Valley colleges must pick up the pace
Michelle Obama scanned the audience of new graduates at the University of California-Merced's first commencement ceremony last month and noted many were the first in their families to earn a college degree. She recalled her own experience just a few decades earlier.
"I grew up just a few miles from the University of Chicago in my hometown," she said. "The university, like most institutions, was a major cultural, economic institution in my neighborhood. Yet that university made no effort to reach out to me -- a bright and promising student in their midst -- and I had no reason to believe there was a place for me there."
Despite these dire economic times, UC Merced and the other members of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, including Cal State Bakersfield, Bakersfield College, Taft College, National University and Alliant International University, are determined not to allow deserving, talented students in our midst to be overlooked and left out. Comprised of about two dozen public and private colleges and universities, the consortium's goal is to increase all students' access to higher education.
A recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California concluded that by 2025, California will face a shortage of 1 million college graduates needed for its workforce. Only 35 percent of California's working-age adults are expected to hold a four-year degree in 2025, when 41 percent of the state's jobs will require a college education. Unless policies are changed and enrollment rates are improved, California industries will have to import college-educated workers from other states or nations or will have to move outside the state.
"Closing the Gap," the institute's report on meeting California's need for college graduates, noted that the state's population has outpaced the expansion of state schools. With many highly educated baby boomers set to retire, the demand on higher education will increase. And California's growing immigrant population, entering the state with less education, struggles to obtain college degrees for its children.
The economic future of California and the state's preparation of the next generation to meet its full potential have reached a critical point. Once considered among the top states in the nation for its higher education system, by 2006, California had fallen to 23rd.
Making necessary improvements won't be easy. The state budget deficit, increased to an estimated $24 billion after voters' rejection of funding measures on the May 19 special election ballot, adds to this challenge. Colleges and universities, such as those belonging to the consortium, will work closely together to coordinate programs to reach out to valley students and assure their success.
Draconian budget cuts now being proposed will result in larger class sizes, fewer classes and less financial aid for students. But with the support of local industries that need highly educated workers, families and communities that want their children to succeed and the creativity of consortium members, our children will not grow up in the shadows of valley colleges and universities fearing they do not belong.
Cheri Cruz is the executive director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, which extends from San Joaquin and Tuolumne counties to the north and Kern County to the south. For more information, go to www.collegenext.org.
