Three colleges vie for four-year status

Giving community colleges the ability to offer four-year degrees is being met with criticism.

By STEPHEN HEGARTY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 17, 2002

PORT ORANGE -- After St. Petersburg College paved the way for other community colleges to offer four-year degrees, three other Florida colleges offered proposals of their own.

But the prospect of creating a new tier of Florida colleges is off to a rocky start.

The group that reviews such matters, the Council for Education Policy, Research and Improvement, has recommended that the proposals be rejected.

On Tuesday, the colleges made their pitch to the Florida Board of Education, which has the final say, and the subsequent discussion indicates how contentious the issue could be.

"Are we setting up a new level of colleges?" board member Carolyn Roberts asked rhetorically. "And if we are, we need to do it carefully."

The seven-member board appears to be divided on the issue, though some members are withholding judgment until next month.

The prospect of allowing community colleges to grant four-year degrees is inherently controversial because it stirs up potential turf battles in higher education and calls into question the different missions of community colleges and universities. Traditionally, community colleges and junior colleges handle the first two years of higher education. They offer two-year degrees, and for many they provide a steppingstone to a university.

Baccalaureate degrees have been the sole responsibility of universities and four-year colleges.

But with Florida lagging nationally in the number of four-year degrees, educators and lawmakers have been searching for ways to improve. Sen. Don Sullivan, R-St. Petersburg, promoted a bill to let St. Petersburg Junior College -- now called St. Petersburg College -- offer some four-year degrees. That opened the door for other community colleges.

The community colleges submitting proposals are Chipola Junior College in the Panhandle, Miami-Dade Community College and Edison Community College in Fort Myers. The proposals include a degree program for special education teachers and a business administration degree, both areas of high demand.

Earlier, Sullivan blasted the education policy council's recommendations to reject the proposals. In a sharply worded letter, Sullivan accused the council of putting "obstacles in the path of much-needed change in the delivery of post-secondary education."

Sullivan requested that Education Secretary Jim Horne and Board of Education chairman Phil Handy appear before a joint committee of the Legislature to discuss the matter.

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