ED 312 008

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INSTITUTION

REPORT NOPUB DATENOTEAVAILABLE FROM

PUB TYPE

EDRS PRICEDESCRIPTORS

ABSTRACT

DOCUMENT RESUME

JC 890 517

Weidenthal, Maurice D.

Who Cares about the Inner City? The Community CollegeResponse to Urban America. A Report of the ('---ssionon Urban Community Colleges of the AmericanAssociation of Community and Junior Colleges.American Association of Community and JuniorColleges, Washington, D.C.ISBN-0-87117-208-989

35p.

American Association of Community and Junior CollegesPublications, One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 410,Washington, DC 20036 ($11.25, for non-members; $9.'5,members).

Reports - Descriptive (141)

MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS.Access to Education; *College Role; *College SchoolCooperation; Community Colleges; EducationalAssessment; Educationally Disadvantaged; EducationalObjectives; Inner City; *Minority Groups; *SchoolBusiness Relationship; *School CommunityRelationship; School Location; Two Year Colleges;*Urban Education

Drawing from site visits to 10 community collegeslocated in New York (New York), Miami (Florida), Cleveland (Ohio),Jacksonville (Florida), Kansas City (Missouri), Dallas (Texas), LosAngeles (California), Denver (Colorado), Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania),and Detroit (Michigan), this report traces the efforts of inner-citycommunity colleges to provide education, training, and urban survivalskills to new immigrants, high school dropouts, homeless, andsocially and economically disadvantaged, as well as to large numbersof traditional students. Part 1 of the report presents a positionstatement by the Commission on Urban Community Colleges of theAmerican Association of Community and Junior Colleges concerning therole of urban community colleges. Part 2 offers introductoryinformation on the purpose of the study and on the campuses that werevisited. Part 3 offers brief descriptions of each college's effortsto establish partnerships with the community, build articulated andcooperative programs with schools and universities, and establishpartnerships with business and industry. This section also highlightsthe colleges' role in the education and training of nontraditionalstudents, in providing community services, and in serving as a homefor community-based organizations and activities. In part 4,conclusions stress that: (1) the colleges' commitment to the centralcity in the face of extremely challenging odds appears to be firm;(2) urban community college leaders are firm in their belief thatquality education is not and should not be sacrificed in the name ofprograms related to meeting social needs; (3) enrollment declines ofthe early and mid-1980's appear to have been reversed; (4) campusleadership continues to struggle with tie issues of social change andhigher education; and (5) there appears to be no national consensuson the multiple missions and roles of the central city campus and itsspecial programs that reach out to the community. In conclusion, part5 offers seven recomwcmdations. (JMC)

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o Who CaresAbout The1 rCi y?The Community CollegeResponse to Urban America

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By Maurine D. Weidenthal

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U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONOffice of Educational Research a of Improvement

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ITIrORMATIONCENTEI (ERICI

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A REPORT OF THE

COMMISSION ON URBAN

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

OF THE AMERICAN

ASSOCIATION OF

COMMUNITY AND

JUNIOR COLLEGES

Arneman AY.ouation of ( °minim and junior (olicge.National ( enter for Higher 1 dut.ationSuite 410, One Dupont I. trek, N \\'

,e.hington, IX: 20036-11-6(2021 293--0i0

( opN right 1989Printed in the United State. of Atilt:ma

ISBN 0-8711--208-9

CANTENTSIMIIIIMIIIN2

Forewordby William J. Mann and Ronald J. Temple vii

Pre face

by Federico Pena ix

Members of the Commission x

I. Commission Statement1

II. Introduction 3

III. Responding to the Challenge 7

The Challenge of the AACJC Futures Commission 7Partnerships with the Community 7Reaching Out to Minorities 10Building Partnerships with Schools and Universities 13Partnerships with Business and Industry 16The Challenge of EnrollmentOld Campuses for the New Era

Fulfulling a Vision for a New Century 20

IV. Conclusions 23

V. Recommendations 25

VI. References 27

About the Author 28

v

HAREwises ww viewINISIONIon

Accepting the Challenges ofThe Next Century

The AACJC Commission on Urban Commu-nity Colleges, at its meeting in December 1988,agreed to sponsor a national study and reporton the status of central city community collegecampuses, with a special focus on collegesrepresented on the Commission.

It was agreed thia there is a need to give visi-bility and national attention to the dramatic de-velopments on our campuses as they attemptto respond to the changing environment in thecities they serve.

Clearly, there is increasing concern about theemerging role of inner city campuses as theyface the pressures imposed upon them by theirurban neighborhoods. In many cases our cam-puses are viewed as the best hope fora gener-ation of Americans that has virtually no otheropportunity for education, training, and insome cases, economic and social survival.

Bud Weidenthal, a former journalist and Cuya-hoga Community College administrator, wasasked to do the research and writing of an

Urban Commission document that could sereas a centerpiece for important follm% -up acti I-des by the Commission. Weidenthal authoredthe first report on urban community collegesfor AACJC in 1967.

Special appreciation is extended to Commissionmember colleges whose cooperation and sup-port made Weidenthal's site visits possible, andto the leadership and support of CuyahogaCommunity College and its president, NolenM. Ellison.

j. Mann, ChancellorThe Metropolitan Community Colleges

Kansas City, MissouriChair, AACJC Commission on

Urban Community Colleges-1988-1989

Ronald J. Temple. PresidentWayne County Community College

Detroit, MichiganChair, AACJC Commission on

Urban Community Colleges-1989-1990

t.

1111011115111

This publication of the Commission on UrbanCommunity Colleges of the American Associ-ation of Community and junior Colleges istimely and important to the urban areas of thecountry. Through the examples and modelsprovided, one cln see the great potential forthe involvement of community Colleges in com-munity development and collaborative under-takings. As any close observer of the urbanscene 1,v111 attest, nothing but an all-out effortby all corn unity institutions will suffice in theface of a changing economy and altereddemographics.

The new Denver Comprehensive Plan contains10 "Core Goals," which are responsive to thepressing needs of this major urban center inColorado. At least four of these goals requiredirect involvement of the Community Collegeof Denver (CCD). The four goals are:

Stimulate the economy

Educate all of Denver's residents withexcellence

Help the disadvantaged help themselves

Celebrate the city's arts, culture, and ethnicdiversity

Collaborative efforts including CCD are ex-pected and necessary if Denver is to thriveamidst the changing dynamics of urban life.Denver's demographic profile, like those ofmost major cities, is undergoing profoundchanges. There has been a shift toward theyoung, the elderly, and to singles as more

families have located in the suburbs. With this,the average household sue has declined whilethe number of single-parent and female headedhouseholds has increased. Consistent with na-tional trends, a greater proportion of Denver'sPopulation is poor, disadvantaged, and minori-ty than is the Lase for the suburbs.

