
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993                   TAG: 9305180343
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ROGER WILSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COMMUNITY COLLEGE MAY BE BEST CHOICE

I THOUGHT the financial advice for parents of would-be college students that was in the April 26 issue of this newspaper ("Advice for parents planning - or cramming - for college" by Mag Poff, and "No money doesn't have to mean no diploma" from Knight/Ridder-Tribune) was a well-intentioned public service for your readers. As I perused the two articles, I kept waiting to read something like this:

"An excellent way for parents to cut their children's college expenses way down is to send them to their local community college for their freshman and sophomore years, and then let them transfer to the four-year college or university of their choice for their junior and senior years."

Instead, look what I read after one article gloomily forecast that most families won't be able to afford college: "But that doesn't mean their kids . . . must settle for a two-year community college" [emphasis added].

For how much longer must the first two years of study at community colleges continue to be perceived as inferior to the first two years of study at four-year colleges and universities? Let's consider the following:

At a community college, virtually all transfer courses are taught by faculty members with advanced degrees (including Ph.D.'s), and the faculty's main responsibility is teaching. At many universities, many freshman- and sophomore-level courses are taught by graduate students whose main concern is completing their own studies. Even when university professors do teach freshman- and sophomore-level courses, their main interests are usually researching and publishing. It is not uncommon for a university to terminate untenured professors who are not publishing enough, even if their students evaluate them as outstanding classroom teachers!

Class sizes at community colleges tend to be relatively small, typically around 25 to 30. At many universities, freshman survey courses often have enrollments in the hundreds.

Community college faculty tend to want to help their students succeed in the academic world. At some universities, freshman survey courses are deliberately designed to flunk out those students who have yet to master good study habits.

Study after study has shown that during junior and senior years, graduates of community colleges tend to do as well academically as those students who completed their first two years of study at senior institutions.

Many recent high-school graduates are still unsure what their academic goals are. Typically freshman- and sophomore-level courses - whether taught at two- or four-year institutions - expose students to a broad range of subject matter. From such experience, students learn what they want to major in. Even if they go to a four-year institution to begin with, some wind up transferring to another college with stronger programs in their chosen majors. Why should parents pay up to $10,000 or more a year for their teen-agers to figure out what they want to do in life?

Most typical freshman students live away from home for the first time in their life when they go away to college. For many the sudden rush of seemingly unbridled freedom is more than they can responsibly handle. All too often many flunk out after a semester or two of partying. A local community college allows for a smoother transition to independence and maturity at a much more reasonable cost.

For all these reasons, many parents and their college-bound teen-agers should give their local community college serious consideration as the best place to begin the recent high-school graduate's pursuit of a higher education.

Roger Wilson of Roanoke is associate professor of speech at Virginia Western Community College.

by CNB