1,482-

students. “Based on feedback from stu-

dents, I would have to believe it’sa tremendous asset for them andthe community,” she says.

Applications for the bachelorof applied science in Public SafetyManagement exceeded expecta-tions, she says.

An up-tick in traditional-agestudents accounts for much of therise over fall 2006, she says. That18 to 24-year-old group nowaccounts for 57 percent of Edi-

son’s student population, a depar-ture from the past.

In part, Thomas attributes theyoung-student surge to Edison’sstepped-up recruiting efforts. Asignificant block of this youngerset also stems from special studentgroups, including those needingmore college-preparatory work.She also acknowledges that con-siderable publicity about Floridastate colleges and universities


ponent of this group. Interestingly,among the “less than two-year”group, which is dominated by“for-profit” institutions, there wasmore notable growth among thepublic and private, non-profitcomponents.

The second summary tablerelates to our stratification of insti-tutions by size. It shows that thegroup containing the largest num-ber of institutions, with 40 percentof the total, is the group of collegeswith the smallest enrollments—theless than 2,500 students category.However, due to their small sizethey enroll a far smaller proportionof all students—some 8 percent.

Conversely, the 16 percent of insti-tutions that enroll 10,000 or morestudents account for almost one-half of all enrollments. The piecharts illustrate these inverse pro-portions in number of institutionscompared to proportion of totalenrollments by size category.

The overall pattern of growthacross these categories shows thatonly one category, institutionsenrolling between 2,500 and 4,999students, experienced an overalldecrease in enrollments. Thegreatest percentage increase inenrollments occurred among thenext largest size category—5,000to 9,999 students. It is important to

note that these enrollment changesreflect both changes in institution-al enrollments as well as the move-ment of institutions from one sizecategory to another between thetwo years.

We close this year’s analysiswith two new trend figures thatillustrate the changing composi-tion of public, two-year and asso-ciate college four-year institutionsover the past ten years. The enroll-ment trend chart shows a markedincrease between 1999 and 2002in the enrollments accounted forby the largest sized institutions.The other three categories of insti-tutions are relatively flat in theiroverall enrollments, with slightincreases in recent years amongthe second largest size category —

5,000 to 9,999 students — andvery slight but steady decreases inenrollments among the smallestsize category.

The chart showing the numberof institutions by size categoryshows a complimentary trend: thenumber of the smallest institutionsdecrease notably through 2002with the other categories remain-ing relatively flat. Within the lesspronounced trends, the largestsized institutions exhibit a modestincrease in number during theyears in which there were largeenrollment increases and the sec-ond to largest category — 5,000 to9,999 students — shows modestincreases in number of institutionsin more recent years.

Since we started publishing

this analysis in 2001, overallenrollments among public, two-year and four-year associate col-leges have increased by 7.4 per-cent from 6 to 6.5 million students.The number of such institutionshas increased by only 1.8 percent,from 1,160 to 1,181.

This increase in productivity iscritical to our nation’s educationalneeds, especially at a time ofincreasing demands by a variety ofpublic sector institutions forincreasingly scarce publicresources.

Victor M. H. Borden is associ-ate vice president at Indiana Uni-versity and associate professor ofpsychology at IUPUI.

Analysis, from page 7, col. 1

See Enroll pg. 11, col. 1

Students from Gainsville State College, which experienced a double-digit enrollment increase largely because the college opened a new campus.

Special Report: Fastest-Growing Community Colleges

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potentially capping enrollmentsparked many graduating highschool seniors to consider Edison.

Invigorated campus activitiesmay also partially explain youngerstudents’ enrollment. Thomas saidthat was especially apparent at theCollier campus, one of four wherestudents take classes.

Hundreds of Project HOPE(Help One Person Excel) scholar-ships, which are offered to educa-tionally at-risk students, also fac-tor into increased interest fromyounger students. Beyond finan-cial aid, Project HOPE studentstake college-preparatory classesand seminars and receive mentor-ing and other services.

A partnership with nearbyFlorida Gulf Coast Universityshould further fuel enrollmentgrowth, says Thomas. After suffer-ing enrollment declines in 2004and 2005 stemming from hurri-cane devastation, Thomas saysEdison is poised to boost enroll-ment three percent each year forthe next five years.

“That’s reasonable,” she says,“given our resources and thegrowth of the economy and popu-lation.”

Gains in Gainesville

At Gainesville State College,the single biggest contributor to itsenrollment jump in fall 2007 wasthe opening of a second full-fledged campus in Athens, Ga.,which is 43 miles from the col-lege’s original campus in Oak-wood. Overall, enrollment jumpedby nearly 700 students, to 7,743.

The institution greatly benefitsfrom its location in Grant Countynear Atlanta, which is one of thefastest growing and economicallydynamic areas nationally, saysMack Palmour, Gainesville’sdirector of admissions. Area highschools have bulged with studentsover the past decade and expecta-tions are that the increases willcontinue, he says.

As a result, the traditional-agestudent population has risen atGainesville. The average age hasdropped from 23.4 in fall 2002 to22.5 this past fall. Meanwhile, thepercentage of nontraditional stu-dents, age 23 and older, declinedfrom 29.4 percent to 23.2 percentduring that five-year period.

Gainesville’s younger-studentpopulation consists of manyHOPE scholars. In Georgia, if highschool graduates post a 3.0 GPA orbetter, they are eligible for a stategovernment-sponsored HOPEscholarship, which covers anypublic college’s tuition, mandatory

fees and $150 worth of booksannually.

Palmour also says the college’smarketing and public relationsefforts have also helped. He notesthat the local Athens newspaperdeclared Gainesville the No. 1provider of students to the Univer-sity of Georgia.

It’s probably too early to deter-mine whether the institution’sfour-year baccalaureate programscontributed to stepped-up enroll-ment. In fall 2006, Gainesvillestarted offering bachelor of sci-ence programs in applied environ-mental spatial analysis, earlychildhood care in education, andearly childhood education. A bach-elor of applied science in technol-ogy management is also available.Several more four-year programsare being considered.