Solutions must be found now to avoid a skillshortage growing out of the mismatch betweenthe needs of the labor market and the profileof the Libor pool. Cities have no choice but tohelp the disadvantaged help themselves if theyare to produce vibrant economies, successfulbusinesses, and an enhanced quality of life fortheir residents. Community colleges should befull partners in the efforts because it is unrealis-tic to expect the poor central city residents toleave their neighborhoods in large numbers togam access to higher education. Access and op-portunity must be provided in a convenientfashion at a low cost.

I commend the work of community collegesand encourage my colleagues around the coun-try to involve their local institutions in com-munity development activities.

Federico PenaMayor of the Cit> and

County of Denver

I X

6

COMMISSIONON URBAN

COMMUNITY COLLEGES10111111111118

American Association of Community andJunior Colleges

Ronald J. TempleChair 1989-90President, WayneCounty CommunityCollegeDetroit, Ml

as

William J MannChair 1988-89Chancellor, TheMetropolitanCommunity CollegesKansas City, MO

Nelvia M. BradyChancellor, CityColleges of ChicagoChicago, II.

Roscoe C. Brown, JrPresident BronxCommunity CollegeBronx, NY

aJoseph T. Durham Nolen Ellison' Stolle I cuffs Hilary Hsu*President, Community' President, Cuyahoga President, Los Angeles Chancellor / Superinten-College of Baltimore Community College City College dent, San FranciscoBaltimore, MI) District I us Angeles, C. A Communit College

( ley eland, 011 DistrictSan I rancim.o, (.A

x

John W. KraftPresident (emeritus),Community College ofAllegheny CountyPittsburgh, PA

Carl M. Kuttler, Jr.President, St. PetersburgJunior CollegeSt. Petersburg, FL

Wright L. Lassiter, Jr.President, El CentroCollegeDallas, TX

Ernest A. MartinezPresident, CerritosCollegeNoiwalk, CA

4

Robert McCabe. Byron N. McClenney Daniel F. Moriarty Salvatore G. Rotella"President, Miami-Dade President, Community President, Portland Former Chancellor,Community College College of Denver Community College City Colleges ofMiami, FL Denver, CO Portland, OR ChicagoChicago, II.

Charles C. Spence J. William Wenrich Ex-Officio Ex-OfficioPresident, Florida Chancellor, San Diego Flora Mancuso Dale ParnellCommunity College at Community College Edwards President and CEO,Jackson% ille District AACJC Board Chair American AssociationJacksonville, FL San Diego, CA President, MiddlesexCounty College

of Community andjunior Colleges

Edison, NJ

AACJC Board LiaisonSandra RitterTrustee, OaklandCommunity CollegeBloomfield flills, III

term espired in 1989

pAACJC Staff LiaisonJohn R AtcGdlEsecutive Assistant tothe President, AACK

xi

1.

COMMISSIONSTATEMENT

It is quite clear, as we approach the 1990s andbeyond, that the nation's central city commu-nity colleges find themselves facing a continu-ing crisis that threatens to dwarf the urban con-cerns of the '60sa crisis inflamed by drug useand its associated crime, gang warfare, jobless-ness, despair among the disadvantaged, illiter-acy, and academic disadvantage.

In the face of growing unease about our urbanfuture, we stand now, as always, committedto respond to the formidable challenge of thecentral cities of our nation. We view ourselvesas catalysts and partners, beacons of opportu-nity and stability amidst our changing andchallenging urban environment.

We pledge, within the limits of our resources,to reach out to our neighborhoods, our schools,and our businesses to form partnerships for ur-ban progress. We will continue to be aggres-sive, flexible, and creative in order to meet theever-changing needs as we move, in the spiritof the report of the AACJC Futures Commis-sion, toward the 21st century.

The urban community college remains thesource of opportunities for the underprivileged,the newcomers to our shores, the under-educated, the victims of technical and socialchange, as well as the thousands of traditional

high school graduates seeking higher educationopportunities that might other,~ Ise not be a), ail-able to them.

We accept the commitment to the central czt-tcs,,iware that we cannot solve their social andeducation problems alone. We reach out to allsegments of our urban communities for part-nerships as we strive together to deal with whatmay be the most significant issue of ourtune. . . the future of America's cities.

As we look ahead to tht 1990s and the 21stcentury , we find ourseh es stepping well be) andthe traditional bounds of higher education b)serving the homeless, the underachievers, theschool drop-outs, the needy living in publichousing projects, felons in jails, the swarms ofnew immigrants to our shores, the latch-keychildren, the underemployed, the unemployed.We find ourselves allied with business and com-munity leaders as trainers and brokers for neweconomic development, which is so critical tothe future of our urban centers.

We have new students, preparing jor a new eraand another century. Traditional, narimely to-cused thinking about the urban campus »us-ston no longer applies.

lit a very real sense (no campuses have becomethe community, our students a broad range of

WHO CARES ABOUT THE INNER CITY2

as people who ,zre seeking education and skillsfor survival under very difficult circumstances.

Our central city campuses are poised strategi-cally to play a critical leadership and supportrole in the renewal of American clues, their cen-tral city neighborhoods, and their dow mow nand business communities. These open-doorcampuses arc' emerging as anchor points illAmerican cities that zre reeling Iron: social and

et' 0 110 1111' Cbangt.

The role of urban commune) college campusesshould be %iewed in that Lhallenging perspec-tive, and nothing less.

Failure to grasp the ' ision or its enormity is afailure to understand where our campuses arenow and where the) are going in the comingdecade.

2

II.INTRODUCTION

# Milli

As the urban crisis in American cities explodedin the late I 960s, the leaders of the nation's bigcity community colleges gathered in Dallas,Texas, to examine the challenges confrontingthem.

It was a time of urban disintegration and pub-lic discontent. It was also a time when manyof the nation's finest institutions of culture,commerce, and education were fleeing the cit-ies for the more tranquil and prosperous en-vironment of the suburban inner and outerrings. In the face of such disarray, the leadersof the community college movement issued in1967 a written commitment to stand fast:

"To continue to provide in our central citiesthe training and education so critical if the na-tion's inner cities were to survive."

