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Indeed, most of the colleges are doing some targeted marketing and putting some of the fed- eral-assistance funds to work helping students with the financial aspects of a community-col- lege education.
“We certainly have used every tool available to us to help us with recruitment and reten- tion,” Cook explained, adding that STCC has issued checks of up to $1,500 to help them defray the costs of their education.
“A two-year college is just as good as a four-year school, and it can potentially be a feeder to the four-year college, where they will do even better because they have the foundation from us.”
“These are not loans ... it’s $1,500 to use as you as you decide,” he said. “We’ve done things like that, and we’ve done it for three semesters. This is a real shot in the arm for people.”
Some are taking advantage of the unique opportunity, but many others remain on the sidelines because of COVID-related issues such as childcare, matters that $1,500 checks cannot fix.
At Asnuntuck, the school is being equally aggressive, especially when it comes to recruiting students from the Bay State. Through its Dare to Cross the Line program, Massachusetts residents can attend ACC for the same price as those in
Connecticut.
“Currently, 10% of our students are from Mas-
sachusetts, and that has stayed fairly consistent,” Coach explained, adding that many enroll in
the manufacturing program and a good num- ber in cosmetology, but there is interest across the board. “We’re trying to get the word out, and we’ve done some additional outreach to Massa- chusetts high-school students.”
Meanwhile, thanks to a grant from the Hart- ford Foundation for Public Giving, ACC was able to place ‘smart classrooms’ in each of the nearby prisons to allow inmates to take classes, bringing enrollment numbers up somewhat.
Moving forward, with high-school graduating classes getting consistently smaller, there will be greater outreach to non-traditional students, but also a focus on high-school and even middle- school students — and their parents — with the goal of stressing the many advantages presented by the two-year schools.
“For the high schools, we’re trying to change the perception of community colleges,” Coach explained. “In the past, they’ve always said, ‘this is how many students are going to a four-year university.’ Well, a two-year college is just as good as a four-year school, and it can potentially be a feeder to the four-year college, where they will do even better because they have the foundation from us.”
Learning Curves
Overall, Royal and others said it’s clear that community colleges will have to make con- tinual adjustments to bring more people to their schools and see them through to completion of their program. Changes and priorities will likely
include everything from a greater emphasis on early college — enabling high-school students to earn credits for college in hopes that this might change their overall career trajectory — to greater flexibility with semester schedules and length of same, to efforts to address the many work/life/ school issues challenging students, especially older, non-traditional students.
Royal noted that those who will graduate next spring will have spent their entire time at HCC coping with a global pandemic and everything that has come with it.
These students hung in and persevered, received their degrees, and, in many cases, will be moving on to a four-year school.
“These are the students that have embraced that uncertainty, and say, ‘I’m going to do some- thing with my life; we don’t know what’s going to happen in the world, but I’m going to further myself and be prepared for when we get to the other side of that.’ That’s who you’re going to see in our graduating class.”
What you won’t see are those who became stuck, as she called it, those who didn’t have the inclination or the ability to plow forward during the pandemic.
Just when people can and will move out of this state of paralysis is still a question mark. Until then, parking will remain a non-issue at STCC — and other schools as well — and the region’s community colleges will remain tested by a situation that is defying trends and their own history. u
George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]
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