Delighted in Daytona

At Daytona Beach Communi-ty College, the slumping economyhelped spark a rebound in enroll-ment. With new-home construc-tion among several industriesflagging, some students arereturning to school to forge newcareers.

But Glyn Johnston, aspokesman for Daytona’s six cam-puses, said the threat of cappedenrollment at some Florida col-leges motivated some to considerDaytona. He said a streamlinedregistration process also helpedthe institution record a 4,686 fall2007 enrollment, 520 more thanlast year.

“Customer service is veryimportant,” he says. “This hadbeen a problem in the past, so we

worked hard at addressing thatstudent concern.”

Johnston also credits therecently-launched bachelor ofapplied science in managementsupervision with attracting hun-dreds of students. The programhas four focus areas – businessmanagement, accounting, publicservice management and culinarymanagement.

“There are several (four-year)colleges in this area, but fortunate-ly, our program has a bit of a costadvantage over them,” says John-ston. “Our tuition is 25 percentless.”

The bounce-back in fall 2007enrollment contrasts with declinesin 2004 and 2005 due to hurri-canes, says Johnston. Within sev-eral months, the Daytona Beacharea received direct strikes from

hurricanes that produced massivedamage to homes and businesses.The college itself sustained roofand other damages, forcing someclassroom shuffling.

“The volume of constructionjobs available after the hurricanescame through was unbelievable,”says Johnston. “Instead of goingto school, a lot of students wentout and made $65,000 to $70,000a year doing new-construction andrepair work. We’re only now start-ing to pull some of those studentsback.”

Assessing the future, Johnstonsays he expects a continuedenrollment surge at Daytona.

“Will we have 12 percentgrowth again?” he asked. “Proba-bly not, but we do anticipate goodsolid growth for the next fewyears.”

Enroll, from page 10, col. 5

Students at Edison College, which saw a big jump in traditional-age students.

Many students at Daytona Beach Community Collegehave enrolled because of the local slumping economy.

Daytona officials also say a streamlined registration process and capped enrollment at Florida’s universities has lead more students

to enroll at the community college.

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The fired head football coachat Contra Costa Communi-ty College has received a

green light to sue the district onallegations of racial discrimina-tion, emotional distress and relatedclaims.

Jose Ortega wasn’t required toexhaust his grievance or otheradministrative remedies before lit-igation, a three-judge CaliforniaCourt of Appeal panel has ruled.

The decision reinstated a pairof related suits seeking reinstate-ment with tenure, compensatoryand punitive damages, and aninjunction against future discrimi-natory conduct.

According to the decision andother court papers, the districthired Ortega as an assistant foot-ball coach in 1996. He becameinterim head coach in August1999, and the college hired him ashead coach and a full-time proba-tionary physical education teacherin January 2001.

Ortega was covered by a col-lective bargaining agreement withUnited Faculty of the Contra CostaCommunity College District.

He was demoted in March2004 and terminated in June 2005,the court said. He filed grievancesunder the union contract after bothpersonnel actions but didn’t com-plete the grievance process.

He also filed complaints withthe state Department of FairEmployment and Housing, whichissued right-to-sue notices aboutboth the demotion and the dis-charge.

According to college attorneyJohn Shupe, of San Mateo, the dis-trict demoted and fired Ortega forperformance-related issues, whichincluded “getting to classes ontime... or at all,” “dealing with stu-dents in an appropriate way” andfor failure to meet the “expecta-tions that the college had for a suc-cessful full-time instructor.”

Oakland attorney Robert Sali-

nas, representing Ortega, said thedistrict also accused Ortega of ille-gally falsifying players’ records toextend their eligibility to play foot-ball an additional year, somethinghe claims the college cannotprove.

Instead, he contends that Orte-ga’s problems resulted from racialdiscriminations.

The pair of suits alleged thathis white and African-Americansupervisors and co-workers treatedhim differently, held him to differ-ent standards and disciplined himmore harshly because he is His-panic and sued the district.

In particular, Salinas points tosignificant changes that took placeafter the college hired “a new ath-letic director who came in on thescene, an African-American guy,and... certain comments weremade and a certain course of treat-ment took place thereafter, thingsthat were fine before.”

Salinas also asserts that anyevidence the college collectedagainst Ortega was done covertlyand not according to the acceptedmethods employed by collegiateathletic programs.

“This is usually a cooperativeeffort, and that’s not the way thiswent down,” Salinas said. “Ourallegation is that he wouldn’t havebeen treated as unfavorably as hewas but for his race.”

He also emphasized the con-tinued support Ortega receivedfrom most of his peers throughouthis performance evaluations.

“There was something the ath-letic director saw that the otherteachers did not,” Salinas said.When Ortega was terminated, theathletic director “focused oninstruction pedagogy,” while “hispeers recommended he be grantedtenure.”

A Contra County SuperiorCourt judge had dismissed the liti-gation, agreeing with the districtthat Ortega had failed to exhausthis administrative remedies.

Ortega and the union bothargued that the grievance proce-dure is inapplicable because thecontract clearly excludes griev-ances based on the termination ofprobationary employees.

In its unanimous ruling, theCourt of Appeal held that state lawdoesn’t require exhaustion ofadministrative remedies as a pre-requisite for filing a racial discrim-

ination suit.“A public employee may

choose to ignore statutory civilservice remedies for employmentdiscrimination and proceed direct-ly to the courts to obtain relief”under anti-bias laws, Justice MarkSimons wrote for the panel.

Under the circumstances ofthis case, the court said: “The col-lective bargaining agreementgrievance procedure does noteliminate the right to a jury’sdetermination of important statestatutory rights afforded to indi-vidual workers” because the con-tract didn’t clearly state that thearbitration is a full substitute forlitigation.

Both attorneys pointed to theimportance of the case in estab-lishing precedent for all Californiapublic employees to sue for racialdiscrimination without waiting fora union-contract hearing, a poten-tially lengthy process, particularlywhen some unions might not besuitably equipped to conduct aproper grievance hearing.

