Community Colleges Succeed Despite District Struggles

Each year approximately 16,000 students come to Los Angeles Valley College to further their education. Some are here to prepare to transfer to major universities and colleges. Others want to acquire vocational skills for immediate entry into the labor market. Still others come to improve basic skills or enrich their personal lives by exploring higher education and intellectual stimulation.

Whatever their exact purpose, students come to Valley College to learn, and our most recent accreditation report affirms an excellent academic program taught by competent, dedicated instructors and a student support system offering financial aid, tutoring, child care and job placement services.

In a recent series, The Times reported on several issues of concern to the Los Angeles Community College District and its campuses. This includes Valley College, of which I am president. For the most part, the articles were factual. But what they did not cover was the other half of the story: all that is good about the Los Angeles community colleges.

As mentioned in the Aug. 3 article, Valley College has developed a Transfer Alliance Program (TAP) that is one of the best in California. This program prepares students for acceptance to the University of California, California State University and private colleges and universities. Valley College has achieved a 98% acceptance rate to UCLA, and once our TAP students transfer there, 90% of them attain a better grade point average than the university’s upper-division students who entered UCLA as freshmen.

Valley College enjoys collaborative relationships with many of the San Fernando Valley’s high schools and has two excellent programs for concurrently enrolled high school students. Each semester, more than 450 participate in the Afternoon College, designed to assist high school students who wish to improve college eligibility. In the Early Start Program, Valley College instructors provide classes at high schools for more than 350 college-bound students. More than 40 employers, all members of the Valley chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Assn., have provided internships and paid summer employment to 60 Van Nuys High School juniors and seniors as part of our job skills Tech-Prep Program. Our most recent collaboration is a project to assist students in the Francis Polytechnic High School Math-Science Magnet to accelerate their transfer to UCLA.

For students interested in short-term paths to full-time employment, Valley College offers training for careers in nursing, respiratory therapy, fire technology, law enforcement, accounting and office administration, to name just a few. Our job training program has been highly successful in also placing individuals in the work force, boasting an impressive 87% success rate during the last four years. More than 750 people have benefited from this program before successfully returning to work.

A key example is our partnership with Burbank Aeronautical Corp. As a result of an ongoing, customized training program conducted at its Burbank facility, this company has hired 200 of our graduates. This is the most successful customized training program in Los Angeles. Another recent success was the training of new employees for the grand opening of the Wal-Mart store in Panorama City. Each received instruction, supplies and counseling as part of the course.

Valley College also is a collaborative partner in the citywide One-Stop Work Force Development Center, which offers an excellent service to the entire community, providing training in computers, literacy and related job skills.

Support comes in many forms. Recently an alumnus donated funds for a new weight-training facility for our campus athletic program. A community supporter offered a $500,000 challenge grant to support our new Media Arts Academy. A member of our foundation board, The Patrons Assn., was responsible for acquiring a sizable donation to name the campus theater in honor of director Francis Ford Coppola. HAAS Automation, an international machine tool manufacturer, is housing its latest equipment on campus for student training. And Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), the cable TV company, invested in the creation of our state-of-the-art Professional Media Resource Center, designed for staff development activities and distance learning programs, including job readiness seminars sponsored by KCET-TV, Channel 28.

Although the Los Angeles Community College District must attend to the issues enumerated in the Times articles, I urge the community to not lose sight of the excellent teaching and learning taking place day-in and day-out on our campuses. Yes, there is work to be done at the district level. But as we make those changes we are still, in spite of the daily struggles, performing the job entrusted to us, that of providing educational opportunities for the communities we serve.