![]() SAM BRINKLEY North Carolina has been traditionally renowned as the place one goes to find Northern high-quality education in the South. Our own Duke University, known as the “Ivy League of the South,” Shaw University, one of the first Historically Black Universities in the South and first to provide education for African-American women, and UNC Chapel-Hill, the first public university in the nation, are prime examples of this truism. Yet the NC Community College System, which often goes underappreciated by a large number of tar heels, deserves to sit at the top of this list. Established in 1957 by the General Assembly, the community college system was a result of North Carolina’s post-agricultural economy following World War II. The state needed skilled people to man its factories and shape its modern future, and educating those people was the first step. In an era when it was not looked upon as necessary to attend a college or university for future success, community colleges were utilized by many North Carolinians as effective, low-cost modes of getting a quality education while also spending time at home where it was needed. They could also be used as stepping stones for transferring into larger public universities after a year or two, a convention continued to this day. And so, community colleges took on an individual role in our state. Instead of pretending to be the intellectual powerhouses of their neighbors in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, these institutions truly adopted their respective communities’ identities, and their hallways and auditoriums could become crossroads for the towns they served. It is probably an understatement to say that attending college in the United States is a significant financial undertaking for most families. Tuitions have risen sharply in recent years - but speaking just of tuition does not begin to take into account the numerous other expenses associated with leaving home after high school. If one happens to be an out-of-state student, traveling alone asks a substantial price. But there are 140 institutions of higher learning right here in our state, 58 of which comprise the nation’s 3rd largest state community college system, stretched as far east as Manteo and as far west as Murphy. It’s a wonder that more of North Carolina’s high-school graduating classes do not elect to spend their years of higher learning in such convenient locations close to home. Many students and their families feel that a more comprehensive education could be found elsewhere, and are willing to sacrifice their finances and local ties to attend either an out-of-state school or even one of NC’s more well-known public universities. NC State University and UNC Chapel-Hill picked up a significant portion of last year’s graduating class at Enloe alone. While not necessarily an untrue or unfounded sentiment, this mindset of many young North Carolinians is what drives our aversion to harnessing the power of community colleges in the first place. NCCCS's mission is “to open the door to high-quality, accessible educational opportunities that minimize barriers to postsecondary education, maximize student success, develop a globally and multiculturally competent workforce, and improve the lives and well-being of individuals.” If we don’t begin to appreciate the gift of the system to our state and its citizens, when will we expect it to entirely fulfill this noble aspiration? It takes a change in the hearts and minds of North Carolinians themselves to bring about the strengthening of these invaluable institutions. Reality tells us that many community colleges are already doing more with less, taking increased initiative with fewer resources on hand. But so many of our preconceived notions of community colleges blind our ability to see their important relationships with communities across North Carolina, as well as the steps they’re taking to make localized change. Whether it be in teaching practical workforce skills like furniture upholstery in Tarboro, or offering valuable public speaking skills at a free seminar in Roxboro, NCCCS is already providing more than 730,000 North Carolinians with the education they need to succeed. It comes as no surprise, then, that an astounding 40 percent of wage earners in our state took classes at a community college within the past 10 years. Granted, we cannot expect to equate an institution like Beaufort County Community College with Princeton or Cornell, mainly because such a comparison is a disservice to to the original purpose of a community college. But what we can do is provide these precious representations of the best of North Carolina with the resources and support they need to flourish. As with many educational institutions across the nation, NCCCS has been hit with decreased state funding and somewhat lessened admiration over the recent decade. While not in any dire position, any limiting of the system’s resources, as seen in the State Aid Budget Report of 2013-2014, is cause for concern. This is no doubt reflective of our tendency to put education second on the to-do list, despite it being the greatest investment we can make. A general trend of lacking trust in society means less trust in its institutions, especially those for which success cannot be captured in numbers and graphs. But when we give universities and community colleges alike the help they deserve, they are bound to deliver in unimaginable ways. It is essential to have confidence in their potential before we begin to judge their performance.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
The Eagle's EyeBest of the Nest since 1981 Archives
January 2018
|