Taking a Stand on the Movement
Some in HBCU Community Oppose Bachelor Degree Programs at
Community Colleges, Others Say Wait and See
As president of Jackson State University, Mississippi’s largest four-year historically Black university, Dr. Ronald Mason has a clear position on the prospect of the state’s community colleges offering four-year degree programs. While state officials struggle with fiscal issues, it “doesn’t make a great deal of sense” for two-year colleges to do the job of four-year schools, he says.
“It’s argued by the community colleges that they can provide four-year teacher education programs. There are alternate routes for teacher certification,” Mason says about the current discussions by Mississippi officials to have the state’s junior colleges develop bachelor-degree teacher education programs.
“It’s better for the state to invest in (the senior colleges) to do a better job than to start new programs in two-year schools,” he says.
In Florida, community colleges happen to be offering four-year degree programs in three communities where three private historically Black colleges exist. Dr. Willie Kimmons, a former college president and veteran academic administrator who lives in Daytona Beach, Fla., sees this encroachment of two-year institutions as yet another threat to the existence of historically Black institutions whether they are private or public. He worries that the baccalaureate movement is just the latest wave of competitive challenges in higher education that have too often rendered Black institutions vulnerable to closing down, having to merge with larger institutions, or becoming a majority White school.
Though students at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Edward Waters College in Jacksonville and Florida Memorial College in Miami are more likely to hail from places distant from their schools, they are not immune from noting that nearby community colleges are beginning to offer bachelor degree programs, Kimmons declares.
