April 13, 2012, 1:03 pm
By Julie White
You know that announcement on mass transit as the train is about to take off? “Doors closing,” a pleasant voice warns. I am always struck by the irrational fear that if I don’t move, and quickly, I’m going to get caught in those doors.
But there’s nothing pleasant about Gary Rhoades’s warning in the new report, Closing the Door, Increasing the Gap: Who’s Not Going to (Community) College? (available as a PDF). As the community-college sector becomes increasingly constrained in achieving its access mission, who is responsible for keeping the door open for underserved students?, he wonders. Rhoades, who directs the Center for the Future of Higher Education, which published the report, calls for faculty, students, community groups, and unions to work together, along with policymakers and college administrators, to advocate on behalf of community colleges.
It’s a great idea, yet I…
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March 16, 2012, 11:31 am
By Julie White
Some people lose hours of time on social-media sites like Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter. My latest time suck is The Chronicle’s new interactive tool on college completion. First, I examined the graphs and charts for my own community college, then for the research university where I study, and then for any college or university I’ve ever attended, worked at, or driven by.
As I browsed, I was pleased by the inclusion of Sara Lipka’s piece on the many students who “don’t count” because they fall outside the definition tracked by national data-collection systems, which only include first-time, full-time students who begin college in the fall, never transfer, and earn a degree in no more than three years for an associate degree or six for a bachelor’s. A pie chart shows the proportions of these students for each institution, and for whom outcomes are unknown. My explorations turned up…
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February 14, 2012, 2:24 pm
By Julie White
Although changes in student financial-aid policies for the federal 2012 fiscal-year budget have been widely reported, one change has gone largely unnoticed: the requirement that new students must have a high-school diploma, GED, or completed home schooling in order to receive federal aid. Currently, students without such a credential must take an “ability-to-benefit” (ATB) test to determine if they are ready for college-level work.
If they pass the ATB test, they are eligible for federal student financial aid, including loans and grants. According to a recent article in The Community College Times, about 1 percent of community-college students, or 100,000, are ATB students. In many states, once those students earn a predetermined number of college credits, they are eligible to receive their GED. Meanwhile, they have earned credit towards a college degree and can continue seamlessly…
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December 13, 2011, 2:36 pm
By Julie White
I recently received the November/December issue of the American Federation of Teachers’ publication, On Campus, and opened to the headline: “Community Colleges More Satisfying for Female STEM Faculty.” According to the article, Ohio University researchers found that women make up nearly half of the faculty members at community colleges who teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses (compared with 33 percent who teach such courses at four-year institutions) and that there is greater salary equity between men and women at community colleges.
My first thought was, “Yes! Fantastic! It’s wonderful that women are doing so well at community colleges!” Of course, my next thought was, “Wait a minute. Given that community colleges are at the low end of the prestige scale, and that our faculty are focused more on teaching and service than on scholarship, this study is…
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October 27, 2011, 1:46 pm
By Julie White
When I tell people that I have been granted a sabbatical (which I feel obliged to tell you is officially called “leave for professional advancement for the benefit of the College” by my institution), they often appear surprised that I, a non-teaching professional staff member, am eligible for such a thing. Being on sabbatical seems to convey a sense of scholarly import not usually associated — at least by outsiders — with student affairs, or with community colleges.
I’ll let my dissertation committee judge the scholarly importance of my work while I’m on leave. And hopefully my college will find my results beneficial. Meanwhile, I want to get the word out that community colleges often accord the work of student affairs a great deal of respect. I’ve worked at several other institutions, all of them four-year colleges or universities serving more traditional student populations, so I …
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July 25, 2011, 10:58 am
By Julie White
Isaac Sweeney and Eliana Osborn have both written about their experiences as an adjunct. I, too, am an adjunct faculty members, but for different reasons from them, so here’s another perspective.
My first professional identity was as a high-school English teacher. I was a naive, 22-year-old from a fairly small, rural town, teaching in a much more heterogeneous community in Cincinnati, Ohio. Perhaps things have changed (although I don’t think so), but the policy at the time was to put the least-experienced teachers with the most educationally disenfranchised and/or seemingly disengaged students. You know, the first-year teachers get the classes that no one else wants to teach.
Thanks in large part to incredible mentors, and the lessons taught intentionally (and unintentionally) by my students, I survived my first year, and went on to thrive at the school. Ultimately, however, I…
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July 1, 2011, 12:30 pm
By Julie White
Every year in June, well-meaning colleagues, neighbors, and relatives ask me about my summer plans. Although I generally take a week or two of vacation, my answer is, “I’ll be in my office, in the Student Services Center, most of the summer.” And then they say, “Oh, yeah, you don’t have summers off, do you?”
No, I don’t have summers off. Now, let me say from the start that I have many colleagues who are faculty members, and even though they might technically “have the summer off” from teaching, I know that they spend quite a bit of time working in the summer. (Some of them happen to be members of my dissertation committee, so I should know.)
As for me, I do have a more flexible schedule in the summer, but there is still plenty to be done in the office. Grant and departmental budgets and reports are generally due in June, along with written goals and assessment plans for the next …
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May 27, 2011, 2:33 pm
By Julie White
Anne Kress, president of Monroe Community College, recently reflected on the ways that data can — and can’t — capture the work we do at two-year colleges. As she pointed out, quantifiable data shows just 10 percent of what we do — the proverbial tip of the iceberg. After all, our “business (is) changing lives, opening doorways, deepening experiences, and engaging learners. The whole story is often a hard fought, lengthy, and epic one involving if not a cast of thousands at least a cast of dozens.”
As important as educational outcomes are, what keeps me excited about my work day after day are those moments from the other 90 percent, when I get to have a small part in that cast of dozens. A few examples:
- A faculty member notifies the student-services office of a phone message received from a distraught student. The student is off campus and in crisis, and we are able to…
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May 5, 2011, 2:05 pm
By Julie White
Spring is conference season in higher education. Whether you’re a conference newbie or a seasoned attendee, here are some tips for making the most of national conferences:
Bring business cards. In this electronic era, they may seem unnecessary, but many people still rely on the business card as a quick way to exchange contact information. You may be using social-media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Academia.edu, but your future boss may prefer to keep your contact info in her Rolodex.
Review the schedule beforehand. I aim for a mix of practical and academic sessions, along with a few that are completely out of my research agenda or professional arena but just sound fascinating. Many conferences also offer sessions on balancing work and life. Select sessions carefully, and give yourself some breaks, and you will be more likely to return to the campus with a…
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April 14, 2011, 4:10 pm
By Julie White
Of the 27 students who originally enrolled in my course, I have 16 in class today. As I hand back the first test of the semester, I remark that maybe a lot of people have spring fever on this sunny day. One of my students suggests a different reason for the high number of absences, saying, “Well, refund checks were sent this week. By next week, there won’t be any problem finding parking on campus.”
Sigh. I’ve long bristled against the stereotype that “a lot of people are just here for their refund checks.” I’m referring to the students’ financial aid from the state and federal governments. That money is sent directly to an institution, which takes the portion required to pay a student’s tuition and fees, then writes a check to the student for the remainder. Students can then use the financial aid for living expenses.
In my experience, students stop coming to classes for all sorts…
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