“A guy like Jose is dead in thewater if a grievance is his onlymethod for resolving discrimina-tion,” Salinas said.

The next step in the case is upto the college. Officials are weigh-ing whether to appeal the decisionto either the state supreme court orthe federal courts. If they don’t, thecase will be returned to the superi-or court, where a trial is likely.


College Case Could Establish Whether California PublicEmployees Must Go Through Grievance Process Before SuingBY ERIC FREEDMAN & IAN FREEDMAN

T H E C L A I M

The pair of suitsalleges thatOrtega’s supervisorsand co-workerstreated himdifferently becausehe is Hispanic.

LITTLE ROCK (AP) —Arkansas Baptist athleticdirector Charles Ripley

figures his school has one bigadvantage over other junior col-leges.

The Buffaloes are based inLittle Rock.

“We dwarf everybody,” Rip-ley said. “We’ve got 27 highschools within 30 minutes ofthe campus.’’

Ripley spoke at the LittleRock Touchdown Club alongwith college President Fitz Hilland football coach Richard Wil-son. Arkansas Baptist just com-pleted its first season of foot-ball, and although the team fin-ished 0-8, the Buffaloes hope tobuild support around Arkansas.

Many of the nation’s top

junior college athletic programsare in less prominent areas thanLittle Rock.

“This ought to be a shoo-in,” Ripley said.

Wilson said he finished theseason with about 100 athletesin the program and deemed thatnumber a good start.

“Those kids have taken own-ership,” he said. “They were theones who stuck with it.”

Hill said the ArkansasRazorbacks could benefit fromthe Buffaloes’ presence. He saidArkansas Baptist hopes to helpathletes develop their abilities.He did caution that footballisn’t his main motivation forstarting up the program.

“You get kids, and you bringthem in to the educational

process,” Hill said. “We’re nota football factory. We’re aboutgiving kids choices, positivechoices.”

Hill became Arkansas Bap-tist’s president in early 2006.He earned his doctorate inhigher education at the Univer-sity of Arkansas and was anassistant football coach atArkansas and a head coach atSan Jose State.

Wilson played at Arkansasand Central Arkansas and hascoached at several schools.Ripley, a former Little RockParkview basketball coach, isnow coaching basketball atArkansas Baptist.

“We have a dream to makethis a top-flight junior collegein America,’’ Wilson said.

Arkansas Officials Tout Value ofAthletics at Junior Colleges


Detroit, from page 3, col. 5

“Of the 28 community col-leges in the state, we were fundedthe bottom. We were number 28of 28,” Ivery said.

Even after voters approvedthe 1.5-mill tax in 2001, the dis-trict’s total tax of 2.5 mills rankedsquarely in the middle of Michi-gan ’s 28 community colleges. In2005-06, comparable Michigancommunity colleges had millagelevies ranging from 4.85 mills to1.45 mills.

In all, Wayne County’s totalmillage generated $68.5 millionin 2006-‘07, accounting for two-thirds of its total revenue of$103.2 million.

Since the original tax wasapproved by voters in 2001, thedistrict has experienced recordgrowth, driven in part by the needto retrain automobile workerswho have lost their jobs and nowneed new skills to develop newcareers.

Since the 1.5-mill tax waspassed in 2001, the college dis-trict’s enrollment has balloonedby a staggering 48,000 students to

a total of 68,485.Michigan’s sagging economy

has helped to drive the increase.District officials estimate that

some 8,000 of their students areenrolled this year because they areunemployed or underemployed.They estimate that 1,200 of thosestudents were directly or indirectlyimpacted by the decline of Michi-gan’s automobile industry.

The demand is so great thatthe college has begun offeringSunday classes, as well as late-night classes that start as late asmidnight, Ivery said.

Ivery said Wayne County hada backlog of needs when the 1.5-mill tax was approved in 2001and has been working for the pastsix years to fulfill them and moveon.

He added that one of the rea-sons that the district has sched-uled a tax renewal election afteronly six years was to leave timefor a second vote, if the first onewas defeated.

“We thought it was importantto give ourselves more than one

opportunity,” Ivery said.At this point, district officials

haven’t decided when to hold asecond election, but Ivery said itwill have to be held in time towind down programs if votersdecline to approve the renewal.

The defeat of the tax renew-al came despite strong supportfrom both of Detroit’s newspa-pers.

In an editorial endorsing thetax, the Detroit Free Pressapplauded Wayne County for itsprogressive on-line programs,noting that online enrollment hasincreased by 300 percent sincethe tax was implemented.

“The school is growing andresponding to the needs of itsservice area,” the Free Press edi-torial concluded.

The Detroit News praised thedistrict for moving aggressivelyto offer training in high-demandfields such as nursing. The edito-rial noted that the college has awaiting list of more than 4,000 forits nursing program.

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dateline washington

WASHINGTON — In ayear filled with parti-san bickering, an over-

haul of the Higher Education Actmade it out of a House committeeunanimously. The bipartisan Col-lege Opportunity and Affordabili-ty Act of 2007, approved by theCommittee on Education andLabor, would tackle many afford-ability issues from textbook coststo conflicts of interest amonglenders and colleges, and increas-ing tuition. It would also create aseries of new grant and loan pro-grams community colleges couldtake advantage of. In most cases,however, the legislation doesn’tsay how much money Congresscould provide.

Under the five-year legisla-tion:

Preferred lenders wouldhave to inform borrowers of theiroptions, including those that mayoffer students or parents betterterms.

The U.S. Department ofEducation would get six months

to develop a model disclosureform for lenders and collegesexplaining federal and privateloans, including interest rates,fees, repayment terms, opportuni-ties for deferment or forbearance,the methods used for determininginterest rates, etc.

All colleges participating infederal student loan programswould have to develop a code ofconduct and place it on their Websites. The code must forbid con-flicts of interest. No collegefinancial-aid officer could acceptgifts from the lending industry.The gift ban would apply to any“gratuity, favor, discounts, enter-tainment, hospitality, loan orother item having a monetaryvalue of more than a de minimusamount, including transportation,lodging and meals.” It would notapply to providing promotionalmaterial or training activities thatmight include food, however.

