Eastern Michigan University President Susan Martin recently testified to the Michigan Senate Education Committee against a bill that would allow community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees.
House Bill 4496, was introduced to the Michigan House of Representatives by Representative John Walsh on March 24, 2011.
According to the bill summary available at the official Michigan legislature website, it “would amend the Community College Act to allow community colleges to grant baccalaureate degrees in nursing, cement technology, maritime technology, energy
production technology and culinary arts.”
The bill was passed by the House and is currently waiting in the Senate.
According to a statement issued by EMU Executive Director of Media Relations Geoff Larcom, Martin argued the bill was unnecessary because community colleges and 4-year universities already maintain a highly collaborative relationship.
Furthermore, she said the bill would decrease college affordability and duplicate existing programs.
Michael Boulus, executive director of the presidents council, state universities of Michigan, agreed with Martin.
“The bill would make an unprecedented change in the state higher education policy, one that would lead to increased costs to the taxpayer and create duplicative services at a time when state resources are greatly restrained,” Boulus said.
Rep. Joel Johnson, Republican from the 97th district, said the bill would help students and industry.
“I feel that some of these subjects, particularly nursing, have been subjects that the community colleges have been able to train people [for] in the past, but some of the requirements are changing now and they [students] really need bachelor’s degrees,” Johnson said. “I think it would be a tremendous loss in access for many students if they were unable to be completely trained at the community colleges. I also think it would be a problem for the nursing industry as well.”
Boulus said this bill would not alleviate the issues.
“This will not increase capacity. This will just shift the numbers around. To increase capacity, you must have more money. You have to have more political positions, which we don’t we have—if we did, we’d be expanding programs. You’ve got to have infrastructure. You’ve got to have the faculty. The faculty is the biggest issue in terms of being able to expand programs,” Boulus said. “This bill will not produce one more nurse than we have today. It will not increase the workforce.”
Johnson said there is no indication community colleges intend to become comprehensive 4-year institutions, and they wouldn’t be considering any 4-year programs if it would substantially affect affordability.
“In my visiting with community colleges, they’ve indicated that they have no desire to cover the whole gamut on four-year degrees. There’s just a few subjects that they feel would be underserved and that’s the area that they want to look at,” he said. “From what I’ve seen, these folks are very fiscally conservative and they’re not going to do this if they can’t do it in a way that will be efficient and that they can still make money at and that won’t cause a problem cost wise for their other students.”
Boulus said that this bill would ultimately allow community colleges to invest in comprehensive baccalaureate programming and most community colleges in Michigan would take advantage of it.
“It will never be limited to just a few programs. That’s a smokescreen. That’s this year. Next year you’ll have a different legislature and a different community college coming in,” Boulus said. “We actually happen to know from a report from the community colleges that 26 out of the 28 community colleges want to have baccalaureate degrees…This will create 28 new public universities in Michigan over time.”
Adding to criticisms of the bill, Boulus said its objective is unconstitutional.
“The constitution has distinct missions for 2 years and 4 years. There is no blur here. In the 100-year history of community colleges, none has ever been converted into a 4 year school,” he said. “The legislature can allow is now a community college to offer 4 year degrees, but they would have to first become a university.”
Len Wolfe, attorney with Dykema law firm, conducted legal research on behalf of PCSUM and provided testimony to the Senate Education Committee.
“For the past 95 years, the Michigan Legislature has authorized some form of community college program ‘which courses shall not embrace more than two years of collegiate work.’ The Community College Act of 1966 has always prohibited community colleges from granting baccalaureate degrees. While many may believe that this is a statutory restriction, the underlying basis for this prohibition comes from the Michigan Constitution,” Wolfe said in his statement to the committee.
Governor Rick Snyder said he supports the bill and hopes it will benefit Michigan students.
“The areas that are talked about in this bill are high demand areas or areas that are very specialized. I look forward to a dialogue on this particular topic. I hope both the community colleges and the universities speak out,” Snyder said.
“The main result is it’s supposed to be thinking about the young adults and getting them a great career.”
