‘Neglected Campuses’

As vice president of the board of trustees of the Los Angeles Community Colleges, I applaud The Times for its thoughtful editorial on the problems and opportunities of America’s two-year colleges (“Neglected Campuses,” April 24). The attention focused on our colleges by educators and journalists has highlighted both the importance of the service we provide, and the difficulties of maintaining and reinvigorating our programs.

One of the most significant responsibilities of community colleges, which we share with four-year institutions, is to provide quality “lower-division” education--the first two years of postsecondary academic work. More than 40% of our students say their goal is to transfer to a four-year institution to complete the bachelor’s degree.

For our transfer-oriented students, many of them first-generation entrants into higher education, it is imperative that the access afforded by community colleges be accompanied by academic programs and supportive learning environments at least equal to those available in public universities. Equality of opportunity requires not only parity of resources, but in many cases augmented resources to offset preparation deficiencies.

Unfortunately, funding patterns for the tripartite system of higher education in California have followed precisely the opposite trend, with limited budget increases favoring the University of California and California State University over community colleges.

While we certainly would not advocate or support a reduction in the quality of the UC and CSU systems, we are painfully aware that our own lack of resources hampers our ability to fully serve our students and the citizenry which supports our colleges.

We see a great many success stories among our students. But we also see avoidable failures. If we are to achieve our goals, we must have, first, the kind of careful analysis of needed improvements performed by The Times and a variety of education foundations and commissions; second, a much closer working relationship with other segments of public education, as well as with business and industry and the communities which we serve; and third (and perhaps most important), a level of funding from the state which will allow our colleges to provide the quantity and quality of services which educators and business and community leaders recognize is critical for our students and our society.

LINDSAY CONNER

Vice President

Board of Trustees

Los Angeles Community Colleges