Community colleges seek

out unique niche
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

A recent study on community colleges showed a changing role in the system, as workforce demographics and distance learning lead to new educational needs.

The study was released by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research in conjunction with a statewide forum on Wednesday.

One out of every six adults in the state get some form of community-college service, whether through vocational training, degree programs or continuing education classes.

CCC&TI president Ken Boham , who formerly served as president of the state’s community college association, said his focus has been on changing the funding formula for education while not making it competitive between the various educational systems.

“We don’t need to kick K-12 and we don’t need to kick universities and complain about what they get,” Boham said.

“We talk about serving 800,000 students and people coming back to college, young and old alike.”

The average age of a community college student is 28 and they pay $1,300 in tuition and fees, with many of them being older, first-generation college students. Unlike most in four-year university programs, community college students tend to be employed, come from low-income families or have dependent children.

Boham said one reliable economic indicator of a recession was an influx of new students, as a shrinking job market or inadequate wages lead many to try new careers.

“We’ve had record enrollment the last two semesters,” Boham said, adding that the General Assembly appeared ready to support more educational spending.

“Watauga enrollment is up over 100 bodies. When the economy is not good, our enrollment increases. If we are looking at that recession, enrollments are telling us there needs to be serious consideration about our budget and being the workforce preparedness entity for this state. We can’t wait until we’re out on the other side (of a recession). That’s too late.”

Community colleges are also counted on to help meet the state’s workforce needs, as with the planned expansion of Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute’s nursing program.

A new occupational building will be constructed on CCC&TI’s Watauga campus, with much of the space dedicated to the nursing program, and the college is also forming health-care education alliances with the Watauga County school system, Appalachian State University and Watauga Medics.

The state is projected to have a shortage of 9,000 nurses by 2015 and almost 18,000 by 2020. More than two-thirds of the nurses in the state were trained at community colleges.

Boham envisions a cooperative allied health program that will provide nurses not just for Watauga and Caldwell counties, but for eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina.

The study also suggests community colleges could play an increased role in educating school teachers, with the state’s 16 public universities producing only 4,000 of the estimated 11,000 new teachers needed each year due to population growth, class-size reduction and high teacher turnover.

New approaches could also reduce the construction costs of expanded offerings, as distance learning has increased 400 percent since 1999.

All 58 community colleges in the state now offer distance-learning programs.

However, colleges still need funding in other areas to keep up with surrounding states. The average faculty pay in North Carolina is $41,000, which is fifth-lowest in the United States.

Boham said the General Assembly had recently adopted two increases in faculty salaries, but other Southeastern states had also been raising teacher pay, especially in the post-Katrina era when states saw the economic and workforce benefits of their community colleges. That could lead to more competition for teachers and higher turnover.

“In this industry, the greatest investment we have outside our physical investment in capital is our people,” he said.

“So funding growth and faculty salaries are always a concern across the board.”

Boham said enrollment statistics at the Watauga campus suggested plenty of potential for expansion. “If you look at the Watauga campus, there’s plenty of empirical data to tell you if you build it, they will come,” he said.

“We’re at the max of our facilities. Anything we build in Watauga will be filled up.”

In the spring semester of 2007, the Watauga campus had 1,025 students enrolled. This spring, that number had climbed to 1,184 students.

Of those, 207 were new last year and 210 are new this year, but the number of full-time students over that period rose from 241 to 560.

“That tells us that we’re retaining students between fall and spring, which is good, because they come in and stay,” Boham said.

“But we’re also getting new students coming in and they’re taking more hours.”

Boham believes the economy is leading people to reassess their career paths and job potential and are preparing themselves, particularly if they’ve lost more than one job in the past.

“We used to say people would change jobs five to seven times in a career,” Boham said. “Now we may see people change careers five times.”

The center advocates revising the funding formula for community colleges to expand facilities and programs and meet equipment needs.

The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research is a nonprofit organization formed in 1977 to evaluate state government programs and policies.