Every six years, Virginia’s Community Colleges System (VCCS) sets a new strategic goal for itself. Its latest goal, “Opportunity 2027,” is quite ambitious.
Its main objective is that the states’ community colleges “will achieve equity in access, learning outcomes, and success for students from every race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic group.”
VCCS spent over a year learning about and planning how to implement universal equity in all 23 affiliate institutions. The plan’s task force included deans, presidents, students, and outside consultation to assess practices in enrollment, retention, student life, and student success. They met with futurists to assess career trajectory, thought leaders in education, and government officials to develop their plan. And they collected data with “sobering” results, according to their project plan.
They discovered deep inequities among their student populations, specifically referencing data gathered on Black students, the second largest student population in the VCCS. Only one third of Black students applying to a Virginia community college enrolled. In a three year period, only one out of every five Black students who enrolled graduated with some kind of certification. Over the past five years, Black student enrollment dropped by 12,000, and in spite of graduation rates increasing among other minoritized groups, fewer Black students were graduating.
“The data are clear that we are losing or have lost a significant number of Black men in our enrollment decline,” said Dr. Sharon Morrissey, co-chair of the strategic plan task force and senior vice chancellor for Academic and Workforce Programs with VCCS.
It’s one of the reasons that achieving equity is something she said they “must do.”
“We’re all in,” she said. “We’ll do whatever it takes.”
