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Post date: Mar 21, 2017 1:52:2 AM
Having taken a wrong turn out of Gatlinburg I eventually made it to the western tip of Virginia via another dip in into North Carolina territory. The weather, remaining cold is teasing me with great motorcycle roads through the Appalachian Mountains that push the barriers of comfortable riding (even with heated gear). I did however push back up into higher elevations to spend the night in Wytheville because I knew there was a small two-year college there in a rural area.
Wytheville Community College
After scrapping the overnight ice off the seat, I did make it to the college at the start of the business day in sub freezing temperatures only to find out that WCC is on spring break this week. Most of the students were gone, but the college was not closed, so I had some very nice conversations with the Dean of student services and the Librarians who were around. The reason I was interested in this college is because it is small only around 3500 students, less now that the economy has picked up and enrollment is dropping, as students find jobs. Most of the students are part time, and they too have been making pushes into dual enrollment. Like the controversy over things like HIB visas, it seems the push for increased apportionment through dual enrollment (High School and Community College enrollment at the same time) can lead to unintended directions. The idea of giving High School students a shot at college credit sounds like a great idea, especially for students who excel in high school and are up to the challenge. But once it becomes instituted and the college looks for increased numbers of students in the programs (so they can charge the state for increased enrollment) it has the potential to flood the junior college systems with underprepared students. In essence handing off to the junior colleges the role of being a high school level educator.
Virginia is another state where the community colleges are centrally governed, which means decisions at the state level (i.e. politics) are implemented without feedback at the local level. As a consequence they are much further along on the “pathways” agenda than we are out on the west coast. My impression was that there is shared concern for the consequences of these pathway programs. A pathway sounds good at a central level. In a pathway program students are guided to only take courses that lead to specific degree or certificate. (In some schools I visited earlier in Florida, this is being implemented through registration restrictions causing all sorts of logistical problems for the councilors who have to change Education Plans in order to get courses to show up as in a students registration options). The long-term consequence of not being on the pathway is that the programs not on a specific path do not get funded. Students are not allowed to take courses outside their degree pathway or if they want to they must pay for the full cost of those courses themselves. Over time this leads to a decrease in general skills, and the types of courses that have been the hallmark of a good traditional liberal education plan. By the time the workforce starts to ask for more generalizable skills like critical thinking, the college may have already dismantled all its logic, philosophy, and literature critique courses that taught those skills because of lack of enrollment. Not on the pathway leads to dehydration and starvation, and being on the pathway does not foster broad concern about the student outcomes. What STEM instructor is going to say get this student out of my math class until they have learned some good generalizable English analysis? This is what has some concerned at CCSF, and it appears we may not be alone in that concern. We in SF just keep operating under the illusion that we are not being centrally governed…
So what does a small college in Virginia do? One tangential example of how we all appear to operate similarly on a basic functional level was found in the library. At WCC they offer free coffee and tea in the library for students and guests. This intrigued me. Not that they do it but how the decision was made and how they implemented it. So I asked the library staff about it and was rewarded with meeting some very nice dedicated educators. Turns out they have a simple user tracking system in the library and the free coffee has had a positive result in increased use of the library as a resource. But according to state rules when they looked into selling coffee in the library they would have to get an outside vendor in and that would conflict with other vendor agreements, and state regulations….(sound familiar CCSF). The work around was the library just came up with the money themselves to buy the coffee machines and they give it away to get around the requirements.
They also provide free printing to all their students. Community members pay 10c a page. (Our library also provides printing, but if you would like to print closer to your classroom say on the third floor of the science building you are welcome to use the printer I bought and installed in Biology Resource Center) We are not so different in how we get things done….
The long term cold must be getting to me, because after leaving Wytheville I once again headed in the wrong direction for 40 miles.
New River Community College
By the time I got to New River Community College I was cold tired and hungry. I have learned at this point that it is useless for me to try and introduce myself to strangers when my heart is not in it, so I did what I call a ghost by visit. I visited the college but unable to find any unoccupied biology instructors (they are the least effort for me to talk to). I wandered the campus looking for food. Finding only vending machines I made notes on my observations and went to take care of myself with lunch. I should note NRCC was in session and the students and staff on campus were all very warm and friendly. Lots of classes were going on. The campus is small, about the same size in student population as Wytheville, with most of the faculty offices and classes taking place in one centralized building. The campus itself is up on a hill overlooking Dublin, VA in a very bucolic peaceful setting.
The internal environment at this college was rich. I mean in terms of equipment and facilities. Offices and internal spaces were glass walled and the glass walled teaching labs that surrounded the student commons area were filled with 3D printers and engineering and manufacturing robots that stood in contrast to the pool and ping pong tables that the students were using.
This college obviously does well with fund raising and resources my one difficulty was in looking for faculty every office had a plaque with the name of the person or organization that donated to fund the office (naming rights). This made it somewhat confusing as to who the office belongs to, as the donor was not the person occupying the office. Although it was clear that the students had a place here and that their input was sought out as well. Perhaps I didn’t have to talk to anyone the answers to the questions I would ask were written on the walls.
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