A new Enhancing TeacherEducation program would getunspecified funding over five

years to give competitive grantsto colleges and universities toencourage students majoring inmath, science and language tobecome teachers. Grantees couldoffer recruitment incentives,upgrade curriculum and integratecourse work with experience. Thelaw specifically allows grants tostart or enhance teacher educationat community colleges that arealigned with four-year programsand supports post-baccalaureatecertification programs at commu-nity colleges.

Pell Grants would max outat $9,000 a year, minus expectedfamily contributions. Communi-ty-college students could getyear-round Pell Grants.

Federal Supplemental Edu-cational Opportunity Grants,which are set aside for the mostfinancially needy students, wouldget $875 million.

States would get $200 mil-lion in Grants for Access and Per-sistence for partnerships thatcoordinate federal, state, local

and private efforts to help low-income individuals attend col-lege. Grantees could provideinformation about eligibility forfinancial aid, outreach, mentor-ing, etc. Grantees would have toput up a 33 percent match.

Perkins Loans would get$350 million, up $100 million,and the allowance for books andsupplies would increase.

College Partnership Grantswould go to consortia of highereducation institutions or stateeducation departments to helpdevelop policies that facilitatetransfers of credits and students,including using technology andinformation programs.

Colleges could compete forStudent Success Grants for up to$1,500 per participating studentper year for up to 50 students perinstitution to show incoming stu-dents how to succeed in college.Activities could include coursesin how to study, take notes, pre-pare for tests, explore careers, etc.Programs could last five yearsand require a 25 percent non-fed-eral match.

In the wake of the VirginiaTech shooting, colleges and con-sortia of them could get StudentSafety and Campus EmergencyManagement grants, with a 50percent required match, to devel-op emergency communicationssystems and emergency proce-dures for students, faculty andstaff, assess security, etc.

In the wake of the Gulf hur-ricanes, colleges and universitiescould take advantage of an Edu-cation Disaster and EmergencyRelief Loan Program for lossesstemming from a federally-declared major disaster or emer-gency. Colleges could use thefunds for construction and reno-vation, incentives to retain facultymembers and to cover lost rev-enue, including tuition.

Community colleges couldalso take advantage of RuralDevelopment Grants for RuralColleges and Universities. Underthe program, colleges and univer-sities would have to partner withrural school districts, employersand non-profits to enroll atten-dees of rural high schools in col-lege. Activities could include pro-viding information, exposing highschool students to campuses, sup-port groups, etc.

Colleges could also getthree-year grants to create Model

Programs for Centers of Excel-lence in Veteran Student Success.Campuses would establish a sin-gle point of contact to coordinatecomprehensive support servicesfor veteran students. Veteran stu-dent support teams would includerepresentatives from offices ofadmission, registration, financialaid, student health, academicadvising, career counseling, etc.Grantees would monitor veteranstudent success. Applicants wouldhave to show how they wouldcontinue the program when thegrants expire.

The Education Departmentwould create a National Databaseon Financial Assistance for Studyof Science, Technology, Engi-neering and Mathematics on itspublic Web site.

The National Academy ofSciences would evaluate theeffectiveness of distance educa-tion as compared to campus-based education.

Firefighters, military serv-ice members, first responders,law enforcement officers, teach-ers, nurses, prosecutors and pub-lic defenders could get up to$10,000 a year in student loansrepaid, up to $60,000.

The Education Departmentwould create and annually updatea Higher Education Price IncreaseWatch list on its College Naviga-tor Web site ranking institutionsthat raise tuition above average.Different types of colleges wouldbe ranked separately, includingcategories for two-year public,two-year non-profit and two-yearproprietary colleges.

Textbook publishers thatprovide information about coursematerials would have to includeprice, copyright dates of any pre-vious editions, an explanation ofhow the new material updatesprevious editions, and informa-tion about whether the material isavailable in alternate formats(paperback, unbound). Publishersthat bundle texts and supplemen-tal materials would also have tooffer the items separately.

States could not reducetheir aid to public colleges anduniversities below the averageamount they spent during the pre-ceding five years. The EducationDepartment could waive the rulein cases of “exceptional or uncon-trollable circumstances” includ-ing natural disasters or financialcrises.

House Committee Unanimously Passes Revamped Higher Ed ActBY CHARLES PEKOW


Senate, HousePanels Pass CostReductionMeasures

WASHINGTON -- WhileCongress continues work on anew Higher Education Act, itis moving more quickly torepair glitches in other mat-ters. Both the House and Sen-ate have passed bills clarifyingambiguities and fixing errorsin recently-passed legislation.

The House passed the Col-lege Cost Reduction andAccess Act Technical Amend-ments of 2007, while the Sen-ate passed a smaller version.

Both bills state that whenconsidering eligibility for stu-dent assistance, tax credits --including those for child care,fuels, foreign income andearned income, as well asSocial Security and welfarebenefits -- will not be consid-ered “untaxed income and ben-efits.” The change would takeplace July 1, 2009.

The bills also clarify thatwhen married student loanborrowers file separate incometax returns, the spouse’sreturns would not be consid-ered when determining loans.

The House bill also statesthat any Pell Grant money left-over from one fiscal year couldbe used the next year.

Furthermore, the Housewould include as independentstudents anyone who isdeclared a ward of the court,an orphan or placed in fostercare at the age of 13 or older,effective in July, of 2009.

The House version alsostates that those on fulltimeNational Guard duty could getdeferrals of loan repayments

Bill WouldExtend TuitionTax DeductionsFor AnotherYear

WASHINGTON -- TheHouse approved the Tempo-rary Tax Relief Act of 2007which would continue taxdeductions for tuition andrelated expenses another year.Under current law, the deduc-tion of up to $4,000 was set toexpire at the end of 2007.

