The Foreign Service Journal, December 2009

76 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT engagement and outcomes. Community colleges employ con- cerned professionals who want to help students succeed. Willingness to seek the support is needed, however. For example, studies show that orienta- tion programs show better outcomes with student engagement, yet 60 per- cent of enrollees admit they don’t take advantage of them. All the support programs in the world cannot help someone who does not know how to take advantage of them. Too Good to Be True? Despite all of this good news about community colleges, there is no ques- tion that in the current economic cli- mate, most of them are battling the strains of overcrowding and funding cuts — even as the mission to serve a wide variety of students becomes even more important. Besides tradi- tional students seeking relief from ris- ing tuitions at public and private four- year institutions, there are displaced workers who want jobs that are more stable, higher paying and in demand. Veterans are also returning to college, using their GI Bill benefits to help pay for the cost. Joining the mix are in- creasing numbers of first-generation students and immigrants who seek vocational training and instruction in English. Perhaps nowhere is the communi- ty college system more strained than in California, known for an outstand- ing institutional setup that has served as a gateway to the University of California and the California State university systems. This year, due to its fiscal and economic ill health, the state may have to turn away as many as 200,000 students; and those who completed two years in a community college may find there is no place for them as transfer students in the U.C. Competing Priorities for Community College Students Student enrollment: • Part-time: 62 percent • Full-time: 38 percent Most students work: • More than 20 hours a week: 57 percent • 0 to 20 hours a week: 43 percent Many students care for dependents: • None: 44 percent • Spend 1-10 hours caring for dependents: 23 percent • Spend 11 hours or more a week caring for dependents: 33 percent Most students commute to and from class: • 1-5 hours: 69 percent • 6 or more hours: 24 percent • No commute: 7 percent Sources: CCSSE data, 2008; U.S. Department of Education, 2006