Avoid the 3 Major Pitfalls of the First Year of Community College

Amidst a shifting economy, job layoffs, unemployment, and other professional catalysts, community colleges are experiencing a rise in attendance from experienced students who have already engaged in work out in the “real world.” Today, as many adults are seeking new professional opportunities and training courses, community colleges are creating unique programs and classes to meet the new demands of an older student population.

Experiencing the Shift

As Community College Week reports, older students are returning to various community college campuses for an array of reasons. Specifically, and most commonly, many adults today are forced to cope with an unexpected career shift, as a rising number of employers and companies have been required to downsize their staff to accommodate a struggling economy’s spending changes.

The trend of adult students returning to community college campuses is not a new phenomenon. As researcher Cynthia Howell expounds, just a decade ago, in 1997, nearly a third of community college students were 30 years old or older! The trend has continued today, and due to the increased enrollment rates among older students, community colleges are experimenting with new methods for providing each unique student with support.

This video discusses some of the community college courses available for Kansas direct support professionals.

Meeting the Needs of Adult Learners

While many new community college students see their higher education pathway as both a professional and social experience, adult students enter into their community college coursework with a different

During times of political change, economic uncertainty, and fluctuating levels of job security, students of all ages are facing an array of personal and academic pressures. Many community college students and applicants are trying to cope with the mounting educational costs paired with added stresses of job loss, reduced wages, or soaring costs of living.

As many college applicants are struggling to find ways to pay for higher education expenses during economic tumultuousness, community college leaders across the country are seeking out new forms of financial aid to provide students with a greater scaffold of fiscal support.

Recent Financial Aid Reforms

In just the past several years, enormous changes have been made to the federal financial aid program, as struggling college students expressed with rising voices the difficulty of paying for the costs of college with limited access to money or means.

According to Art Hauptman from the Progressive Policy Institute, there was an initial jump-start to increasing federal student aid funding in 2005, when former President Bush renewed the “Higher Education Act.” With this act, the President proposed an increase to the Pell grant of $500 over the course of five subsequent years. As Pell grants were initially created to raise educational aspirations of socially and economically struggling Americans, many believe that the Pell grant increase would stimulate a boost in college accessibility and enrollment. Despite this positive reform, however, Hauptman

Community colleges receive a majority of their funding from tuition costs and student payments. Despite this income, however, community colleges across the country still strongly depend on effective fundraising venues and actions to boost the campus environment, programs, and academic offerings. As Council for Advancement and Support of Education asserts, “With economic stagnation and diminished tax revenues depleting the coffers of state and local governments nationwide, America’s community colleges must look beyond the public sector to fund their educational missions.”

According to expert advisors and academic leaders, successful community college fundraising actions can help boost a school’s appealing qualities, student opportunities, and overall institutional successes.

This video offers some ideas for community college fundraising.

The Current State of Fundraising Affairs

According to Community College Times, many community colleges could improve their overall successes by implementing more effective fundraising strategies and actions. As Donald Summers, an expert fundraising consultant with experience with working in community college development offices asserts: “‘To my mind, nothing would be better for American democracy and education than for community colleges to rake in the billions they deserve.’” Community colleges often primarily strive to provide current and potential students with accessible and affordable courses and programs, but many community colleges struggle to bring in enough money to create sustainable and competitive programs.

As Summers further argues, local governors need to become more attentive to the fundraising abilities of appointed board

Due to the financial challenges incoming students face, many local and state leaders are advocating for tuition-free community college programs. As community colleges strive to provide local residents with programs for certification, degrees, and training, many community leaders argue that tuition-free programs will help students to more effectively prepare for the job market without being subjected to excessive educational costs during difficult economic times.

This video offers one solution for making public colleges tuition-free.

The Tuition-Free Debate

As Diverse Community College reveals in their investigation, the county majors of both Knoxville and Memphis assert that residents of their communities should have access to free public education at local community colleges. Mayors A.C. Wharton and Mike Ragsdale of local Tennessee counties argue that, in utilizing the resources of scholarships and grants that are currently available, local community colleges can shift their current programs to create tuition-free pathways for incoming and current students. As Tennessee, along with most states across the country, are struggling with job losses and a struggling economy, Wharton argues that the shift for tuition-free programs is Tennessee’s attempt at creating a more effective and prepared work force: “‘We want to blast our way into being able to produce a world-class work force. You can't do that with merely a high school diploma.’”

By collaborating with community college and local political leaders, the Tennessee