POV: Be Careful What You Wish For: You’re About To Get It

Pamela Cox-Otto CEO Interact Communications Inc.

If there is one thing I have heard after 20 years in community college leadership, it is what I like to call the “President’s Prayer.” It goes something like this.

“Let the community discover my college, and not instead be its best-kept secret.

“Let the community see that it is a greater challenge to move a not-ready-for-college student, a single mom, a displaced worker, or a veteran to an associate degree than it is to move a high school “B” student to a 4-year college degree.

“Let us be the college that students choose first and not their last resort.

“Let the leadership of our state and nation see that given support, we can and will train the workforce of the future.

“And just once, let people say, “It’s a great college,” without following it with the qualifier “but.”

Well, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is your prayers are about to be answered. The bad news is your prayers are about to be answered.

For more than 40 years community colleges have been telling their communities, their states and the national leadership that they want to be in the game — that they have in their grasp the commitment to fuel the economic engine of their regions and the power, through education, to help
people see their personal possibilities.

And now, in the worst financial downturn in memory, after years of eroding state funding for schools and federal funding for students, after the rise of the private
for-profit colleges that spend millions on marketing and a dollar fifty on faculty, the call has finally come.

That means we must face some difficult realities and answer some difficult questions:

• Unemployment is on the rise. Can we retrain workers for the jobs that exist in our communities?
• Our economy is stumbling. Can we identify the skills that are going to be needed by industry and prepare students now, when business and industry aren’t even sure what comes next?
• The giant employers of the past are giving way to the small entrepreneurial employers of the present. Can we help small businesses step into the growing gap?

The short answer to each question is: “Yes, we can.”

But here is what we can’t do, given with full knowledge that colleges with strong commitments to their communities have ever fewer resources to help the thousands of students knocking on the door during this downturn.

We cannot shut the doors or stem the flow of students to us. This is a crisis. If not us, who? The for-profit colleges? Please. The four-year universities? Don’t make me laugh.

We cannot wait for the money to flow. This is not about getting the state and federal government to make up for years of abuse and neglect. It’s about being the heroes we have always been in our hearts.

We cannot whine about the condition in which our students arrive. Yes, many are unprepared or otherwise struggling. But frankly, that’s why I love two-year colleges. On any given day, the quality of teaching at a two-year college is way ahead of the teaching at a four-year. Our professors know that they are not there just to teach, but also to inspire, support and nurture.

We cannot say, yes we wanted our shot, but we meant under perfect conditions, with perfect faculty and staff, no community challenges and in a flush budget year. That sounds great. But meeting a challenge when nothing is at risk and the tasks are easy is not much of a challenge at all. Doing the right thing when it’s difficult and all eyes are on us? That’s when legends are made.

We have all heard of the Chinese “curse” that says “may you live in interesting times.” What you may not know is that it is one of a set of three curses, each one more serious than the previous:

“May you live in interesting times.May you get what you wish for. May you come to the attention of those in authority.”

We live in interesting times. Anyone doubt it? We have always wished for the moment when we could show our worth, our quality, and we now have the opportunity.

We have come to the attention of those in authority, and President Obama’s $12 billion community college initiative is giving every community college in America the opportunity we have always wanted.

So there is only one more thing we must not do.

We must not fail. Not for our own good, but for our nation’s.

Pamela Cox-Otto
CEO
Interact
Communications Inc.

Comments: editor@ccweek.com

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