In part, the document, titled The CommunityCollege Comm:hi:en: to the Inner City, ;aid:" . . . the structure of out society is in delicatebalance in the core of our cities. Here . . . hesthe future strength or weakness of Americancivilization . . . We accept the challenges of theinner city with all its complexities, its difficultproblems and immense costs."

In response to continuing and growing pres-sures in the nation's urban centers, the AACJC

created the Commission on Urban CommunityColleges in 1983. In 1985 the Commissionpublished its initial document, Challenges forthe Urban Community College. Its preface,written by then Commission Chair FloraMancuso Edwards, declared: "The urban com-munity college stands poised on the cutting edgeof our nation's future. If it grapples with seri-ous problems and faces what often appear tobe insurmountable challenges, it is graced witheven greater potential to serve as a major forcein recasting the future of Urban America."

In its 1988 monograph, Minorities in UrbanCommunity Colleges, the Commissiondeclared: "We are faced with a great challengeas well as a great opportunity. Our success iscritical to the well-being of our society, forthrough the work of the urban community col-lege can we give the greatest gift a free societycan bestow on its citizenrythe right to be use-ful and productive citizens."

Later the same year in its landmark report,Building Communities: A Vision for a NewCentury, the AACJC Commission on the Fu-ture of Community Colleges said: ". . . . Becausetheir doors are open to students regardless ofage, race, or ethnic origin, the nation's commu-nity colleges can be leading architects in build-ing communities in America. As partners in a

3

WHO CARES ABOUT THE INNER CITY

network of institutions stretching from coastto coast, they can help the least ack antagedmove into the mainstream of American life,serve students ot all ages, and provide continu-ing education, civic empowerment, and socialintegration for a growing number of citizens.Such community building amidst diversity is,we belies e, vital to the future of the nation."

It is against this backdrop of persistent andawesome challenge that we, the members of theAACJC Urban Commission, issue this report,its findings, and recommendations in an effortto call to the nation's attention the creative, ef-fective, and often heroic efforts of urban com-munity colleges as they confront the challengesof the central cities of America.

In researching and writing this report, BudWeidenthal undertook an urban odyssey to tenof America's largest cities. He viewed with ajournalist's eye how urban community collegesare responding to the challenges of economicand social change, and he witnessed first-handa new generation of students struggling for sur-k al during a very difficult period of the na-

tion's urban history.

Focusing on colleges IA hose presidents Iseremembers of the AACJC Commission on UrbanCommunity Colleges, he visited

The Bronx Community College, New York

Campuses of Miami-Dade Community Col-lege, Florida

The Metropolitan Campus of Cuy ahogaCommunity College in Cleveland, Ohio

The Downtown Campus of the FloridaCommunity College at Jacksonville, Florida

Penn Valley Community College of TheMetropolitan Community Colleges in KansasCity, Missouri

El Centro College of the Dallas CountyCommunity College District, Texas

Los Angeles City College of the Los AngelesCommunity College Dist' ict, California

The Community College of Denver,Colorado

The Allegheny Campus of The CommunityCollege of Allegheny' County in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania

Campuses ot Wayne County CommunityCollege in Detroit, Michigan

These colleges represent only a small sampleof the nation's urban campuses, but they pro-ide exciting examples of the w ork done by ur-

ban community colleges across the country.

As he travelled from one end of the nation tothe other. Weidenthal found central city com-munity colleges performing heroically in theshadow of enormous change. He found under-educated and underemployed populations seek-ing high quality education and training. Hefound uncommon colleges serving uncommonneeds, frequently reaching out to partners inthe community to share the challenges.

Because they ale viewed as anchor points intheir changing communities, urban communitycollege campuses find themsek es pros idmgeducation, training, and urban 'urvival skillsto large numbers of new immigrants, particu-larly in such cities as Los Angeles, New York,

4

11-i[ COttEC,E RESPONSE TC LlRhAr.) AmEP)CA

and Miami. Thousands of high school drop-outs and potential drop-outs, the homeless, thedispossessed, the socially and economically il-literate, in addition to the large numbers oftraditional students, are seeking quality highereducation as they prepare for the jobs of a newdecade and century.

The Bronx Community College, for example,is located on the former engineering schoolcampus of New York University at the west-ern edge of the New York City borough, sur-rounded by reminders of urban decay. Thelargely minority population of blacks andHispanics has the lowest per capita income ofany community in the nation. More than 40percent of the land is vacant because of burned

or vandalized housing. The school drop-outrate is among the highest in the nation, and thenumbers of incoming students requiring de-velopmental courses in English or math tops90 percent. For most of the students it servesfrom the Bronx and Manhattan, the BronxCommunity College is the college of only re-sort. It represents their sole opportunity to ele-vate themselves from the hopelessness of theirurban neighborhoods to a new kind of life.

In rapidly changing Los Angeles, City Collegenow enrolls students who speak 62 differentlanguages and whose levels of education andability represent the entire academic spectrum.The people of its crowded surrounding neigh-borhoods have come by the thousands in re-cent years from Latin America and the Far Eastto seek new opportunities. The community col-lege is their passport to a new beginning.

At the downtown campus of Miami-DadeCommunity College, more than 70 percent ofthe students are of Hispanic background, with

man) of the new comers lacking basic language

or economic survival skills. In both Miami andLos Angeles hundreds of the newest studentsare illegal aliens learning simple language andAmerican histon skills in order to remain inthe United States. Los Angeles is serving thelargest Korean population outside of the FarEast, while Miami-Dade is challenged by new-comers from Nicaragua and a number of otherLatin American countries.

In Cie\ eland, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, dramaticefforts ha e been under way to train and retraina w ork force deg astated by the industrial revo-

lution of the 1980s. In these heavy industry cit-ies thousands of workers with outmoded skillshave been prepared for new jobs in a chang-ing part of the nation.

Central city campuses are almost all locateddowntown and adjacent to troubled slum areasthat include high density public housingprojects. Community colleges are at work therein a valiant effort to break a cycle of poverty.

Urban col ununity colleges, because of their lo-cation and their stake in the city, have joinedwith their communities in efforts to rebuild cen-tral city neighborhoods and in some casesdow ntowns. Community colleges have playedmajor roles in the widely publicized revival ofdownt,;,..n,-, in Pittsburgh's Golden mangle,the Dallas historic West End, and Jacksonville's

booming downtown redevelopment and thecreation of its government civic center.

