A few weeks ago, DVC and other colleges’ administrations met at the Crown Plaza hotel in Concord, where they were joined by CCCD Chancellor, Helen Benjamin.  The topic: the widening achievement gap and why many don’t go on to either graduate with an AA or transfer to a university.

Instead of taking the obvious step of asking the students in question directly as to what hinders their progress (and thus address deficiencies in constituent communication, outlined by the recent accreditation memos), they decided to remove themselves from the answer.

For one, since ours is a community college district, there is the opportunity to earn certificates, degrees or the right to be accepted to a state university in some cases, but there is no obligation to do so.  I’ve encountered many in my classes who have already earned bachelor’s, even master’s degrees.  Some people are just taking one or two classes to satisfy work requirements or to just better themselves. 

This is the right of the people, however, so unless the administration takes more proactive steps to encourage and support their thousands and thousands of students to churn further through the system, it will take a major re-thinking of the concept of community college in order to require everyone who applies to finish a specified education path.

But for those who do wish to proceed, many are stuck in a seemingly endless holding pattern of unnecessary stress, prohibitive costs and rising fees at the community and state college levels, lack of class availability, parking and assistance resources, long lines that ultimately lead to being turned away due to “budget cuts” or “staff reductions” and unresponsive administrators.

Those who run the district should spend more time at their schools instead away from them at hotels, even if it turns out the hotels were free.

Christopher C. Long, Student