The bill also would extendfor another year the exceptionin Internal Revenue code that

allows the U.S. Department ofEducation to get informationon a taxpayer’s filing status,adjusted gross income andidentify to help establishrepayment amounts for studentloans. Normally, the InternalRevenue Service is notallowed to share such infor-mation.

Institute ToCollect StudentFinancial AidData

WASHINGTON -- The Insti-tute of Education Sciences Sisplanning a 2008 National Postsec-ondary Student Aid Study to getnationwide data about financial

aid issues. The U.S. See CapBriefs, pg. 16, col. 1. Departmentof Education will use the data todetermine the needs analysis for-mula for Pell Grants and studentloan maximums.

The institute contracted withRTI International and its subcon-tractor MPR Associates to con-duct the study, originally done in

the 1986-‘87 academic year andlast updated in 2003-‘04. Theresearchers will ask colleges toprovide information about studentfinancial aid. They haven’t decid-ed yet exactly what questions toask but figure most of the requireddata are contained it the FreeApplications for Student Financial


capitalbriefs

See Cap Briefs, pg. 16, col. 1


Aid, so institutions won’thave to do a lot of searching.

The project will also askstudents to provide data overthe Internet. It may also seektest score data from the mak-ers of the SAT and ACT.

“Price increases, net pricelevels, remaining need afterfinancial aid, and increases instudent loan debt will contin-ue to be central issues,” theEducation department says inits plan.

RTI pledges it will reim-burse colleges that have tospend considerable time andeffort providing the data butestimates it will take institu-tions an average of 25 hoursand cost $350 to participate.It also may pay students toencourage participation. Itplans to ask students abouttheir financial aid, earningsand assets as well as maritaland dependency status. Fieldtests showed most studentsprovided the information in25 to 30 minutes.

The researchers hope tosurvey 1,962 institutions andestimate getting 1,621answers. They also intend tocontact 138,066 students andexpect 88,951 responses.

Estimated budget for the

project: $23,227,807. Esti-mated completion: August2009.

MilitarySpousesEligible forNew EducationAssistance

WASHINGTON (AP) —Military spouses will getmoney to learn an occupationunder a program aimed atcutting the high unemploy-ment rate they suffer becausethey move so often.

The program announcedby the departments ofdefense and labor gives aspouse $3,000 each year fortwo years to pay for an edu-cation, books, licensing feesand other costs for what thedepartments have identifiedas “portable career fields”such as education, health careand financial services.

Military spouses have anunemployment rate that isthree times higher than coun-terparts in civilian families,the Pentagon said. Some 77percent say they need or wantto work.

Cap Briefs, from page 15, col. 5

Washington Higher Education PanelDrafting Ambitious 10-Year Plan

SEATTLE (AP) — TheWashington Higher Educa-tion Coordinating Board

got an earful when it traveled thestate asking citizens to tell it whatneeds to improve about the wayWashington educates people afterhigh school.

Ann Daley, executive directorof the board, said people attend-ing six public forums were pas-sionately opinionated on a widerange of topics — from collegebeing too expensive, to a discon-nect between available jobs andthe enrollment slots for learningthe skills to do these jobs.

She said that explains why theboard’s draft 10-year strategic planfor Washington higher educationis so broad and ambitious. Theplan is due to the Legislature andthe governor by mid-December.

The board’s previous strate-gic plans focused more onexpected demand for collegeplacement and money to pay forhigher enrollment. This plantakes a more philosophicalapproach, because the Legisla-ture asked for a 10-year planinstead of the usual two- to four-year forecast.

The report predicts that by2020, Washington will need296,000 slots at state collegesand universities and colleges, anincrease of 61,500 full-timeequivalent student slots. Thattranslates into adding slightly

more than 2 percent capacity peryear.

By 2030, nearly 40 percent ofthe kindergarten to twelfth gradepopulation will be minority stu-dents and most will come fromlow income families. Daley saidthis change in demographicsshould be seen as an opportunityfor a more diverse college stu-dent population in the future.

“We need to be thoughtfuland effective in how we buildaspirations and provide educationprograms for these groups ofpeople,” she said.

Daley said the report can bebroken down into two mainthemes: the state needs to providemore post-high school educationopportunities, and it needs tomake sure higher education inter-sects with the economic needs ofWashington.

“We need to have graduateswho can compete for the jobsavailable,” Daley said.

The 67-page report is filledwith recommendations. Amongthem:

Keep growing the state’shigher education system to teachmore students. Since 1996,Washington’s public educationsystem has grown by 23 percent,but the report stated it needs tokeep going because the studentpopulation in Washington isexpected to continue to grow.

Make more room for non-

traditional students, such asadults returning to college.

Provide education whereand when people need it. Providethe support people need, such aschild care, to enable nontradi-tional students to attend college.

Reach out to undereducat-ed adults and new immigrants tomeet their college needs.

Mentor low-income andminority students toward college.Washington ranks 32nd national-ly in the percentage of lowincome students who continuetheir education past high school,the report said. Daley said ifmore low-income and minoritystudents aren’t encouraged toattend college, higher educationenrollment could drop in thefuture.

Revise financial aid pro-grams to assist more potentialstudents.

Help universities turn theirresearch discoveries into money-making opportunities.

Continue to build new col-lege buildings and keep existingbuildings and equipment up-to-date.

Create higher expectationsfor all K-12 students. Help stu-dents embrace these higherexpectations of themselvesbecause a high school educationis not enough.

Expand opportunities forearly college work.

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Three Decades Later, Mont. Tribal College Has Grown and Evolved

PABLO, Mont. (AP) — Ifshe so desired, Lois Slaterwould need only look in a

mirror to find a compelling storyabout how educational opportuni-ties can turn around a life.

“I was a statistic,” she said, andthis is what she means:

She dropped out of high schoolat age 16 to get married and have ababy. By the age of 22, she hadfour children. By 28, she had lotsof categories covered: minority,divorced, high school dropout, sin-gle mom.

Today, Slater holds a bache-lor’s degree from the University ofMontana, a master’s degree fromGonzaga University, and a job asas director of development at thetribal college where she startedrebuilding her life.