Colleges are playing a key sole in economic de-

velopment plans, such as Cleveland', St. Vin-cent Quadrangle effort to revi.- . ;ire a formerslum area and the Unix ersity Peights Develop-ment Corp., aimed at turning ali.uidoned,

5

WHO CARES ABOUT THE INNER CITY

vandalized buildings into \ ibrant, useful hous-ing in the Bronx.

V'eidenthal found the campuses of urbanAmerica deeply involved in their communities,perhaps to a degree not envisioned by thoseurban pioneers who gathered m Dallas two dec-ades ago, but clearly in keeping with the loft)

goals set b) the AACJC Futures Commission.In a sense, he found a new kind of frontier inthe nation's cities and a network of communi-ty colleges forging no\ kinds of responses tourgent urban issues.

This is his report.

RESPONDING TOTHE CHALLENGE

11111211011111

The Challenge of the AACJC FuturesCommission

"We propose, therefore, that the theme `BuildingCommunities' become the new rallying point forthe community college in America. We definethe term 'community' not only as a region tobe served, but also as a climate to be created.

"Building communities is, we believe, in espe-cially appropriate objective for the communitycollege because it embraces the institution's com-prehensive mission. But the goal is not just out-reach. Perhaps more than any other institution,the community college also can inspire partner-ships based on shared values and common goals.The building of community in its broadest senseencompasses a concern for the whole, for in-tegration and collaboration, for openness andintegrity, for inclusiveness and self renewal."

Building Communities: A Visionfor a New Century, 1988

What follows is the story of America's urban com-munity colleges, reaching out to their communi-ties, preparing for the challenges of a new century.

Partnerships with the Community

New York City: Bronx Community College is

reaching out to its troubled neighborhoods by

creating off-campus centers, including a largeone in the Parkchester Apartments on the otherside of the borough. It has also created a sen-ior citizens center out of a former dormitory,which has become a sanctuary for hundreds ofelderly who would otherwise have no decenthousing. The college is providing extensive so-cial services for the residents.

Dallas: The weekend college at the downtownEl Centro campus greeted 700 students in itsinaugural semester, twice the expected enroll-ment. El Centro also assumed leadership in theDallas CAN Academy in South Dallas, whichserves troubled youth who have dropped outof school because of drug-related problems.

Pittsburgh: The Homewood-Brushton Branchof the Community College of Allegheny Countyis a success story in a neighborhood that burnedand was left to decay in the '60s. The city- andcollege-financed program is flourishing in whatwas once a large retail store on the main streetof the revitalized neighborhood.

Kansas City: A well-established program at theWayne Minor Federal Housing project is aimedat breaking the cycle of poverty there. The in-itial program was targeted at mothers and theirdaughters, but it has now been expanded toset ve all residents of the low-income housing

WHO CARES ABOUT THE INNER C1TY2

project. Similar programs are under was inJacksonville, Cleveland, and Dens er.

Cleveland: The downtow n Metro Campus haslinked with the Playhouse Square organizationto bring brown bag lunch entertainment todowntow n office workers and a major jazz fes-tival to the city. The college took a leadershiprole in the renovation of three of the commu-nity's great center city theaters and served asa conduit for state funds for their rebuilding.The college will serve as the educational com-ponent for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,

hich will rise in downtown Cleveland, andpros ided widely acclaimed leadership for bring-ing the prized national center to the city.

Jacksonville: Personal and vocational skills andliteracy programs that could change the dismallives of the homeless are being offered to theresidents of the Liberty Street Center acrossfrom Jacksonville's Downtown Campus. Manyof the nearly 200 who cram the center have ac-cepted the opportunity to better themsels es.The Open CampuF , based downtown, hasproduced a television program for latch-keychildren who must fend for themsels es at homewhile parents are at work. The college has alsotaken its programs to the Blodgett Public Hous-ing Project, across the street from the Down-town Campus.

Miami: The bustling Interamerican Center inMiami's Little Havana was the first of a seriesof community outreach programs developed toserve the influx of immigrants to that interna-tional city. It has become so successful in as-sisting Hispanics in bridging the gap to highereducation that permanent quarters were pur-chased in 1936 Th, center has become the fo-cus of the amnesty program for illegal aliens,

but also offers almost 200 credit courses, taughtbilingually', from political science to Hispanicaerobics. Ten foreign languages are offered atthe center, including new classes in Hebrew andHungarian. Another outreach program is

offered in the booming NIiami suburb of Hia-leah, with a population of 200,000, 90 percentof NN h0111 are Cuban. A new S3 million build-ing is rising in Liberty City in northwest Miamithat will serve as an outreach to the section ofthe city that was torn by racial strife earlier inthe decade.

Denver: In this city, "the community is ourcampus." The 1988-89 goals for the Commu-nity College of Denver read as follows: "Thecollege should be portrayed as an institutionwhich promotes the urban quality of life, equalopportunity, economic development and edu-cational excellence." The college offers coursesin two housing projects, nearby prisons, andjuvenile centers; assumes leadership for theFamily Opportunities Council, which aims toremote between 500 and 1,000 families fromthe welfare rolls per year; and provides leader-ship for the Denver Project on Persistent Pov-erty, NN hich aims at stemming the growth of the"new underclass."

Los Angeles: The City College is providing ba-sic skills and job training to welfare mothersin a concerted effort to remove them from thelolls of public assistance. The college, work-ing cooperatively with the Braille Institute, isalso home of the largest number of blind stu-dents of any educational institution in the state.City College offers an unusual HomeboundTelephone Program that provides equal accessto meet the special learning needs of orthoped-ically handicapped students confined to theirhomes. The AIDS Center pros ides a wide range

8

An,

Bronx Community College

THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE RESPONSE TO URBAN AMERICA

a-

Metropolitan Community Colleges El Centro College

9

9

WHO CARES ABOUT THE INNER CITY2

of education 11 and other assistance to studentsand members of the community . The TeacherOpportunity Program at City College is designedto prepare students to become bilingual teachers.Upon successful completion of their communi-ty college education, they continue their pro-gram at the California State University at North-ridge and are guaranteed teaching jobs in theLos Angeles Unified School District.

Reaching Out to Minorities

Dallas: El Centro College has begun a majoreffort to attract more Mexican-Americans tothe downtown campus. Hispanics now com-prise 9.4 percent of the student body. With thehelp of the President's Hispanic Advisory Coun-cil made up of 18 prominent members of theHispanic community, an outreach center wasestablished at a predominately Hispanic highschool where El Centro staff members offerfinancial aid and career Lounseling. Plans forthe future include offering some college-levelcourses at the high school for students and com-munity members.

