Extreme Makeover: City College Edition
Show me progress toward your degree or leave. The open admissions policy of LACC is about to be restricted, now becoming a thing of the past.
City College may soon implement the proposals listed in the Recommendations of the Student Success Task Force, which is on its way to the state Legislature.
In order to alleviate crowded classes in which every single seat is occupied and crashers sit on the floor, the Student Success Task Force has proposed radical changes to LACC.
Because of budget cuts and fewer course selections and offerings, some teachers have even resorted to lotteries.
In the new plan, students must show substantial progress toward their degree plans. Dilettantes, especially, will not be given BOG fee waivers.
Ten percent of entering City College students were counted as "full-time, first-time" in 2010, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
In every semester and in every class, courses are filled beyond capacity at the beginning of the semester. By the middle of the semester, one should not be surprised to witness that half the students dropped out. By the end of the semester, the real survivors stand out like sediment left behind after the attrition.
The Task Force will prioritize first-time, incoming students. The Task Force is, in essence, dangling the carrot in front of students. Get your degrees they seem to say, get out, and make room for new students.
Because of the current budget climate, the Student Success Task Force has planned to ration out community college resources smarter, and in a manner that is fairer.
It’s about time that the precious resources of the state get invested in safer bets. Just as financial advisers inform their clients to stay away from risky hedge funds in a bear market, it’s time for community colleges to invest in safer choices like full-time students who are making progress toward their degrees.
An associate degree should not take longer than three years. It was meant to be completed in two.
The necessary funds to provide an open admissions policy, which offers classes to all like free manna fallen from the sky is a memory of the bull market days.
The Task Force recommendations make sense. After all, to transfer to the University of California, a City College student needs to have completed only 60 units. What is an LACC student doing still hanging out here after 110 units?
Everyone deserves an education. But dilettantes who drop out in the middle of the semester are taking up too many resources. They are not allowing 113,000 new students to register, which denies thousands of others who are worthy of an education.
Non-credit community extension courses, “learning for the sake of learning” fun classes, do not transfer, nor should they get subsidized in this bleeding economy.
BOG waivers cover at least 40 percent of community college students in the state.
Students with more than 110 units will no longer qualify for the BOG. The task force has argued that California needs workers who are educated, who have completed their certificates or degrees. One hundred and ten plus units that do not synthesize to a finished degree are 110 units wasted.
To view the community college as an all-you-can-enroll buffet is something the task force intends to end. No more exploring. No more tasting courses outside your major. No more dilly-dallying.
Some of the proposals are earth-shattering: “The community college system must shift from using historical course scheduling patterns and instead make informed course schedules focused on needs of students.”
One can only hope that more weekend, online, and evening courses are offered to accommodate self-supporting students with full-time jobs.
Remember the excitement when Obama was running for office, promising “change?” City College students who are sick of being pushed out of overcrowded classes and disappointed when they cannot enroll in courses necessary for their majors, can only hope for the task force to bring the promises of improvement to a depressing and frustrating squeeze.
Los Angeles City Collegian – Issue 3 - 3/26/12
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