March 25, 2017 – University of the District of Columbia Community College

          Friday Afternoon I arrived in Washington DC.  There is a march for science event happening here later next month and knowing I will be returning I did not plan on spending much time as I came through on the bike.  I crossed downtown and was headed for the outskirts when I saw a big red sign on one of the monolithic governmental type buildings that encompass the downtown area.             In my plotting of colleges to visit I had not explicitly considered the District of Columbia’s system and yet here I was.  I immediately pulled the bike over and went in search of someone to talk to about how the college is organized and operates.  Finding the Director of Academic Affairs still in meetings on a Friday afternoon and willing to give some of his time to answer my questions rewarded me with answers.  The University of the District of Columbia is a land grant University that has been established for some time.   The Community College in DC is a part of the university system.  The campus I was on served only the Community College mission and as a center or site it was established fairly recently.  Both the community college and the university are part of the same organization, which makes some things clearer.  District of Columbia residents can take free classes as they apply to AS degrees, CTE and non-credit, and those class units are directly transferable to the University.  Articulation agreements are not an issue because it is all one system.

            Accreditation is done for both two and four year arms of the university at the same time as well as the mid Atlantic states accrediting region does not have a separate accreditor for two year colleges.