by Jean Sidden

Created on: September 29, 2009

With primary colleges cutting programs, laying off faculty and limiting enrollment, while at the same time raising tuition, community colleges have been called on to fill the gap. Unfortunately in the current economic times community colleges have had to cut back as well. Despite their financial challenges, they serve the same purpose as always - to make certain that those students who are unable to break through the exclusively hallowed halls of four-year colleges and universities have access to higher education.

There once was the day when community colleges had a reputation for absorbing the teeming masses of bad students, poor students, slackers and/or intellectually challenged students. This was perceived as a negative though the bad students could have been those who weren't mature enough to handle going away to school, the poor students simply didn't have the funding for a four-year college, and the slackers and the intellectually challenged had a big surprise coming to them.

The praise I have for community colleges is based on my own experience. Coming out of high school without an impressive GPA I was not confident about college applications. The fear of rejection loomed large. My local community college wouldn't reject me so I enrolled there. I remember feeling a sense of shame.

I found instructors who were dedicated, exciting and in whose classes I was highly challenged. I discovered a way to do the things I really wanted to do while taking difficult core courses. When I slacked I did badly - just as I had in high school. When I worked I did well. No matter what the semester's outcome was, the community college would always open its doors to me.

Praise goes to the community college for setting an attainable bar for students and not making them feel beneath the system. Praise is in order for setting a reasonable tuition that students can better manage. There is praise for the wide diversity of their course offerings and their associate's degrees in a rainbow of areas. Praise to them for maximizing a limited time and seeing that students graduate with two years of preparatory work so they can go on to a four-year school or go to work educated and well trained.

The real praise for community colleges is in hiring a faculty that is easily comparable to any at a four-year institution and in many ways better. They are fully credentialed, have tenure and their pay is often higher than it would be at a four-year school. They seem happier to come to work every day and a great many of them are excellent learner centered and collaborative teachers.

Professors at community colleges are passionate about their jobs. They haven't slipped into the comfortable catatonia of many university professors. They work with the knowledge and satisfaction that they are truly serving the greater good.

Having gotten over my fear of rejection, I went to two large universities in pursuit of the bachelors and masters degrees. I liked them too. But the soft spot in my heart for community colleges is why I would love to teach in one. In contemplating going on with my education, if community colleges offered the PhD, I'd enroll in a second.

Learn more about this author, Jean Sidden.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.