SACJTC Newsletter

SOUTHERN ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY, JUNIOR, AND TECHNICAL COLLEGES

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

For the Period Ending

December 31, 1996

by Jackson N. Sasser

The program at the 1996 annual meeting in December marked a dramatic renaissance for the Southern Association of Community, Junior, and Technical Colleges (SACJTC). Dr. George Autry, president of MDC, Inc. of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, offered a presentation underpinned by data about our region. This provocative program prompted many in attendance to call for an action agenda by your SACJTC Board.

At its winter meeting, the Board invited Autry to explore in more detail his research findings and to focus on decisive data regarding five dominant issues that are common to the diverse two-year colleges in the South. These five major challenges include work force development, defining access, the implications of welfare reform, defining community colleges and the low persistence level of males in education.

After a close examination of the five topics, the Board concluded that four of the topics have a champion in federal or state government agencies, in national community college associations, or in university research departments. The surprising exception, the stark lack of engagement and the quick exodus of males from formal education, has generated concern but no serious corporate examination.

One fact in Autry's research goes undisputed. Within the region served by two-year colleges in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, human and natural resources abound. However, a concomitant deficit exists: There is an extremely low participation rate in education by an increasing number of children and adults, particularly males.

Because of the initial reactions that members of the Board have received when that topic has been voiced, let me hasten to inform you what the effort is not before I build a case for an examination of the perceived problem.

SACJTC's search for answers regarding the low persistence of males in education is not a condemnation of public schools. One of the first important realities is that learning is a continuum, and, if success is to be achieved, it will once again require our partners in public schools to become intricately involved in forging a solution.

The selection of the study topic does not in any way presuppose that equity exists in job placement, remuneration, and promotion of women in the South. To study and support the needs of one gender does not exclude the needs of the other gender. Observe the gender makeup of the SACJTC Board. Of the presidents who represent you, only one is a woman. Existing programs that enfranchise women must be supported, and new ones added continually. In two-year colleges, female gender-based training programs, leadership programs, and counseling services are yielding positive results, but the issue of gender equity in community college leadership persists. The annual meeting program planning committee, led by SACJTC Vice President Dr. Jim Hudgins, has been expanded to include Dr. Ione Elioff, president of Delgado Com-munity College in Louisiana; Dr. Ruth Burgos-Sasscer, chancellor of Houston Community College System; and Dr. Marilyn Beck, president of Lord Fairfax Community College in Virginia. Each of these women has provided good leadership in women's equity matters, and they are working to ensure that no diminution of programmatic efforts in support of women or minorities occurs.

In terms of addressing low persistence of males in education, the need can be demonstrated in several ways. Recently a study supported by the Pew Charitable Trust and conducted by the College Fund/UNCF reported that the enrollment of African-American women in higher education is 24 percent higher than that of African-American men and that twice as many of the women earn bachelor's and master's degrees each year. Without definitive data, we cannot extrapolate these findings to all men and women in the South. We can conclude that, beginning in high school, male and female participation and success rates in formal education are different.

According to the Minorities in Higher Education report published in June 1996 by the American Council on Education, a gender gap of 6 percentage points exists for Hispanic women and 3.9 percentage points exists for white women in persistence to high school graduation as compared with men. Women continue their education beyond high school at higher rates than men, and, in 1993-94, they earned 55 percent of all degrees conferred. Women earned 59 percent of all associate's degrees.

Following the winter Board meeting, we needed to test Autry's hypothesis and to define the problem clearly. A cursory survey was conducted of the SACJTC Board members' colleges, which represent one college in each of the 10 states participating in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The results follow:

Women students constitute 58.7 percent of the full-time enrollment of the sample colleges. Women students persist at a rate of 69.5 percent versus 61.3 for men. Women students constitute 61.2 percent of the community college graduates. The most alarming statistic that was determined from the brief survey is that 6.3 percent of state prison populations in these states are women, while the other 92.7 percent are men.

