The Community’s College

By Dr. Jon Bauer Guest Writer

Is college for everyone? This is a question that circulates widely these days, and it’s deceptively simple. For many, college means leaving home and studying the liberal arts. For some, college only means a bachelor’s degree. For still others, college means years of study and insurmountable expense. 

Some would say college is all of the above. 

So, if college fits one of these descriptions and nothing else, the simple question has a simple answer: College isn’t for everyone. 

But college means so much more than just this slice of higher education. I submit that college is indeed for everyone. But college doesn’t look the same for everyone. 

That’s certainly true at the community’s college. 

The student experience at a community college may be the first steps toward a bachelor’s degree. This role—we used to call this the junior college—has been around for over 100 years. At East Central College, this remains the path of choice for most of our students. 

This path avoids high cost and debt as barriers to achieving the dream of a college degree. For graduates of nearly all high schools in Missouri, the A+ program ensures that the cost of tuition and many fees are funded. Generous support from donors means there is scholarship assistance for nearly every student who attends. And when students leave our campus and transfer to a four-year institution, they do so with great preparation and without great debt. 

Community college also means a path that leads directly into the workforce. Programs in health care, advanced manufacturing, skilled trades, and culinary are examples of opportunities that are available to students. These career paths are available at low cost and high quality. 

As community colleges grew beyond the junior college model, the combination of transfer and career-technical programs defined a comprehensive institution. And students on either path knew that two years of study would be the norm, but that they could do this while living at home and possibly working at the same time. 

But that is still not the entire picture at today’s community college. 

While “college” and “degree” go hand in hand, we know there are over one million credentials of various sorts in the United States alone. These include degrees, of course, but also certificates, licenses, and other credentials that have value in the workplace. Many of these can be earned in just a few weeks, and these programs are laser focused on the skills the student wants. 

These programs may not include traditional college credit, but they can often be stacked into credentials that can lead to a degree if the student desires. 

Community colleges know we play a vital role in the vibrancy of our towns, so we provide opportunities such as ECC’s Summer Learning Academy for young people, the fine and performing arts for patrons of all ages, athletics, meeting spaces, films, lectures, workshops, camps, and so much more. 

We reflect the needs and goals of the community we serve, and no two of us look exactly the same. 

But community colleges share something in common, whether it’s a small, mostly rural-serving college like East Central or a large, multicampus institution in the city. That common element is that we can serve everyone in some fashion. 

At the community’s college we are committed to ensuring that everyone is welcome, everyone can benefit, and everyone has a path forward. 

There is no single definition of college. There’s no single version of the community college. And there’s certainly no single definition of a typical college student. 

We celebrate April as National Community College Month. 

This is the time to embrace the principle that college is for anyone and will look different for everyone. 

That’s why we’re here. 

At East Central and hundreds of community colleges across the country, that’s why we are the community’s college.