ORLANDO — Leaders from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) believe that it is a “moral imperative” for the institutions to further their support of the millions of students who show up at their campuses.
This was the emphatic message AACC president and CEO Dr. Walter G. Bumphus shared with a packed ballroom of community college leaders, industry partners and community college advocates attending AACC’s 99th Annual Convention centered around the theme “Community Colleges: Our time in the Sun.”
The four-day conference features more than 150 sessions for community colleges to assess, improve and sustain their institutional work around student learning, retention and persistence; cultivating inclusive environments; building strategic partnerships for student success; professional development for faculty; and notably, workforce development and training.
“Our education agenda must be an economic agenda. [Community colleges] have a purpose. We have a meaning,” said Dr. Sandra Kurtinitis, chair of the AACC executive committee and president of the Community College of Baltimore County. “Everything we are doing is preparing people for a future life of substance, gratification and satisfaction. What their job turns out to be is going to be a measure of how we guide them.”
During a session focused on community colleges’ role in preparing the “21st Century Worker,” Kurtinitis pointed out that the nearly 1,100 community across the country provide a “continuum of education” in the form of degrees, certificates, credentials and more.
“We are in every single community in this country,” Kurtinitis said, asking the audience to consider the return on invest community colleges bring to their region. “If community colleges count, then you must count everything that we do.”
Convention attendees heard from community college presidents about how their institutions have created apprenticeships and internship opportunities for students through strategic partnerships with regional industries. Panelist Dr. Mary Graham, president of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, emphasized that a key part of establishing partnerships involves having “deep and crucial conversations” with the industry partners themselves to define the outcomes and expectations for students’ experiential learning and paid opportunities.
