Higher Ed's Other Goals

By Carol A. Lucey, PhD
President, Western Nevada Community College

Reprinted by permission of the Community College Times, 2/15/05, Vol. 17, No. 4.

Recently, an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on the results of a survey of the general public, about why people think college is important. The Chronicle survey sought to help its readership understand how our business was being perceived by the general public. The majority of respondents said that college was most important as a help for people to get good jobs. Educators sometimes call this point of view "vocationalism," and it is assuredly an important factor in American higher education.

The belief that the primary role of college is to help people prepare for a career, however, always flummoxes people in the education business, and here's why. Most of us do not really believe the most important outcome of a college education is to help a student get a good job. Still, it is certainly true that large numbers of our students elect to attend college because they have chosen a career that requires a college education. To teach, to become a health care worker or an engineer or a technician, in fact to become a professional of any type, generally requires either a two-or four-year college degree. And certainly colleges contribute to the idea that they serve an important role in career preparation, by the way they often highlight their career programs.

However, the best college programs do not stop at simple career preparation. General education courses in college are those classes designed to help students learn about the world outside their own immediate experience, learn to analyze arguments critically and to communicate clearly, become more introspective about their actions, and come to respect different opinions and enhance their skills of citizenship. Also, the best instructors in career-oriented courses, whether those be courses in differential equations, computer network administration, clinical nursing, or accounting, are also looking for opportunities to teach to their students the values of a strong general education. This type of a college education can often produce a sense of intellectual liberation in students, and so has historically been called a "liberal education." The term liberal here has no political significance.

Now, as community college educators discuss with legislators why it is so important to continue to fund a strong higher education system that maintains access for all students able to benefit from college, we often struggle with the subtle and seemingly conflicted distinctions between the values of vocationalism and liberal, or general, education. Both are vitally important to the college experience. Community colleges need the resources to produce more engineers, teachers and nurses for our nation. That is our very important, vocational goal. However, we also must be cognizant of our other, equally important goal: we want our students to become engaged citizens and voters, strong and involved parents, better PTA officers and service organization members, and more discerning and critical newspaper readers. In this way, more broadly available college experiences protect our society and our democracy. While students (and their parents) may be attracted to college by the opportunity to pursue a good career, collectively, we cannot afford to lose sight of the importance to our states and our nation of these other college goals.