May 2010

Dear Editor,

On May 15, 67-year-old Gaetana Johnson of Round Lake Beach walked proudly across the stage at the College of Lake County's commencement ceremony to be awarded an Associate in Applied Science degree in health information technology. At a point in life when many of her contemporaries are thinking of retirement, Mrs. Johnson, a former school bus driver, is looking forward to a second career in health care.

Community college students believe in the power of reinvention, and as president of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association and chairman of the CLC board of trustees, I am proud of their achievements. Our students truly share the belief of the writer George Eliot that "It is never too late to become what you might have been."

CLC's Class of 2010 includes 1,362 graduates and ranges in age from 18 to 70. Fifty-eight percent of them are women, 29 percent are minorities and 60 percent are aged 25 or older. Each has overcome obstacles to attend CLC. Mrs. Johnson, for example, took a bus to class because she doesn't have a car and battled friends who said she was too old to get an education.

Our graduates are united in the belief that education improves lives, and they are right. Even looked at solely in economic terms, getting an education definitely puts people ahead. Job security and earnings improve for every level of education, from high school to graduate school.

Though surveys show that Americans believe in the value of higher education, we have a lot yet to do when it comes to preparing and encouraging students to graduate. In the U.S., about one-third of entering college freshman require remedial courses.

In Illinois during fiscal year 2009, 19.5 percent of students taking college level courses at Illinois community colleges took at least one developmental (remedial) course, according to the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB). The Illinois General Assembly Task Force on Community Colleges' final report in 2006 noted that on average, 50 percent of Illinois high school graduates entering community colleges for the first time took at least one development course in their first semester.

The graduation rate for the Fall 2004 cohort of first-time, full-time degree/certificate-seeking students at Illinois community colleges was 21.3 percent (meaning they had graduated within three years), according to the ICCB. Sixty percent of the Fall 2004 group persisted from their first to second year. This, despite the fact that the best job opportunities will go to students who have completed at least an associate degree.

The American Association of Community Colleges and the Association of Community College Trustees have endorsed a proposal aimed at boosting completion rates at community colleges by 50 percent by the year 2020. Staying true to that commitment will be an ambitious undertaking, especially in Illinois, given the state's dire fiscal woes.

However, I believe that people, working together with common purpose, can achieve extraordinary results. And that's just what we are going to do at all of Illinois' 39 community college districts, and especially at CLC.

Barbara D. Oilschlager
President, Illinois Community College Trustees Association
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, College of Lake County

Illinois Community College Trustees Association 401 E. Capitol Ave., Suite 200 Springfield, IL 62701-1711 217-528-2858 (phone) 217-528-8662 (fax) ICCTA@communitycolleges.org (e-mail) http://www.communitycolleges.org