The disappearance of male students is not just a community college concern; disinvolvement in education begins much sooner in the male students' formal education. The data add credence to the continuing call from all sectors to use resources to support and positively influence persistence in the continuum of education, beginning in the early years. Once again, two-year colleges might be the conveners of elementary school, middle school, high school, and four-year college and university professionals.

Ultimately, using SACJTC resources, the problem will be defined and re-searched, and, if the problem exists as assumed, we plan to offer an inventory of successful intervention activities to the membership. Through our newsletter and our annual program, member colleges will be provided with alternatives for confronting this foreboding challenge in each of our communities.

SACJTC can be powerful--a voice that can, like SACS, first serve member colleges in the South and then, by association, serve other two-year colleges in the country. Very few challenges like the serious problem identified by Autry's research and confirmed by the brief survey of colleges in the Southern region are restricted only to the South. A general assumption can be made that this problem exists in each section of the United States.

As your Board becomes more proactive in serving member colleges, we invite your involvement and comment. Contact the representative from your state, or contact us directly through our SACJTC web site.

Dr. Jackson N. Sasser is president of Lee College in Baytown, Texas.

by Dorothy L. Lord

The fourth annual Coastal Georgia Minority Outreach Project was conducted on the campus of Jane Macon Middle School, Brunswick, Georgia, from June 17 to July 26, 1996. The program was developed by the Minority Outreach Committee under the auspices of Coastal Georgia Community College to target seventh and eighth grade African-American male students in the schools of Camden, Glynn, and McIntosh counties who are considered to be at risk of becoming dropouts based upon the following criteria:

1. Performing two grades below normal for their age group in language arts and mathematics.

2. Being unlikely to have an adult male role model in the household.

3. Having attendance problems, not-withstanding their good behavior.

The goals of the program included motivating students to persevere with their studies so as to complete high school with the College Preparatory Curriculum (CPC) and qualify for postsecondary education, thus minimizing the probability of their becoming dropouts and the concomitant negative encounter with the law and the penal system. The program also sought to raise and strengthen the students' basic skills in language arts and mathematics and to provide cultural enrichment.

A total of 80 students were invited to participate in the program. These were selected by the Minority Outreach Committee from a list of candidates recommended by the principals, teachers, and counselors in the middle schools in each county: 20 were from Camden County; Glynn and McIntosh counties were each represented by 30 students. Of those invited, 63 enrolled in the program and 60 completed the six weeks of study.

The students were transported daily from their homes to the Jane Macon Middle School campus and back by school buses. For instruction and other activities on the campus, the students were divided into four activity groups. Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. until noon, the students attended two class periods in mathematics and language arts. Instruction was followed by half an hour of enrichment. At 1 p.m. buses returned the students to their respective counties.

Fridays were reserved for enrichment activities, which included arts and crafts projects, videos about American historical figures, field trips, and a panel session with guest speakers. The closing ceremony for the program was held on the evening of July 27, 1996. Before an audience of about 200 family members, staff, and other guests, the students performed an assortment of songs, speeches, poems, and dramatizations. Each student was awarded a certificate. The students who completed the entire program were taken on a one-day field trip to St. Augustine, Florida, where they toured historical sites and Marineland.

The followup of the students will be accomplished in several ways. The middle school principals and counselors are committed to monitoring and encouraging their continued academic achievement. The college will remain in contact with the students through monthly "Saturday Academy" programs of varying focus that are related to the continued academic success of the students.

The program will be continued in the summer of 1997 and thereafter for additional groups of 80 seventh-grade African-American males from Camden, Glynn, and McIntosh counties. *

Dr. Dorothy L. Lord is president of Coastal Georgia Community College in Brunswick, Georgia.

The SACJTC gratefully acknowledges the sponsorship of the following businesses for our luncheon on December 9, 1996, in Nashville, Tennessee.