from Inquiry, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1997, 14-19
© Copyright 1997 Virginia Community College System
Brief Abstract
Over the next decade, we can expect gradual but significant changes in our student population. If community college professionals can begin to recognize and identify the subtle changes occurring at the campus and individual levels, they will be better prepared to meet the challenges that such changes create.
Dr. Joan B. Hirt, an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Virginia Tech University, gave the keynote address at the 1996 VCCA Convention in Virginia Beach. The following is a summary of the comments offered during that address.
If there is any single force that is currently shaping higher education in Virginia and across the nation, it is the notion of change. Almost every campus is involved in some form of reorganization, restructuring, or internal review that will likely lead to new programs, mergers among existing programs, or elimination of other offerings. And it is probable that change will continue to characterize the work of the academy in the future. So, in order to talk about who will be coming to college in the 21st century, it is necessary to examine this idea of change and to explore its dimensions as they apply to future professional practice.
Change can be conceptualized in two forms: sudden change and gradual change. Sudden change occurs without notice and typically casts professionals into a crisis mode of operation. For example, it is not unusual for professionals to arrive at their offices on a given morning and learn that the Chancellor's office has requested a report on some select topic by the end of the day. Unless the data to prepare that report is readily available, preparation of the report normally requires professionals to reschedule their day to accommodate the request. Perhaps equally typical are organizational shifts that require programs to merge or relocate on relatively short notice. In these instances, change is very obvious and professional response to the change equally as evident.
The second form of change, gradual change, is much more insidious. Because it occurs over time, gradual change is covert and sneaks up on professionals without their necessarily recognizing it. For example, many professionals sense that they are working harder now than they were several years ago, but may not know what caused this change. That enrollments have increased so that larger numbers of students are being served or that staffing levels have decreased so that fewer professionals are available to provide those services may represent more subtle forms of change which are less recognized by staff. It is this second form of change, gradual change, that will form the focus of this discussion.
Another characteristic of change is also important to these remarks. Change occurs at two levels: the institutional and the personal. The introduction of new programs or services is typical of organizational change, a phenomenon with which most professionals are familiar. But change also occurs at the personal level. As professionals age or develop, their perspectives change as well. This more subtle form of change often goes unrecognized by staff.
So the present comments are designed to address gradual change at the institutional and at the personal level. There is an assumption that if professionals can begin to recognize and identify the subtle changes that are occurring at the campus and individual levels, they will be better prepared to meet the challenges that such changes create.
Consider for a moment how the enrollments in community colleges across the country have changed in the past 10 years. Between 1984 and 1994, Native American enrollment increased by 20,000. Enrollment of Asian Americans at two-year schools increased by 296,000. There are 156,000 more African Americans in our schools today than there were in 1984, and Hispanic enrollment has increased by 294,000. Overall, of the 1,002,000 increase in enrollment that occurred between 1984 and 1994 at American community colleges, 76% of the new students are minorities, rendering our campuses very different places than they were 10 years ago (U.S. Department of Education, 1994).
Now look at the changes that have occurred among community colleges in the commonwealth of Virginia during that same time period. In the past 10 years, enrollments in Virginia two-year schools increased by 25 percent. Funding, on the other hand, has increased by only three percent (U.S. Department of Education, 1994). So if you feel you are working harder now than you were a decade ago, your instincts are correct.
It is important to note, however, that increased funding for higher education in the Commonwealth, or elsewhere, for that matter, is not likely to be forthcoming. As higher education continues to compete for public dollars with other social services like welfare, Medicare, and the penal system, the academy cannot expect more money in the future. So if your future professional satisfaction rests solely on receiving additional funding, I would encourage you to consider whether you should remain in education since relief in that form is unlikely. That's why it's so important to look at professional practice. Only by changing such practice can we free up resources to support professional development on campuses.
It is clear, given these data, that the students being served by community colleges have changed considerably in recent years. But how has professional practice evolved to reflect those changes? An examination of policy statements issued over the past 60 years suggests that certain functions have not changed very much at all. Consider how the admissions function has been described in these documents:
At first glance, it is difficult to discern which statement was written 60 years ago and which was published in the last decade. “Interpreting institutional objectives,” “interpret the institution,” and “successful transition” are phrases we frequently use to describe the admissions process in 1996, yet we have been using the same language for most of this century.
Descriptions of financial aid services over the past 60 years reveal a similar trend:
Again, distinguishing how financial aid was described 60 years ago from how it was described in 1987 is a difficult task. The data suggest, then, that while student enrollments have changed considerably over time, campus services have changed very little.
And changes among students will continue over the next decade if current predictions hold true. For example, enrollments in community colleges nationally are expected to increase from 5.5 million to 6.2 million between 1996 and 2006 (U.S. Department of Education, 1994). In the Commonwealth, community college head count enrollments are projected to increase from 118,589 in 1998 to 126,024 in 2007 (State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, 1995). The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) predicts a 35 percent increase in the number of Virginia high school graduates between 1996 and 2006 (WICHE, 1996). This suggests that the 63,409 high school graduates in Virginia in 1996 will increase to 85,602 graduates over the next decade. Again, these more gradual changes at the institutional level will lead to subtle, more personal changes in professional practice.
Gradual personal change is often difficult to identify. Professionals engage in similar tasks at similar times every academic year. For example, those in advising and counseling know that every August and September they will be inundated with new students seeking information about appropriate courses to take. In financial aid, every year brings a new crop of students who apply for financial aid in August and expect to receive that aid by the start of classes. Faculty frequently teach the same courses every year. So from the professional perspective, we do the same things to, with, or for students every year.
What professionals sometimes fail to remember, however, is that a new population of students enrolls every year; so while certain tasks may be routine for faculty and staff, they are anything but routine for students. Moreover, as professionals age, their perspectives shift, a gradual change that at times is difficult to track and which can further complicate the conundrum of change.