Salish Kootenai College,which began in 1977 with aboutfour dozen students and a coupleof classrooms in an abandonedschool, marks its 30th anniversarythis year.

It’s grown considerably sinceits humble beginnings.

Today, on a tree-covered 140-acre campus her, the college has anenrollment of more than 1,100. Itoffers eight bachelor’s degrees infields ranging from forestry tonursing, associate degrees in manymore and certificate programs ineverything from highway con-struction to dental-assisting tech-nology.

Darry Dupuis, former collegeboard chairman, said the collegehas become one of the most suc-cessful tribal colleges in the coun-try, offering opportunities to Indi-ans and non-Indians alike.

Joe McDonald, who has beenthere since the college’s infancy —when it was a satellite ofKalispell’s Flathead Valley Com-munity College — and who hasserved as college president for 28of its 30 years, remembers whenthe school started.

“Originally, our campus wasjust a small building,” McDonaldsaid. “It had a kitchen, cafeteriaand classrooms, and looked morelike it belonged on a Hutteritecolony. We put the building in

back of the tribal office so wecould share their parking lot.”

Slater obtained her GeneralEducational Development diplo-ma, or GED, in 1980, 10 yearsafter she would have graduatedfrom high school had she notdropped out.

She arrived at the college in1981, determined to better her life.Going to school while workingfull time, she took three years toearn her associate degree.

“There were only like twobuildings when I graduated,”Slater says. “And I think therewere only about 35 people in mygraduating class.”

She earned a bachelor’s degreefrom the University of Montana in1987.

Slater has been employed atSKC since, as placement directorfor 17 years and director of devel-opment for the last three.

She may be just six or sevenmiles from the high school shedropped out of almost 40 yearsago, but to Slater, it can seem likea million.

“It was pretty lonely,’’ she saysabout becoming a mother at theage of 16. “My oldest daughterasked me once, ‘Why did you haveme so young?’ and I told her, ‘So Icould chase your boyfriends.’ I’dnever recommend it to anybody,but I did wind up with four won-derful kids. I kind of grew up withthem.’’

They, in turn, were influencedby their mother’s determination tobetter herself through education.All four attended Salish KootenaiCollege.

The history of higher educa-tion for Indians has ugly roots.

The Carlisle Indian IndustrialSchool, founded in 1879 in Penn-sylvania by U.S. Army Capt.Richard Henry Pratt, wasdesigned to “kill the Indian andsave the man.’’

Today Carlisle, which wasclosed in 1918, is most oftenremembered for producing per-haps the best athlete in the historyof sport, Jim Thorpe, and for itspowerful college football teamscoached by Glenn “Pop” Warner.

But its goal was to forciblyassimilate young Native Ameri-cans into white society. Once atCarlisle, students had their braidscut, their clothes replaced by uni-forms and their names changed.Later, students were forced toattend the school by the federalgovernment.

Hundreds of students diedwhile at Carlisle, some from dis-eases foreign to the Indians’immune systems. Many othersdied from physical abuse. Speak-ing in their native tongues, failingto understand English and attempt-ing to escape were all punishableby physical torture.

Today, the American IndianHigher Education Consortiumcounts 34 tribally controlled col-leges in 13 states.

All seven reservations in Mon-tana have tribal colleges.

Seventy percent of SalishKootenai College’s students areenrolled tribal members, accord-ing to McDonald, and the schoolmust keep that number above 50percent in order to be eligible forfederal grants.

In stark contrast to Carlisle, bycontrolling their own institutionsof higher education, tribes are ableto make them places where theirculture and languages are passedon, rather than passed over.

So at Salish Kootenai Collegeyou’ll find the Hide TanningBuilding. Try finding one of thoseat Harvard.

In the college’s television stu-dio, you may find Shirley Trahantaping her weekly “Salish Lan-guage” show, broadcast on theschool’s public television station.

In two years, SKC will gradu-ate its first elementary schoolteachers trained exclusively at thecollege.

This fall, elementary educationjoins business entrepreneurship,computer engineering, environ-mental science, forestry, informa-tion technology, nursing and socialwork as SKC programs offeringfour-year bachelor’s degrees.

The goal is to put more NativeAmericans in reservation class-rooms as teachers, and to put moreteachers in reservation classroomsthat have taken classes in NativeAmerican history, culture and lan-guage as well as science, math andEnglish.

On a walking tour of campus,McDonald talks about how thecollege got to where it is, andwhere he envisions it going.

Students in the colleges build-ing trades program constructedmany of the buildings on campus.


See Tribal College, pg. 20, col. 1

Iowa College Professor Making Push To Promote Atheism

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)— An Iowa communitycollege professor is lead-

ing an effort to promote atheismand lobby for the removal of reli-gious references from public life.

Lydia Hartunian, an assistantprofessor of humanities at Kirk-wood College, organized afundraiser last month in NewYork that attracted dozens ofatheist authors and religiousskeptics.

“Atheism has such a bad rep-utation,’’ says Hartunian, a mem-ber of the Iowa Atheist Alliance.“One misinterpretation peoplehave is that we say we know thereisn’t a God. That’s an impossibleclaim to make. We’re the oneswho say, ‘I don’t know.’”

Just like many religions, athe-ists have boosted efforts to spreadtheir message. The New YorkCity Atheists, for example, pro-duce three public-access TVshows. The Rational ResponseSquad encourages atheists to post“blasphemous’’ videos onYouTube. Camp Quest is a BoyScout-like place for children fromnonreligious families.

Many atheists also want“God” removed from U.S. cur-rency and religion kept out theabortion debate.

“Ultimately, we’re skeptics,”Hartunian says. “It means I cher-ish this world, this moment, thislife, and also feel that my morali-ty and my sense of goodness, ofbeing a good person, are entirelydependent on me.”

Steve Scheffler, president ofthe Iowa Christian Alliance, saysatheists have every right toexpress themselves, but hebelieves the people who shouldpush for change are people offaith — not atheists.

He says religion has beencrowded out of American life bythe political left.

