Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Taking community colleges to the next level
From the RoundTable blog
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Glenn DuBois
DuBois, of Yorktown, is the chancellor of Virginia's Community Colleges.
At Virginia's Community Colleges, we are honored to work with the people and employers who are the foundation of the communities we serve. We are now turning to these communities, seeking ideas and advice as we create the next strategic plan for our colleges. What can our community colleges do moving forward to maximize the partnerships we share?
The current VCCS strategic plan, Dateline 2009, was conceived six years ago with the goal of moving our community college system toward a world-class status. I am proud of our progress and pleased to share with you some highlights:
Increasing annual enrollment: For two straight years, our colleges have established record enrollment numbers. Last year, we served more than 240,000 students -- evidence, I believe, that our philosophy of open enrollment and affordable access remains in high demand.
Affordable tuition: There are two factors driving students into our community colleges: the quality of our programs and instructors and our affordable tuition rates. We pledged in 2003 to keep community college tuition at less than half the average cost of attending a public four-year institution. We've been able to do better than that by keeping the tuition rate at one-third of the other schools.
Workforce training: Our colleges are on-track to meet an ambitious goal of expanding their workforce training programs by 80 percent. Some of our efforts are even grabbing headlines: Entire classes of Danville Community College students are being hired to fill some of the 740 new jobs at IKEA's Swedwood manufacturing facility; community college workforce training capacity is described by economic development officials as essential to luring the $100 million Rolls Royce jet engine plant to Prince George County; and it was a community college workforce development proposal that convinced Canon Inc. to invest $600 million to expand their Hampton Roads operations.
That's just the beginning. We have also made tremendous strides in building partnerships to garner more private funding. We are serving more transfer students through revolutionary guaranteed transfer agreements we hold with more than two-dozen public and private four-year institutions. And our dual enrollment offerings allow more and more students to earn college credits while still in high school, saving them and their parents a lot of tuition money. You can see the statistics behind this and more by visiting our Web site at myfuture.vccs.edu.
Now, we need your help. While we near the finish line of that strategic plan, we are discussing what the next plan should contain. Our commonwealth, and our country, are in a fierce international competition for talent that will determine the winners and losers of the 21st century. We want to help Virginia retain its status as a desired place to visit, live and work and we want to ensure Virginia families and businesses can obtain the cutting-edge skills and knowledge they need to compete.
How can we help you succeed?
I am now holding a series of town hall-style meetings across Virginia to listen to business and community leaders, economic development officials, students and other stakeholders. What we learn there will help shape the next strategic plan for Virginia's Community Colleges.
We want to hear from you. What are we doing well? What can we do better? Even if you are unable to join us for those meetings, we want your suggestions for what community colleges should be doing for you and your community over the next five or six years. We have established a dedicated e-mail address, ideas@vccs.edu, to which you can send your suggestions. These colleges belong to you. Help us ensure they contribute to your community's success.
