Two state governors – Eliot Spitzer of New York and Janet Napolitano of Arizona – were the headliners at a lively roundtable discussion of “Community Colleges as Engines of Innovation” at BMCC June 28.
Sponsored by the National Governors Association, of which Napolitano is chair, the “Innovation America Roundtable” brought a number of prominent CUNY and SUNY educators and administrators, to campus, including CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, SUNY Interim Chancellor John B. Clark, SUNY Board Chairman-desginate Carl Hayden, and several CUNY and SUNY community college presidents. The conversation touched on graduation rates, workforce training, transferability of credits, the relationship between community colleges and the K-12 grades, and many other areas.
“Finest in the nation”
In his welcoming remarks, BMCC president Antonio Pérez lauded Spitzer’s “commitment to innovation in post-secondary education by creating the New York State Commission on Higher Education.” Spitzer, who served principally as host and facilitator, described CUNY as “not only the largest, but the finest public university in an urban setting anywhere in the nation.”
The governor attributed CUNY’s recent progress in large measure to the efforts of Chancellor Goldstein, who reported that an astonishing 45 percent of higher education students nationwide are studying at community colleges.
That statistic alone “compels us all to think deeply about the role of community colleges,” Goldstein said. “As their enrollment reaches record levels, they need, more than ever before, to be nimble organizations, attuned to constantly changing market conditions.”
Focus on innovation
In large measure, that means “turning out students with a capacity for innovation and creativity – and the ability to solve problems that we haven’t yet envisioned,” Governor Napolitano said. She added that community colleges today “have two primary functions: as portals to four-year institutions of higher learning, and as education centers where those already in the workforce can return to acquire and update the skills they need to function in our fast-changing economy.”
But for community colleges to realize their full potential, graduation rates must be increased.
“The current situation is appalling,” said Goldstein. “Nationwide, only one out of five students in two-year programs finish in two years; the data aren’t much better as you move out to four and five years.”
To address that issue, “we have to raise our expectations,” added Napolitano. “We used to focus on the dropout rate. Now we have to shift our concern to the graduation rate.”
Links with K-12
Along with providing a pathway to institutions of higher learning, community colleges “must build closer links with schools at the K-12 level,” Goldstein said. “Young people have to start acclimating very early to the potential they can gain through higher education. Otherwise, we will fall further and further behind in the global marketplace – especially in the stem disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”
Added Carl Hayden, recently named SUNY board chairman, “it simply doesn’t make any sense in a state this vast, with as many educational institutions as we have, for people who are responsible for K-12 education not to be speaking to the people responsible for community colleges and post–secondary education. We simply must start talking to each another, combining resources behind best strategies.”
