Community Colleges and Unequal Higher Education

• In Event: 63.087 - Sheraton Roundtable Session 11 - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 63.087-4 - Revisiting the Contradictory College: 25 Years Later

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to place Dougherty’s (1994) The Contradictory College in the context of relevant research and scholarship on U.S. higher education since its publication. Fligstein and McAdam’s (2012) “theory of fields” casts enterprises such as U.S. higher education as competitive social spaces that are governed by taken-for-granted rules. The rules of the field have changed in two dramatic ways since 1994. These changes inform the continued relevance of The Contradictory College.

First, student enrollments have grown dramatically (Cantwell et al. in press; Marginson, 2016). In the 21st century, enrollments have risen at the rate of about 200,000 students per year (Author, in press). Growing numbers of participants need more and better enrollment destinations. However, the second major change has been a decline in the number of good value enrollment options. This shifting institutional landscape largely reflects declining direct government support for higher education (SHEEO, 2016). In my presentation, I will show that since the Great Recession, the number of good value “Subsidy Reliant” four-year public institutions has fallen while the share of low value “Vulnerable” institutions has risen (Author, in press).

More students contending for fewer good value seats make it likely that the community college has become even more contradictory since 1994. Yet, community colleges likely play an ever more crucial access role than the boosters that Dougherty (1994) termed advocates “advocates” claimed in the past. Providing affordable access to a diverse body of students matters more than ever in a context of rising indebtedness, variable graduation rates, and large gaps in attainment between Black and White students (Author, in press).
At the same time, it is unclear where the resources to do this work will be found. Those whom Dougherty (1994) identified as “critics” might find their worst fears confirmed as financial pressures lead to mission drift (e.g., Barringer & Jaquette, 2018). In this context, the state and local officials that Dougherty (1994) thought were crucial to prior generations of community colleges have likely become even more central. This raises its own challenges, with local variation perhaps more pronounced than before. In such a highly localized context, the resources to sustain a long-term reform agenda are both sorely needed and difficult to imagine.

Author

• Barrett Taylor, University of North Texas