California community colleges prepare to ration their offerings

Now in his third year at Yuba College, a year he once hoped to spend in Chico or Davis, Robert Bond said every student he knows has struggled to get the classes they need, the Sacramento Bee reports.

“My first semester here, no math classes were open, so I couldn’t get a math class,” Bond, 20, lamented on the Yuba campus quad, decked in a sweat shirt and shorts on an unseasonably warm afternoon. “Basically it took me two years until I could get a math class, college-level Math 52. So I’m like way behind.”

Faced with state budget cuts since the recession – annual funding is now 12 percent below its 2008-09 high-water mark – community colleges have pared back course offerings. Yet demand remains sky high as costs at four-year universities shoot upward and unemployed Californians seek retraining. Community college leaders say it has become necessary to ration classroom seats like water in a drought. They plan to impose statewide rules that prioritize students working toward a degree, certificate or basic academic skills. To meet that end, students who make little progress or take classes for enrichment purposes will move to the back of the line……Read More

Walden University awards new scholarships to higher education professionals

The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership at Walden University today announced the first recipients of scholarships created to help foster the next generation of higher education professionals, reports the Sacramento Bee. The scholarships include one named in honor of Dr. Terry O’Banion, president emeritus of the League for Innovation in the Community College and Walden’s senior advisor for higher education programs. Dr. O’Banion, along with a coalition of national community college leaders, spearheaded the development of Walden’s Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in Community College Leadership program, the first online program of its kind…

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