“There’s certainly been an

effort by the left, including theACLU and other like-mindedgroups, to strip any reference ofGod from the public square,whether it’s the Ten Command-ments can’t be posted or some-body brings their favorite story topublic school,” Scheffler says. “Itdoesn’t look to me like atheistsand people who do not want tobelieve in a supreme being are

having their rights abridged ortaken away.’’

The New York City fundrais-er — dubbed the “Great Ameri-can God-Out’’ — was held lastweek and included smallerevents in Cedar Rapids and IowaCity. The New York gatheringfeatured a live Web feed, twoguest lecturers, and entertain-ment that included an Arizona

college student who rappedabout atheism and a man calledthe “singing Darwinian scholar.’’

Kirkwood President MickStarcevich says Hartunian’sevent —or any other potentiallycontroversial faculty project —would be welcome on the CedarRapids campus under certainterms.

“It’s most certainly fine for

them to organize events, just sothat it doesn’t fall over into theclassroom where they would tryto get others to believe theirviews,’’ he says. “When you talkabout religions of the world andthose types of classes, you’ve gotto have these discussions. Ifthey’re discussions, that’s fine. Ifyou’re trying to sell me, thenthat’s not fine.’’


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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP)— Linda Johnson, the wifeof former state two-year

college Chancellor Roy Johnson,was paid for 14 months after leav-ing her job as an executive assis-tant at Southern Union State Com-munity College in Opelika andretiring Oct. 1.

Johnson, who earned $125,314a year, also received more than$48,000 in deferred retirementpayments for the period she wason paid leave, The BirminghamNews reported.

That money was paid to her aspart of a one-time retirement checkof nearly $260,000 when sheended her paid leave Oct. 1,according to the report.

Johnson left her office at

Southern Union the week after herhusband was fired in July 2006,school officials said.

She continued receiving morethan $2,300 a week while on paidleave, claiming 232 days of sickpay, 69 days of vacation and fourdays of personal leave until sheretired, records show.

The retirement payments madefor the period when she also wasreceiving paid leave came as partof the state’s deferred retirementprogram, known as DROP.

The program encourages vet-eran employees to delay retire-ment once eligible and pays up tofive years of retirement into aninterest-bearing account for themwhile they continue to receivetheir salary.

They receive that money uponretirement.

Roy Johnson received about$252,000 in a one-time DROPpayment after he was fired.

Chancellor Bradley Byrne saidLinda Johnson continued beingpaid since 2006 without reportingto work at Southern Unionbecause system policies allowemployees to accumulate largeamounts of paid leave.

Johnson was required only tosubmit a letter from her doctorauthorizing the sick leave, whichcontinued for more than a full,180-day academic year, Byrne toldThe News.

He said he was surprised tolearn how much sick pay Johnsonwas allowed to accumulate under

the system’s policies and state law. “It may be that we need to take

another look at system policy,”Byrne said. “It does seem to bepretty excessive.”

In another case, DanaClements, a close friend of LindaJohnson’s and wife of the formerchancellor’s longtime friend Jim-mie Clements, also has beenclaiming sick pay since Feb. 8,records show.

Clements began working atSouthern Union after Roy Johnsontook over as president in 1992. Shereceives $91,564 a year and isscheduled to continue receivingher $1,760 weekly salary until herDec. 31 retirement date.

Dana Clements was not eligi-ble to participate in the state’s

deferred retirement program,records show.

Jimmie Clements received col-lege consulting contracts with RoyJohnson’s help, and also was beingpaid a part-time salary and expens-es by Southern Union until lastyear, records show.

College payments to Johnson’srelatives were cited as one of thereasons state school board mem-bers fired him last year. At thetime, the Johnson family hadreceived more than $600,000 ayear from jobs and contracts in thesystem.

Linda Johnson’s monthlyretirement pay was not affected byher 14 months of paid leavebecause she had frozen her retire-ment salary in 2003.

Wife of Former Alabama Chancellor Paid for No-Show Job

Two-thirds of the college’slibrary’s 60,000-volume collectionwas built with books from thelibraries at West Point, the U.S.Naval Academy and the Air ForceAcademy.

“As they updated theirlibraries, they would send thebooks they were discarding to theLibrary of Congress,” McDonaldsaid. “After collectors had achance to buy them, the Library of

Congress made them available totribal colleges. We figured a wayto get in ahead of the collectors,and paid a lady back in D.C. $100a month to go in and scope outwhat was available. Then they’dsend them to us. I think we gotabout 40,000 books that way.’’

McDonald says the big pushnow is to land more undergraduateresearch grants, to help preparestudents who go on to graduateschool.

“More Indian people are get-ting into graduate programs,’’ hesaid, and while it has always

accepted non-tribal members,SKC’s mission remains providingthe post-secondary educationalopportunities needed and wantedby Native Americans.

McDonald would also like tosee the college offer its first mas-ter’s degree, in nursing.

Tribal College, from page 18, col. 5


TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP)— Shelton State Commu-nity College is reusing

some of the $50,000 in furnishingsremoved from the home of its for-mer president Rick Rogers.

The furnishings being reusedin campus offices include a $2,800Italian marble table, a $3,095 din-ing room buffet and a $650 32-inch television. A $4,650 golf cartalso was removed.

Some pieces, such as a $6,590custom entertainment center, wereplaced in storage and will be soldor disposed of in accordance withstate policy, Shelton State spokes-woman Leigh Hays told TheTuscaloosa News.

Rogers was placed on adminis-trative leave a year ago after a fed-eral plea agreement by a formerAlabama Fire College official gavedetails on $11,000 that was spentby the Fire College’s private foun-dation to furnish the home, whichhas now been offered for sale.

In an agreement with two-yearcollege Chancellor Bradley Byrne,

Rogers retired as president in May. Rogers moved out of the house

at the end of July, said Lew Drum-mond, former executive director ofShelton State’s foundation.

The college ended its leasewith the foundation at the end ofAugust.

The 6,200-square-foot presi-dent’s home was built by the Shel-ton State Foundation in the Wood-bank subdivision about three milesfrom campus.