,Metropolitan Community Colleges

New York City: The Bronx Community Col-lege is a pioneer in providing health-care ca-reer opportunities for minority students. Under

the Minority Biomedical Research Support Pro-gram, students are pros ided with high qualitylaboratory experiences, and they spend sum-mers conducting full-time research. In addition,courses in research enrichment are available toall community college students. So far, the pro-gram has graduated nearly 60 students, andmore than 80 percent have gone on to careersin medicine and health-related fields.

Detroit: More than 140 students are enrolledin classes leading to an associate degree in childcare at the Sleepy Hollow center in a residen-tial neighborhood of Detroit. Eight classes areoffered on site by the downtown campus ofWayne County Community College. Also inDetroit a partnership with the United StatesDepartment of the Interior is opening doors tolucrative natural resources jobs for inner cityyouth. Large numbers of urban students haveapplied for the program, which links the col-lege with the University of Michigan's Depart-ment of Natural Resources.

Pittsburgh: The Minority Recruitment, Reten-tion and Transfer Program, headed by a youth-ful Community College of Allegheny Countygraduate now working on his doctorate at theUniversity of Pittsburgh, has set as a goal a 10percent increase in black student enrollmentover a four-year period. The program alreadyhas achieved a 5 percent increase in the firstyear. Key to its success is the creation of a blackalumni organization that works closely with thecity school district in touting the communitycollege.

Kansas City: The Partners in Excellence Pro-gram brings 282 selected high school studentsfrom nine city high schools to the central cityPenn Valley Campus to take at least one course.

10

1 Li

t f4,4.1VT

THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE RESPONSE TO URBAN AMERICA

IICommunity College of Allegheny County

The students are provided funds for tuition,books, and transportation. The Teen LiteracyProject brings high school junior girls consid-ered at risk of dropping out to the campus forcareer exploration workshops. Discovery Dayis a joint effort with the Kansas City UrbanLeague that provides career information andjob-seeking skills to city high school students.The college's full-time "college relations"specialists work with the city's schools to re-cruit students to the downtown Penn ValleyCampus.

Cleveland: The Jesse Owens Youth LeadershipProgram, based at Cuyahoga's Metro Campus,brings nearly 800 young people to the down-town center each summer for learning andrecreation activities. The aim is to introducethem to the college campus at an early age and

4. A twos'

encourage the pursuit of higher education. TheMartin Luther King Youth Leadership Programidentifies potential leaders at city high schoolsand brings them together to discuss and learnabout cultural awareness and the continuingproblems of discrimination and racialstereotyping. These students meet regularlywith successful role models such as AtlantaMayor Andrew Young.

Jacksonville: The Florida Community Collegeat Jacksonville has created a single Office ofBlack Student Success, bringing together a sub-stantial number of programs aimed at reach-ing out to minorities in the community and inits schools. Some examples: the Fame Programis an eight week program for senior high schoolstudents to help them with career and collegeplanning. Styr Search impresses on junior high

WHO CARES ABOUT THE INNER CITY2

students the importance of academic excellence.The Jobs For the Future Program targets needyyouth age 16-24 and helps them earn their highschoo! diploma through the GED test or highschool credit. The program operates at the Stu-dent Success Center on the downtown campus.Return to LearnThen Earn targets econom-ically disadvantaged adults 55 and older. Car-ing For Kids trains welfare recipients to runfamily day care centers, with the objective ofgetting them off the welfare rolls. The HighSchool Mentorship program provides a "buddy"system for mostly high school students who arebused to community centers on Saturdaymornings.

Miami: Miami-Dade has established three out-reach centers to bring education and trainingto Little Havana, Hialeah, and Liberty City.The centers are based in college-owned orleased facilities and aim to bridge the signifi-cant gap between the neighborhoods and thecampus. At Miami-Dade's North CampusHispanics, blacks, and Anglos each representone third of the campus enrollment, bringing

bar

3 .

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Los Angeles City College

together diverse factions in a city wracked byracial and ethnic tensions. The Saturday Com-munity Education Program brings studentsfrom Miami's northwest section to the NorthCampus for tutoring by Dade County teachersand community college student volunteers. Theannual College Jamboree brings black collegerecruiters to North Campus to recruit minori-ty students.

Los Angeles, Miami, and Denver: Thousandsof illegal aliens from Mexico and Central andSouth America are being provided basic skillscourses in amnesty programs housed on cam-puses in these cities. For many these coursesmake the difference between survival anddespair.

Los Angeles: the front hallway of City College'smain building proclaims "WELCOME" in 30different languages as it reaches out to its im-migrant populations. Korea Town, just downthe street from the campus, houses the largestpopulation of Koreans anywhere in the worldoutside of their home country.

Community College of Denver

12

THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE RESPONSE TO URBAN AMERICA

Denver: The Community College of Denver hastaken a leadership role in the Hispanic Agen-da of the Latin American Service and ResearchAgency.

Building Partnerships with Schools andUniversities

Kansas City: The Learning Exchange, a nation-ally known resource center for teachers, isrelocating to Penn Valley Community College.Housed in a $3 million addition scheduled forcompletion later this year, The Learning Ex-change will bring elementary and secondarystudents and teachers to the downtown cam-pus building to share the latest in instruction-al techniques. Seventy surrounding school dis-tricts in both Kansas and Missouri willpal ticipate in the privately financed educational

program. Project TALENT is a new teachertraining program that is designed to attractnon-traditional students. Backed by supportfrom a private foundation and cooperation ofthe city school district, the project is movingits first class of 35 toward an associate degreeand ultimately to teaching careers in urbanschools.

Miami: The New World School of the Arts isa 2 + 2 + 2 program with Dade County Schools,the Wolfson Campus of Miami-Dade Commu-nity College, and Florida International Univer-sity. The School of the Arts is adjacent to theWolfson campus. The Junior High Gifted Pro-gram brings 400 young people to Miami-DadeNorth Campus where they are taught by DadcCounty and community college teachers. Theyare exposed to the college library, computers,journalism labs, and a campus learning envir-onment. More than 300 Miami high school stu-dents come to the North campus each Saturday

et.Wayne County Community College

for special counseling, tutorials, and classesprovided by the public schools and Miami-Dade. Students are referred by teachers, coun-selors, churches, and community groups. TheStay In High School Project involves 70 selectedjuniors and seniors from Northwestern .MiamiHigh School who are provided with counsel-ing to help them finish school and prepare forcollege.

