Competing Interests
With California community colleges experiencing severe budget woes, residents take issue with one district’s international student recruitment efforts.
2 Responses to “Competing Interests”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
January 18th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
It is one thing for the uninformed to make rash statements as those quoted from the San Jose Mercury News regarding the recruitment of international students; but when someone from the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy can produce such garbage as “you have native student populations that are not being successful, yet you are getting an influx of international students,” then one needs to ponder the legitimacy of their scholarship. The California State University system has eight campuses that rank in the top 40 masters granting institutions in the nation to host international students (Open Doors, 2007). Why then should Dr. Ceja and his colleagues put a negative spin on the international engagement of these community colleges?
One of the many missions of the American community college is to prepare students for transfer to baccalaureate granting institutions. With that established, why should these institutions not participate in the global education community? The recruitment, admission, and presence of international students on community college campuses in California and throughout the United States have nothing to do with the dismal performance and under-enrollment of Californian students. Miguel Ceja and those like him who pass themselves off as scholars need to turn their attention to assisting the state’s K-12 system out of the quagmire they find themselves, and leave community colleges to prosper.
As institutions within the higher education system, community colleges cannot afford to be left behind; it is imperative that they keep pace with the realities of globalization and its impact on higher education. No longer can we view community colleges as simply serving a parochial mission. Those of us in four-year institutions must cease and desist from dumbing down and assassinating the good name o
January 18th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
It is one thing for the uninformed to make rash statements as those quoted from the San Jose Mercury News regarding the recruitment of international students; but when someone from the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy can produce such garbage as “you have native student populations that are not being successful, yet you are getting an influx of international students,” then one needs to ponder the legitimacy of their scholarship. The California State University system has eight campuses that rank in the top 40 masters granting institutions in the nation to host international students (Open Doors, 2007). Why then should Dr. Ceja and his colleagues put a negative spin on the international engagement of these community colleges?
One of the many missions of the American community college is to prepare students for transfer to baccalaureate granting institutions. With that established, why should these institutions not participate in the global education community? The recruitment, admission, and presence of international students on community college campuses in California and throughout the United States have nothing to do with the dismal performance and under-enrollment of Californian students. Miguel Ceja and those like him who pass themselves off as scholars need to turn their attention to assisting the state’s K-12 system out of the quagmire they find themselves, and leave community colleges to prosper.
As institutions within the higher education system, community colleges cannot afford to be left behind; it is imperative that they keep pace with the realities of globalization and its impact on higher education. No longer can we view community colleges as simply serving a parochial mission. Those of us in four-year institutions must cease and desist from dumbing down and assassinating the good name of the community college movement.