As professionals age, what they consider to be important and the weight they give to such matters change, as well. For example, those community college professionals who were born in the 1950s or earlier probably vividly recall where they were when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. For those born in the 1960s or later, however, this event is part of history, not a defining event in their lives. Defining events take on different significance for different groups of students.
Consider one such group of students. While community colleges educate many older students, there is one group of students professionals deal with annually ¾ the new crop of 18-year-olds who graduate from high schools in the spring and matriculate at community colleges the following fall. Since this is a population most campuses share, it is a group that can be used to exemplify how students in the 21st century will have changed.
Examine, then, the first generation of students we will educate in the 21st century, the 18-year-olds who will enroll in the year 2001. We actually know quite a bit about this population since they are currently 13 or 14 years old. What is important here is to examine the defining events that may shape these students' lives. For example, in 1983, the year these students were born, AIDS was made the top health priority in the U.S., so this generation of students has grown up not knowing life before AIDS. In that same year, the Martin Luther King holiday was declared by the federal government, so these students assume such a holiday. The invasion of Grenada occurred in 1983, and the final episode of the television series M*A*S*H aired (Duame & Davis, 1984). The entering class of 2001 were infants when all these events occurred, while community college professionals were adults and processed such events accordingly.
Follow the lives of this entering class over time. They were three years old when the space shuttle Challenger exploded, when the Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred, when Dallas was the top-rated television show, and Platoon won an Oscar for best picture (Duame & Watson, 1987). For the entering class of 2001, these events are probably vague recollections, if that, while for those working in community colleges today, these same headlines are likely memorable or defining events.
The entering class of 2001 was six years old when George Bush was inaugurated President, when the student protests at Tienneman Square took place, and when the Exxon Valdiz spill in Alaska occurred (Duame, 1990). They were only eight years old when the Rodney King beating occurred and the Desert Storm war in Iraq took place (Duame, 1992). They were age eleven when Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa and when Richard Nixon died (Trumbull, 1995).
To place things in a more contemporary framework, these students were 13 years old in 1996, the year of the Atlanta Olympic Games, the year George Burns died, and the year Bill Clinton was re-elected President of the United States. For many of the entering class of 2001, Clinton will be the first President with whom they associate events. For those currently employed in higher education, presidential associations may extend back to the Roosevelt era.
At issue here is the notion of change. What was meaningful for contemporary professionals is not, and may never be, relevant for the students we will serve in the year 2001. Their defining moments are very different than ours. So how do we relate to this generation of students and their successors?
One approach is to consider where you will be in your life in 2001. How old will you be? How old will your spouse or partner be, or your children? Now think about assumptions you have relative to people who are that old. This may enable you to better understand how you will change between now and then and to realize how those same changes will effect the students who will enter college that year.
A second approach focuses on the changes that institutions will have to make over the next few years. Some of these changes will be philosophical. What should the mission of our institutions be? What populations of students should we serve? Other changes will be more practical in nature. How will technology change the nature of professional practice, for it surely will change it in some significant ways.
Yet another approach examines the changes that professionals will have to make in the future. Again, some are practical. What tasks must we continue to undertake, and which ones can we abandon in future practice? How can we utilize the resources we will garner by abandoning some of those tasks?
But perhaps the most challenging personal changes are those that involve philosophical shifts on the part of professionals. Five such challenges come immediately to mind. First, have courage. Abandoning certain programs or services or developing new ones does not necessarily cost people jobs. In fact, there is not a cadre of trained people ready and waiting to assume responsibility for these new programs, and it is current staff who must learn new ways of doing things.
Second, think the unthinkable. It is difficult to consider abandoning programs and services without “catastrophizing,” or believing the worst will result. The only way we will truly know the consequences of eliminating a program is to try it. And we must try it for a sufficiently long period of time that evaluating the consequences does not measure the immediate impact, which is likely to be more severe, but measures the long-term impact of that program's dissolution.
Third, try the untried. If you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get the same results you have always gotten. It is only by attempting new things that we can accustom ourselves to change, to taking the risk associated with change, and to viewing programs in new ways.
Fourth, be willing to fail. If one or more components of a new venture fail, or if one or more new ventures fail, do not give up. It is only through failure that you will know success when you achieve it.
Finally, let the notion of change energize rather than enervate you. It is not going away. We will never return to a period of stability like we knew in higher education in the past, so we have to become accustomed to the notion of change; it may the only constant in our future. And remember, today is tomorrow's past. What we do today creates the history of tomorrow. The history we create today forms defining moments for our future students. If you can keep that sense of generativity in mind as you address the need for change, there is little doubt that you can conquer your doubts and create the campuses of tomorrow.
References
American Council on Education. (1937). The student personnel point of view. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education.
American Council on Education. (1949). The student personnel point of view (rev. ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education.
Duame, D. (Ed.). (1990). Britannica Book of the Year. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Duame, D. (Ed.). (1992). Britannica Book of the Year. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Duame, D., & Davis, J.E. (Eds.). (1984). Britannica Book of the Year. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Duame, D., & Watson, L. (Eds.). (1987). Britannica Book of the Year. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. (1987). A perspective on student affairs: A statement issued on the 50th anniversary of the student personnel point of view. Washington, D.C.: Author.
State Commission of Higher Education for Virginia. (1995). SCHEV L1 projected student enrollment 1994-95 to 2007-08. Richmond, VA: Author.
Trumbull, C.P. (Ed.). (1995). Britannica Book of the Year. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. (1996). Projected change in the number of high-school graduates, 1996-97 to 2006-07. Boulder, CO: Author.
U.S. Department of Education. (1994). Educational Statistics. Washington, D.C.: Author.