Cleveland: Creating an Urban DemonstrationModel and making it work depends on buildingeffective partnerships between downtown com-munity colleges and the city school districtsCuyahoga Community College has created a"laboratory model" based on available researchconcerning the crisis in city schools, includingthe growing drop-out rate, underachievement,and the declining rate of college attendance,particularly among minority males. The modelhopes to increase the number of minority stu-dents graduating from high school and then toincrease the number of underprepared andminority students who successfully graduate

13

WHO CARES ABOUT THE INNER CITY?

from two- and four-year colleges and univer-sities. -The goals of the model have beenadopted by the Ohio Board of Regents, and aproposal for funding is moving through thestate's General Assembly. The objective is tobuild partnerships between community collegesand city school districts statewide.

New York City: Bronx Community College haslinked with the New York City Public Schoolsto create a successful high school and juniorhigh school on campus. The Middle CollegeHigh School enrolls 276 students, grades ninethrough 12, who were all considered at-risk andpotential drop-outs. The junior high is calledthe Urban Academy of Technology, and enrolls140 eighth-graders aged 14 to 16, also consid-ered at-risk and potential drop-outs. The Mid-dle College drop-out rate is below 10 percent,and 85 percent of the graduates go on to col-lege. The campus atmosphere at the commu-nity college makes the critical diff,...ence, ac-cording to the students.

Cleveland, Los Angeles, the Bronx, and Detroit:Significant efforts are under way in these citiesto identify and assist urban students as they movethrough high school to the community collegesand then to the university. The projects arefunded by the Ford Foundation's Urban Com-munity College Opportunity Program (UCC-TOP). Although each UCCTOP project differs,each is aimed at opening doors of opportunityto young people in urban areas in new and crea-tive ways.

Detroit: The college has completed articulationagreements with the Detroit Public Schools andtwo other area districts for an Urban TeachersProgram, which will enroll up to 300 urban stu-dents at Wayne County Community College to

prepare them for teaching careers in urbanschools in order to meet the growing shortageof minority teachers. The program is linked toEastern Michigan University, where the studentswill enroll after they complete their associatedegrees.

Denver: Four elementary schools in the cityschool district have become partners with theCommunity College of Denver to help at-risk stu-dents in the very early school years, by provid-ing basic education and parenting skills to theirparents. In the predominately Hispanic Chelten-ham school, 40 students in grades K-2 were iden-tified by teachers, and their parents were invit-ed to enroll in classes offered by the college atthe schools in late afternoon and evenings. Childcare was provided for the youngster. Readingand language skills, GED preparation, andcourses in parenting and homemaking wereprovided. Strong emphasis was placed on par-ents reading to their children. Follow-up studiesshow significant reduction in risk among the chil-dren involved. The same approach is being triedin three additional Denver public schools in blackand Hispanic neighborhoods.

San Francisco: Operation Excel provides 11and 12th-graders in the San Francisco CitySchools with the opportunity to take collegecourses for credit while still in high school. TheSummer Academy provides eighth-graders witha stimulating session on campus that includes ca-reer and life planning programs designed to moti-vate students to go on to college.

Jacksonville: Students enrolled in an extensiveadult high school and GED program represent20 percent of the entire enrollment at the FloridaCommunity College at Jacksonville. The adulthigh school has been a part of the Jacksonville

14

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WHO CARES ABOUT THE INNER CITY?

program since 1968; head count for the highschool and GED program has risen to 6,254.The biggest increase has been in the older agegroups of non-traditional students.

Pittsburgh: A formal working relationship withthe Pittsburgh Public Schools was establishedwith the Community College of AlleghenyCounty in 1984 and included a written articu-lation agreement. The college has annu,dlyidentified six public school graduates to recei% erenewable scholarships. A joint school-collegeconference on "The Year 2000" has beendesigned to link the training resources of bothsy stems for the coming decade and beyond. TheAllegheny Campus offers a Saturday Collegeexperience for school youth up to age 18 thatincludes classes ranging from algebra to bodybuilding.

1/4

Cuyahoga Community College

Partnerships with Business and Industry

Denver: The Technical Education Center of theCommunity College of Denver was recentlycited by the Colorado Commission on HigherEducation as one of five Centers of Excellence

in all of higher education in the state. Morethan 90 percent of its 1,000 students per yearare sponsored by business, industry , and labor.Most of the training and retraining programsare so successful that there is an employer wait-ing list for graduates. Most recent figures showthat 86 percent of those v ho start completedtheir program and 76 percent were placed ina job for which they were trained. Key to thesuccess is close ties between government-sponsored programs such as JTPA, the coun-ty school district, the department of social serv-ices, and employers. Enrollment is on a first-come, first-served basis. Programs vary fromlife coping skills to word processing to lathe-mill operator.

Kansas City.: Mott.. than 20,000 workers havebeen retrained for 200 companies by theMetropolitan Community Colleges High Tech-nology Training Resources Center. The centerhas worked with every local and state agencyinvolved in the recruitment of new industry andother economic development activities in thearea. Representatives often make presentationsto companies considering moving to the area.The Center for Business, Industry, and Agen-cy Training provides customized training onsite or on campus for clients such as HallmarkCards, Xerox, the Internal Revenue Service,and the city of Kansas City. When a majorGeneral Motors assembly plant was closed inthe area, the college provided retraining tohundreds of workers as part of the union con-tract. In order to better serve the business com-munity, the "outreach" Pioneer College wasmerged with the Penn Valley Campus that islocated near downtown.

Jacksonville: When American Express consid-ered building its new Optima Card headquarters

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THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE RESPONSE TO URBAN AMFPICA

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in Jacksonville two years ago, it sought a guar-antee that the 1,500 new employees would getappropriate computer training. FCCJ's Eco-nomic Development Center, based at theDowntown Campus, was able to meet and keepthat commitment as a result of its long-standingpartnership with the city's chamber of com-merce. A similar pledge was provided forAmerican Transtech of AT&T for the train-ing of 1,200 new employees. Chamber officialscredit the center for its key role in both casesand cite numerous other instances where col-lege intervention brought new industry to thecity or kept companies from leaving. The cen-ter, which works on a contract basis with areacompanies, has three major roles: to help

recruit new industries; to upgrade worker train-ing; and to retrain laid-off workers. The unitis htadcd by an associate vice president for eco-nomic development and has two full-time andfour part-time industry development officers.They are expected to generate FTE revenueequal to six times their annual salaries. In itslust three years, the center has grown from 121to more than 500 FTEs.

