Confessions of a Community College Dean

Some topics never go away. Collegiality and its evil twin, incivility, is one of them.

Earlier this week, The Boy’s baseball season ended, and the team went out for ice cream. The Girl and I had been at the game, so we went, too. While the team took over the inside booths and did the things that sugared-up eleven year old boys do, TG and I stood in line by the outside window to get our cones.

Not a week goes by that I don’t hear about (or from) some Federal initiative asking community colleges to solve this social problem or that one, generally by being innovative and forward-looking. And I’m actually sympathetic to many of the calls.

Yesterday’s post was about the contradictory pressures facing many colleges. Today I was confronted with another dilemma. Colleges are being pushed to increase “service learning” and “civic engagement” initiatives at the exact same time that they’re being pressured to move online.

The abrupt departure of President Sullivan from UVA, coming on the heels of well-publicized leadership vacuums in California, legislative bans on remediation in Connecticut and Kansas, and the ongoing issues of underemployment of new graduates, got me thinking about expectations.

Having recently struggled in vain to find something recent and watchable, I have some notes for you.

Money magazine did an uncharacteristically good piece on how to choose a community college. It assumes a little more geographic mobility than is typically the case -- most people pick one within commuting distance of home -- but for people who have multiple practical options within driving distance, it may be useful.

In response to yesterday’s post about what college should cost, several people answered by saying something like “just add up what you need to provide a good education and divide by the number of students.” Which sounds reasonable enough, until you reflect on the word “need.”