The day of the community colleges is here

IT WAS A heady moment for community colleges on Oct. 5 when second lady and longtime community college educator Jill Biden hosted the nation's first White House summit on community colleges, and President Obama reiterated his goal of America leading the world in producing college graduates by 2020.

"And I believe community colleges will play a huge part in meeting this goal, by producing an additional 5 million degrees and certificates in the next 10 years," President Obama said.

As president of Community College of Philadelphia - the only public institution of higher education in the city - I greatly appreciate the White House emphasis on the importance of community colleges in securing the nation's economic future. It isn't often that the nation's 1,200 two-year colleges receive such attention.

Year after year, community colleges have flown under the radar, educating and training more and more Americans until our students now represent nearly half of all U.S. undergraduates. Our impact is even more acute during difficult economic times. During the recent recession, for example, many community colleges across the nation experienced double-digit increases in enrollment.

But if community colleges are to achieve Obama's goal of producing 5 million more graduates by 2020, there must be a better understanding of what we do, how we do it and the challenges we face. The White House summit was a step in the right direction.

Since 1965, CCP has helped more than 627,000 people obtain associate degrees, certificates and training. Each year, we educate more than 39,000 credit and noncredit students. Our faculty members have provided on-site training and education at a variety of workplaces, such as PGW, the Federal Reserve Bank and Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Our graduates are well represented among the city's nurses, respiratory technologists, lab technicians, social workers, dental hygienists, office assistants, police officers and other first-responders. Nearly, 4,200 students avail themselves of the college's 151 distance education courses. And, in May, we graduated more students than at any other time in our history, with 1,639 students receiving 1,884 degrees and certificates.

Those are some of the highlights - now for some of the challenges.