Los Angeles: A partnership between City Col-lege and Pacific Bell is providing accelerated as-sociate of arts degrees in business at eight PacBell sites throughout the city. The college is thebasic skills provider for the Los Angeles Busi-ness Labor Council for Displaced Workers.

WHO CARES ABOUT THE 'NNER CITY?,

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Neu' York City: Bronx Community College hascreated the Entrepreneurship Support Centeraimed at helping small businesses overcome theodds against success. In this troubled sectionof New York City, the center provides a freeor low-cost 60-hour business training programeither on the campus or at the business site. A30-hour individual consulting program is alsooffered w provide help in the areas of law, busi-ness finance, marketing and advertising, gov-ernment contracts, and taxes. The Bronx Com-munity College Business and ProfessionalDevelopment Institute provides high qualityconsultation and services to Bronx businessesat modest cost.

Cleveland: A commitment of more than SI2million in capital funds by the state of Ohio per-mitted Cuyahoga Community College to con-struct the new Unified Technologies Center(UTC) on its downtown Metropolitan Cam-pus. The center was dedicated by the gover-nor in 1986 with considerable fanfare, duringwhich he linked the center to the future suc-cess of the state's economic development pro-gram. All the space in the building is devotedto contract training and skills upgrading forarea industry. A major tenant is the ClevelandAdvance Manufacturing Program I state-funded program that links Cuyahoga, Cleve-land State University, and Case Western Re-serve University in automated manufacturingprograms that aid Cleveland industry. The Na-tional Bureau of Standards and Technology hasdesignated the UTC as one of three centers ,the nation for the development of automatedmanufacturing techniques. Seminars and work-shops on quality control have brought hundredsto the center from a five-state area. The OhioBell Telephone Company has designated thecenter as a skills upgrading site for all its

THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE RESPONSE TO URBAN AME KICA

Miami-Dade Community College

employees. The focus is on self-paced com-puter-programmed training in skills upgrading.The center is expected to be self-supportingwithin five years.

Detroit: Wayne County Community Collegehas played a key role in the industrial revivalof the Detroit area, particularly its automobileindustry. Both Ford and General Motors ex-ecutives have highly praised the college's Busi-ness and Industry Retraining Program. Thetechnical training coordinator of GM's Buick,Oldsmobile, and Cadillac division had this tosay: "General Motors has launched its greatesttraining program in the history of the compa-ny. Wayne County Community College's rolehas been very helpful . . . and we are pleased tohave their expertise available to us." Added a

Ford UAW official, "You can't imagine howlife-saving it has been to have a college in thearea willing to 0.ccommodate the needs of ourprogram." A major program of skills upgrad-ing for Chrysler workers is under way at theEastern Campus near one of the world's lagestauto plants.

19

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WHO CARES ABOUT THE INNER CITY2

Pittsburgh: The Dislocated Workers Educationand Training Program of the Community Col-lege of Allegheny County was launched at thenadir of the Rust Belt recession of the early1980s, when city and county unemploymentrates soared beyond 15 percent. More than7,237 students have enrolled in college-levelcourses, and the average participant took 25credit hours of studies. Latest figures show thatnearly 80 percent have been re-employed in thecounty. The program has been succeeded bya Workers in Transition Project offering mostof the same training opportunities. Classes areoffered at all campuses, but the largest enroll-ment continues to be at the downtown Alleghe-ny Campus.

The Challenge of Enrollment:Old Campuses for the New EraFulfilling a Vision for a New Century

An examination of central city campus enroll-ment statistics can be misleading. A cursory

Florida Community College at Jacksonville

glance at the credit count for traditional stu-dents re% eals that in most cases numbers peakedin the mid-'70s, then began a rather steady de-cline through the mid-'80s. Now most are ex-periencing a rebound in credit enrollment.

The hidden and often untold story about thecentral city campuses is their growing use asan instrument in the training and educating ofnon-traditional students, for community serviceprograms ind as a home for community-basedorganizations and activities.

For example, at Kansas City's Penn ValleyCampus credit enrollment peaked in 1975 withthe onrush of Vietnam veterans, sagged to alow in 1985, and has now rebounded by 9 per-cent, but is still well below 1975 levels. Butsoaring non-credit and community service en-rollment has pushed campus headcount to anall-time high. At Pittsburgh's Allegheny Com-munity College non-credit enrollment has out-paced credit. In the period from 1975 to 1988,non-credit enrollment increased from 10,555to 15,405. During the past year Miami-Dade'sWolfson Campus enrolled over 19,000 non-credit students while the North Campus served14,558. In Cleveland, while the Metro Cam-pus showed a steady decline in credit studentsfunded by the state of Ohio, non-credit enroll-ment rose from 1,001 in 1982 to 3,223 in thefall of 1987.

City campuses are crowded and cramped forspace in many hours of the day and evening be-cause of the dramatic move to non-traditionalprogramming and community use. The dra-matic change in the mission and nature of cen-tral city campuses has created facilities prob-lems that cannot be overlooked as we tell ourstory and 'lan for the future. In Los Angeles

20

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permanent "temporary" structures at City Col-lege budt in the 1960s are now bulging withprograms for recent immigrants, including am-nesty courses and English as a Second Lan-guage. This turn of events, often not reportedpublicly, leaves the misleading impression thatcentral city campuses are in trouble because ofdeclining enrollment.

Indeed, the visiting team of the North CentralAssociation of Schools and Colleges, inresponding to the concern of declining enroll-ment at Cuyahoga Community College's MetroCampus, had this to say:

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this clearly suggests a redefinition of the roleof this campus and the scope of services offeredthere. Much concern vv as expressed for the en-rollment decline at the campus, and consider-able energy appears to have been extended in,restoring the campus to its original preeminentstatus. But, what if this is an incorrectpremisethat in attempting to recapture thepast the institution fails to claim the future? Inother words, the lability of the MetropolitanCampus should not be measured solely or eN enlargely in terms of FTEs."

At Cuyahoga's Metropolitan Campus nearly100 community organizations used campus fa-cilities in the single month of October 1988 forthe benefit of approximately 10,000 individuals

21

WHO CARES ABOUT Ttll INNER CI:EY2

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Miami-Dade Community College

not enrolled for coursework at the college. Thiscommunity service function is not widely pub-licized or understood. Man) of these organi-zations use the campus free of charge. Indeed,such broad commumt) use of facilities has become the hallmark of central city campusesacross the nation.

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Across the country mature, city-based commu-nity colleges lime become a haven for newkinds of activities and new kinds of students.By reaching out to their communities, collegesfulfill the far-sighted ision of an urban com-munal college "claiming the future" for a newcentury.

