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Community colleges could offer four-year degrees

October 16, 2013

cueata collegeCalifornia’s community college system is considering offering four-year degrees, a change designed to provide a more prepared workforce.

If adopted by system officials, the change would require legislation authorizing community colleges to offer four-year degrees. In addition, each college would need to seek additional accreditation.

Opponents of the change question how community colleges can meet the challenge of providing higher education at a time many of the state’s community colleges are not meeting minimum standards.

A 16-member panel comprised of administrators, faculty, a student, a college trustee and representatives from the University of California and California State University systems are weighing the move.

 


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I’m wondering… this came on the heels of the generous donation by those evil rich people in Morro Bay (because wealth = evil, right?); so maybe this is just a way to expand the student population and the best way to do that would be compete with the nearest competitor – namely, CalPoly.


Community College is a much better use of money than the UC or State system; expanding it to four years should open a lot of doors for a lot of people. That said, it still really is competition for Poly, and I know how much Poly loves their money. Sure, it may be A-OK as long as foreign and out-of-$tate kids keep throwing their money away at Poly, but one day, those $ame $tudents will also figure out that a CC is a better value. Then Poly will mobilize to end this.


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I began at Cuesta College and now am at the graduate level. As it turns out, many classes at Cuesta-especially biopsychology-were much more challenging and informative than some of the classes I take now. I really like Cuesta! Even my oceanography professor was a world-renowned female traveler who explored the seas far and wide. My biopsychology professor was “retired” from Stanford. Great school!


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a change designed to provide a more prepared workforce.


Oh? Will they be teaching ETHICS and responsibility? Respect for those who have risked much (or everything) to establish a business and take the heavy burden of hiring other people? Will the additional years in school instill a solid work ethic and desire for self-reliance that drives the best workforce? What is a more prepared workforce? Are we still allowed to ask these questions, or is that becoming too radical and extremist?


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I doubt it will be much different in this respect than the current State University system. I don’t think that ethics and responsibility are easily taught in schools. That is something that comes from parents/family, friends and society at large.


As for what a ‘more prepared workforce” would be, I am guessing that the current 2-yr CC system lacks the time to prepare many students adequately in the expanding number of fields that require technological proficiency. (This may be due in part to the number of remedial classes required by many students just to bring them up to the level they should have achieved in high school.)


The question is, if the required level of knowledge for these fields will take more than 2 years to attain, is offering a 4-year degree a reasonable solution? What about simply making the courses available and not trying to stuff all students into a format that requires them. If I was the owner of an auto or machine shop, I wouldn’t care about the “degree” as long as the prospective employees had passed the appropriate courses and learned the material they needed to minimize the training time after hiring.


If a 4-year degree is truly needed, let the students move on to one of the University systems to get it. This smells a little bit like a bureaucratic empire expansion scheme for administrators and staff at the CC level.


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My own world view and personal experience informs me that the answer to your extremely pertinent questions is simply one word: Parents. Unfortunately, as I am sure you are aware, there are a fair number of folks calling themselves by this term who are little more than spermand/or egg donors. As other societal institutions have abrigated their responsibilities, the issues which you raise have been foisted off on the schools, which were never intended or given the mandate to suply the information you wish to see imparted to young people.


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BUS 175 – Values & Ethics is being offered at the SLO campus on November 16. The class is full, but there’s a waiting list. Check it out.


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This would make room for the $ foreign students $ in our UC system, the best would have a global price tag. I think this stinks because it promotes money for the system at the expense of our citizens, our country. What was that word, treason?


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