Kudos for what we do at community colleges - the other 90%

The Other 90 Percent
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 connect her with our city’s mental-health crisis unit. She gains access to services for herself and her family. College counselors will remain connected with the student to aid her in her transition back to college when she is able to return.

■The college’s LGBTQ student club sponsors Pride Week. Students who have never spoken publicly about their sexual or gender identity deliver powerful performances of poetry, drag, and song. The crowd adores them all, and those students walk a little taller the next week, no longer feeling the need to hide a part of themselves when they come to the campus. That confidence spills over into their academic work.

■At graduation, I congratulate a student whom I met on her first day on the campus. She had been teary-eyed that day, saying, “I never thought I’d go to college,” when I told her that her placement test score was high enough for her to be admitted. No doubt faculty members, staffers, and her family and peers helped her persevere to complete her degree.

■Our student leaders’ Facebook accounts are all abuzz the day of the student-awards banquet, with discussions of who’s attending and what to wear. Some will be honored for their academic achievement, others for community service, others for student leadership. The full diversity of our students is evident here: I meet the parents of one student who had been homeschooled, the spouse of another, and the grandchild of yet another.

I met one of these students first via an e-mail, when he wrote to complain about the lack of publicity for a student event. I encouraged him to get involved, to help make a difference. He took me up on it, founded a club, and then became a peer leader, a student-government coordinator, a senator, and, eventually, vice-president of student government. He’s off to a four-year institution in New York next year, and will no doubt be a leader there as well.

Now that’s what keeps me coming to work every day.