Community Colleges

The decision by Alan Marcus and The Marcus Group to withdraw their $90,000 contract with Bergen Community College (N.J.) was the appropriate course of action given the county executive’s past practice of weeding out unnecessary and wasteful spending.

Raritan Valley Community College (N.J.) officials have tapped a former member of the college’s board of trustees to serve as interim president when the school's outgoing president steps down in June.

In the past decade, the policy of late registration—allowing students to continue registering during the first week (or more) of class—has come under scrutiny in the community college field. Advocates for late registration have argued for continuing this decades-old aspect of community college culture based on access and revenues.

Dwight Barnes, who teaches computer-integrated machining at Johnston Community College (N.C.), has a bold prediction for the program’s graduates. “Every one of our students will have a job when they graduate,” he says. “We get calls from companies every week asking to interview our students.”

A three-year faculty compensation agreement has been approved by the Southeast Community College (Neb.) Board. Faculty will receive an overall 3.36 percent increase in compensation, the first year of the agreement. That includes salary, health coverage and retirement.

Budget panels in both houses of the legislature rejected a provision in California Governor Jerry Brown's budget proposal that would limit community college students to 90 units, or force them to pay more than four times the current $46-per-unit price.

This fall, students attending Jackson Community College (Miss.) could start earning a four-year bachelor's degree in energy production technology or culinary arts.

The JCC Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution at its Monday, April 15 meeting asking for baccalaureate granting authority. This, JCC officials said, is required by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools’ Higher Learning Commission and the first step in the process.

Southeast Community College officials are reporting double-digit declines in enrollment. The year-to-year figure is down nearly 12 percent, and the spring quarter enrollment is down around 17 percent from the 2012 figure. The school says the final count of full-time students for the 2012-2013 school year is just over 8,800, compared with just under 10,000 the year before.

An 18-year-old student drove to a community college campus located inside a western Virginia mall on Friday, April 12, walked in, then opened fire -- wounding two women -- before being subdued by an off-duty security guard and two police officers, authorities said.

The state is close to selling the former Great Bay Community College campus in Stratham to Juliet Marine Systems, a Portsmouth-based defense contractor. The 90-acre site and its 100,000-square-foot building would be sold to the company for $2.75 million.