PCC administrators welcome President Obama’s American Graduation Initiative.Vice President of Instruction, Jackie Jacobs, and Acting Associate Dean of Enrollment Management/Academic Support, Allen Dooley, say that the initiative will be of great value to PCC.
“I think it would be great. It’s plausible and possible,” said Jacobs. “We can do it if we can get the infusion of cash he offers.”
“It will have to be a faculty driven initiative,” said Dooley. “It will be the responsibility of the college to track [progress].”
According to the White House website, Obama wants to aid new strategies to promote completion in community college programs. He wants an additional 5 million community college graduates by 2020.
“Five million degrees is an ambitious goal,” said Dooley.
He does, however, believe it is possible to achieve.
Obama promises that the government will offer competitive grants forcing community colleges to step up to the plate.
Dooley thinks that this kind of federal aid is important for the college to achieve.
“PCC is fortunate in that we have a dedicated grants office to go for these funds,” said Dooley. “This is a distinct advantage.”
Jacobs said, “It will be an incentive [to create] new programs and ideas for teaching.”
She said it would force the school to think outside of the box.
The initiative will give $10 billion in loans to fund construction and the modernization of college campuses.
In addition to renovating actual classrooms, Obama believes strongly in the creation of virtual classrooms where students can be exposed to a wider variety of available classes.
“We have an opportunity to build a new virtual infrastructure.so we’re going to support the creation of a new online, open-source clearinghouse of courses so that community colleges across the country can offer more classes without building more classrooms,” said Obama in a speech at Macomb Community College on July 14.
Dooley believes that this is a promising idea.
“[It’s] an exciting development,” he said, “It would be nice for PCC to be a player in this innovation.”
He said that the idea of an online clearinghouse of courses is interesting.
Dooley said that PCC is currently in the process of formalizing the distance education program and policies and procedures are being created.
“I would like to see PCC offering a completely online associate degree,” said Dooley.
With this initiative Obama is putting community colleges in the spotlight.
“I’m excited about the idea of the community college in the spotlight,” said Jacobs. “[Community colleges] are coming into their own.”
Dooley said that it is helpful that the president is proposing this initiative.
“I’m hoping Obama revisits this [initiative],” said Dooley.
Dooley hopes that the faculty will pay attention to this initiative in order to develop programs that students need.
- EDITORIAL: Apologize about the real problem - April 23, 2014
- STATEMENT: District apologizes to Oscar winning alum - April 21, 2014
- EDITORIAL: The Forgotten Students - March 26, 2014
