To the Editor:
In his provocative commentary, “The Deafening Silence of Florida’s College Presidents,” former Macalaster College president Brian Rosenberg challenges 40 Florida university and community college presidents for not speaking out to blunt the interference of Florida’s governor and legislature in higher-education courses, teaching methodologies, policies, and programs. Rosenberg asserts this presidential silence comes down to either a general belief in avoiding controversial issues or fear of losing their jobs and fiscal retaliation.
Certainly, there is a long tradition of higher-education leaders who used their platforms to change their institutions, our systems of higher education, and public policy on education and social issues. Leaders like Clark Kerr, who as the president of the University of California system, created a new model of the university and used his platform to spread it nationwide. Or Father Theodore Hesburgh, who led Notre Dame for 35 years and became a social activist. He spoke out against racism and led prestigious American civic and governmental initiatives to advance civil rights, refugee reform, and alleviate hunger. Another president, John Brademas, who took up the reigns at NYU after serving as majority whip in Congress, was known for being involved in every major education legislative initiative during the late 60s and 70s and remained a major force in federal policy and for the advancement of the humanities and the arts.
As community colleges leaders, our platform has always been more local. Our work and messages are rightly focused on improving lives within the local community, developing institutions that recognize community needs, and helping their institutions see into the future. In an ever-changing political and economic environment, our colleges strive to be engines of opportunity for first-generation, racially minoritized students, people affected by poverty, and working adults. We help them to gain a strong foothold in our society and economy.
From our vantage point, this strong focus on students, families and local communities has driven the leaders of Florida’s community colleges over the decades. This strong focus is driving them today.
These presidents are not shrinking violets. They include some of the foremost leaders in community colleges nationwide who are breaking new ground in recruitment and access and college and employment success,
Broward College, for instance, made a pioneering decision to change its recruitment from reaching out to traditional feeder high schools to enrolling students from long-ignored high-poverty zip codes. Working with community leaders to provide free educational opportunities, workforce training, and support services in these neighborhoods, including 15 new community centers where unemployment is highest, over 2,500 students completed free courses and workshops from these communities since 2018.
At a time when many community colleges are seeing large enrollment declines, Indian River State College this year set a record for first-time-in-college students largely as the result of a new College Promise Program. The program enrolls students graduating from public and public charter high schools in four local counties. The headcount of this fall’s incoming cohort is 44 percent higher than their 10-year average, driving enrollment growth at the college by nearly nine percent. The number of Latinx students in the 2022 FTIC cohort nearly doubled. First-generation students in the cohort more than tripled and the number of Pell-eligible students is the highest in years.
Meanwhile, Tallahassee Community College created a holistic student support system: an integrated series of advising, academic and non-academic supports, and resources to support students from application through graduation. Virtually all (98 percent) of the college’s graduates find employment or continue their education in the same year.
We can cite similar outstanding efforts at Valencia College and Miami Dade College who along with Tallahassee Community College have won Achieving the Dream’s highest award that honors exceptional efforts to advance equity and student success.
Why does this matter within the current context? Because we believe that these kinds of direct and sustained actions are more effective and meaningful responses to the current political headwinds than ideological debate.
The situation with access and attainment gaps is dire: Community colleges have lost 400,000 black students and have seen enrollment declines reach 20-year lows. Data show significant equity gaps in six-year completion rates for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students with some of the largest gaps being in the public sector. The current regressive pieces of legislation will not only slow the progress that has being made, but exacerbate these alarming trends by undermining the policies that made reform work possible.
If public officials are concerned about the future beyond their pet political plans, the economic imperative for states should be determinative. According to an analysis released in May by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, current low levels of degree attainment among racial and ethnic minoritized populations and low-income Americans cost the nation “nearly $1 trillion a year in forgone earnings, consumer spending and tax revenue combined with potential savings on social services.”
To be truly responsive to our employer sector, and to grow our economy, one “right” response to the current situation in Florida and elsewhere should be greater attention to access, retention, and credentialling of our students of color and low-income students. We need to double down on research-based pedagogy such as culturally responsive teaching and student academic supports that we know keep students motivated, engaged, and provide them with a sense of belonging.
We often say that higher education is an ecosystem, but if that is so then everyone must do their part in solidarity. That means speaking out when we can against baseless political claims such as the myth of ‘woke’ indoctrination of students. As Lansing Community College President Steve Robinson outlines three key points: First, attempts to limit or chill efforts in DEI challenge our core mission as community colleges. Second, much of the anti-DEI legislation and rhetoric constitute an infringement on local control. Third, these culture war attacks on diversity are completely out of step with the business objectives of our partners in the private sector.
But that voice of dissent must be backed up with actions. As the saying goes, the best defense is a good offense. Rather than spending energy and resources solely on defending our institutions against partisan attacks — or criticizing leaders in less-than-ideal circumstances for not jumping headlong into the fray — we suggest we press forward with our mission to make community colleges as strong and responsive to our local needs as possible. Perhaps, if we listen better, we would realize that the silence in Florida is not silence at all, but the sound of leaders working furiously, in community and on the ground, to ensure that we do not lose ground in the race for student progress.
Karen A. Stout
President and CEO, Achieving the Dream
President Emeriti, Montgomery County Community College, in Pennsylvania
Pam Eddinger
President, Bunker Hill Community College
Board Member, Achieving the Dream