22

Uv

CONCLUSIONS

The commitment to the central city in theface of extremely challenging odds is firm.There is a deep involvement, from central LosAngeles to the Bronx, from Dallas to Detroit,from Cleveland to Kansas City, in the issuesthat inflame, puzzle, and trouble the nation'scities. In spite of difficulties that appear todwarf the issues of the 1960s, the resources andresourcefulness of big city community collegesare dedicated, as never before, to dealing ltilththe crisis in the city into the 1990s and beyond.

The campuses in the central cities continueto be vibrant, exciting, committed centers ofeducation and training, and, in some cases, in-struments of social change.

Because of the enormous burdens andresponsibilities assumed by central city cam-puses, they have become different kinds of in-stitutions with missions different from and, in

a sense, greater than sister campuses servingsuourban a eas and other populations.

The additional responsibilities assumed bycentral city campuses bring with them sizeableadditional financial burdens that must be recog-nized and dealt with. In sonic cases heroic ef-forts to train and educate our central city

citizens are being hampered by lack of funds,particularly in states where funding is limitedto traditional credit programming.

In the face of growing demands for non-traditioi,1 services, the leaders of central citycampuses are firm m their intention to continueto provide high quality traditional higher edu-cation programs as well as programs designedto deal creatively with the social and econom-ic issues of the people and the city. Urban «mi-nnow), college leados cue firm in their beliefthat quality education is not and should not besacrificed in the name of programs related tomeeting social needs. The academic programcontinues to rest at the very highest priority ofour central city campuses as they struggle torespond to the 'new needs of the communi-ties they serve.

Indeed, on many urban campuses very intenseefforts are under way to identify promising stu-dents at the junior and senior high school lev-el and assure, in creative ways, that they com-plete their secondary education and enroll ina community college with the objective of even-tually, transferring to a four-year college.

3 Enrollment declines that have plagued cen-tral city campuses in the early and mid-1980sappear to halve been reN ersed as the result ofaggressive efforts at student recruitment andretention and some very creative programsdesigned to serve the central city population.

The decline in black student enrollment, par-ticularly black males, continues to puzzle and

23

\A /N(1 rAREc Anr)11" TNE INNER (-ITV

frustrate the leadership of city campusesthroughout the nation. New efforts, launchedwithin the past y ear or tw o to increase enroll-ment of black students, are beginning to showencouraging results.

The emerging mission and role of central citycampuses continues to be misunderstood in theirown communities. There is a sense of frustra-tion concerning public understanding and ac-ceptance of the social and educational roles ofthese colleges. Indeed, negative image and per-ception consistently plague central city cam-puses. Because their emerging role in city-basedproblems has not been fully told, these campusesare subject to misinterpretation by the mediaand misunderstanding by the general public.

Central city campuses are staffed with menand women who have a sense of mission, whowant to be there, N% ho gain special satisfactionfrom tin. challenges of the city and its residents.

But so enormous are the issues and chal-lenges of our central cities that campus leader-ship throughout the nation continues to strug-gle with the issues of social change and higher

education. There is much to be done, andresources are limited. Much still needs to beunderstood about how central city communi-ty colleges function best: %% hat programs %% ork;

where they should concentrate their efforts;how they can continue to maintain their mul-tiple roles %%ithout losing sight of long-standingeducational priorities.

There appears to be no national consensuson the multiple missions and roles of the cen-tral city campus and its special programs thatreach out to the community. It appears thateach campus and each district is dealing withurban issues in its 0%% n fashion, draw mg on itsunique strengths as it deals With special urbanproblems that vary from city to city.

It is appropriate to reiterate here, as we lookahead to the aw esome and complex role of theurban community college, the words of theAACJC Futures Commission: "The danger isthat, in attempting to respond to every need,community colleges may be distracted from thetranscendent, integrative goals. Survival with-out a sense of mission can indeed be the fore-runner of extinction."

24

'V.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. This report of the AACJC Commission onUrban Community Colleges should be pub-lished, released, and distributed in a mannerthat will bring it broad national attention.

2. National, regional, and local private philan-thropic foundations should be encouraged tofinance continued innovation by urban com-munity colleges in addressing the problems as-sociated with the central cities of America.

3. Because the special urban college mission isa costly one, it is urged that this report be usedto begin a dialogue with government decisionmakers so that they can better understand thefunding implications of our commitment to thecentral cities of America.

4. The AACJC Commission on Urban Commu-nity Colleges should appoint a special subcom-mittee responsible for ongoing collection ofprogrammatic and statistical information on ur-ban districts across the country. This informa-tion could be used by the commission and itsmembers to plot trends in u: ban areas and forcomparison purposes between those colleges.

5. A national conference or seminar on urbancommunity colleges should be sponsored by theAACJC Commission on Urban CommunityColleges in order to promote the exchange ofactivities and programs that are "working" inthose institutions.

6. The AACJC Commission on Urban Com-munity Colleges should articulate an urbanstrategy for addressing the problems of our na-tion's central cities and encourage the passageof a National Urban Extension Act wherein city'governments and urban community collegeswill form partnerships similarly as the RuralExtension Act made partners of county govern-ments and universities. Further, the act shouldbe designed to bring a comprehensive and coor-dinated approach to resolving the problems ofurban America.

7. The AACJC Commission on Urban Com-munity Colleges should develop a coalition ofthe urban institutions to acquire the fundingnecessary to give full-time staff assistance to theAACJC Federal Relations Office to facilitate theabove activities.

j325

VI.REFERENCES

Budding Communities: A Vision for a NewCentury, AACJC, 1988.

Challenge for the Urban Community College,AACJC Urban Community Colleges Com-mission, 1986.

Minorities in Urban Community Colleges,AACJC Urban Community Colleges Com-mission, 1988.

State of the Art in Community-BacPd Educa-tion in the American Community College,Kenneth B. McGuire, 1986.

The Greater Cleveland Area Urban Demonstra-tion Laboratory Model, 1988.

The Community College Commitment to theInner City. American Association of JuniorColleges, 1967.

2/

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ABOUT THEAUTHOR

aS.

-

Bud Weidenthal

Maurice D. (Bud) Weidenthal is a former jour-nalist and vice president of public affairs forCuyahoga Community College in Cleveland,Ohio. Since January 1989 he has been direc-tor of the Urban College Project of the AACJCCommission on Urban Community Colleges.In that capacity he visited ten central city com-munity college campuses throughout the coun-try to gather information for this report.

28

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