A probe by the AlabamaDepartment of PostsecondaryEducation found that state moneywas used in its construction, andsaid that the money should bereturned to the college. Accordingto college records, about $155,000was spent on the home.

The college paid the founda-tion $1,000 a month in the firstyear of the lease, which began July1, 2003, and $500 a month sincethen. Rogers paid $1,000 a monthto the college.

Under the lease, Shelton Statewas responsible for any improve-

ments to the property, but financialrecords indicated that the collegemoney, including $25,000 to pavethe driveway, was crucial to thehome’s construction.

State money spent by the col-lege and the Alabama Fire Collegeon the house became an issue in anaudit released in September, whichalso found that the two-year chan-cellor never approved a lease thatallowed Rogers to live in the home.

The Tuscaloosa County taxassessor appraised the house at$556,900, but it was originally val-ued at $492,402, according to thefoundation’s tax records.

Drummond said any profitfrom the sale would go to reim-burse the college for expenses. Thebalance will go to fund scholar-ships.

The foundation’s board ofdirectors decided to sell the housebecause interim Shelton StatePresident Joanne Jordan decidednot to move into it, and it wasunclear if the college’s next presi-dent would want to live there.

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Kansas CollegesSeek Ways ToWork Together

DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) —Community colleges in southwestKansas are discussing ways towork together to lobby state law-makers and deal with staffingshortages.

Trustees and administrators ofthe Garden City, Dodge City andSeward County community col-leges last month for their annualdinner.

“I think this is a great time forus to start thinking regionally,’’Dodge City Community CollegePresident Richard Burke said.

The community colleges facecritical staffing shortages in cer-tain areas. As a large percentageof current faculty approachesretirement age, the situation isexpected to get worse.

The three institutions mustfigure out how to share resources,whether that means broadcastingclasses to another community orrequiring students to travel for

clinical instruction, officials said. The initiative also could cre-

ate new opportunities for schoolsthat have not set up some expen-sive programs.

“The reason a lot our institu-tions have not established thosehigh-cost programs is because ofthe faculty cost,’’ said SewardCounty Community College Pres-ident Duane Dunn.

Particularly when it comes tonursing programs and other med-ically related fields, Burke said, itis critical the colleges look forcommon solutions.

“I think it’s really importantwe lay down our swords and worktogether on this,’’ Burke said.

Garden City Community Col-lege President Carol Ballantynenoted that Colby CommunityColleges dental hygienist pro-gram is broadcast out of Wiscon-sin.

“I think as a group we need togo after that, too,’’ Ballantynesaid.

Another concern facing theschools is state funding. Burkesaid the formula used to calculate

how funds are distributed to the19 state community colleges isfacing some retooling.

Burke said the current system,in which schools are awardedmoney based on the amount ofgrowth, doesn’t always work outfor southwest Kansas.

“Dodge City has increasedand in some years we’ve lostmoney,’’ Burke said, because theschool’s growth has been out-paced by growth at other colleges.

Miss. CollegeTeams withUniversity ToOffer Classes

GRENADA, Miss. (AP) —The University of Mississippi isteaming up with Holmes Com-munity College to bring gradu-ate-level courses in education toGrenada, the colleges haveannounced.

University ChancellorRobert Khayat and HolmesCommunity College PresidentGlenn Boyce met in Grenadaand signed an agreement for thejoint venture.

The program begins in Janu-ary. Students who enroll for thespring 2008 semester at theHolmes-Grenada Center cam-pus, will be able to take gradu-ate-level courses in education.Eventually, junior- and senior-level courses are to be added.

The target audience for theprogram is professional educa-tors in the city and surroundingcounties who wish to completemaster’s degrees in curriculumand instruction with an emphasisin elementary education.

Students enrolling in the pro-gram will attend two graduate-level classes per week in theevenings at the Holmes-GrenadaCenter. If students follow thespecific course rotation, whichincludes summer sessions, par-ticipants can complete theirdegrees in December 2008.

The program should help toput more qualified teachers andadministrators in area schools,Boyce said.

“This partnership is atremendous example of how col-laborative efforts between thecommunity college system andthe institutions of higher learn-ing can bring greater access andopportunity to Mississippi’s res-idents,’’ Boyce said.

Foreign StudentsSeen As Boon toHawaiianEconomy

HONOLULU (AP) — A newstudy says foreign students are afast-growing boon to the Hawaiieconomy.

The annual Open Doorsreport states international stu-dents at Hawaii colleges and uni-versities are adding nearly $124million to the state’s economy,up from just over $108 millionlast school year.

The study estimates just over6,000 students from other coun-tries are studying in the islandsthis year, up 6 percent over lastyear.

Some college officials saythe financial impact estimate islow because it doesn’t includemoney spent by foreign parents

coming to the islands to visit thestudent or the vacations formerstudents take in the islands.

“The trickle-down effect ishuge,”’ said Scott Stensrud,Hawaii Pacific University vicepresident for enrollment. Theprivate institution has 1,247 for-eign students, compared to 1,984at the University of Hawaii’sManoa campus.

The highest number of for-eign students, 1,417, come toHawaii from Japan, followed bySouth Korea, Taiwan and China.

The Open Doors report isproduced the Institute of Interna-tional Education with supportfrom the U.S. State Department.

Stensrud said Hawaii is adraw for international studentsbecause it is considered safe witha welcoming community.

He said the presence of somany international students alsobroadens the experience of localstudents.

“It puts them in contact withstudents that will later on bebusiness contacts or governmentcontacts as they rise in theircareers,’’ he said.

The exposure to other cul-tures has not led to more Hawaiistudents studying abroad, how-ever. Only 648 Hawaii studentswere enrolled in overseas educa-tion programs last year, less than697 in 2005, according to thereport.

Community colleges areaccepting a larger share of for-eign students, with KapiolaniCommunity College and MauiCommunity College showing themost growth. Many of their stu-dents transfer to University ofHawaii campuses to completetheir educations.


Briefs, from page 3, col. 5

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