NPC appoints Community College Task Force

[Titchou]

NPC could certainly qualify it to be only those CCs that offer 4 year degrees. They can craft it any way they want. But I do think it bears investigating rather than continuing to ignore the requests and changes in higher ed and the women who might want the sorority experience.

[SWTXBelle]

YES IT BEARS INVESTIGATING.

And it bears analyzing actual data, as opposed to relying on anecdotal stories of what you personally have observed, or your 'feeling'. Earlier I posted to a breakdown on demographics from Columbia University, which I don't think many have bothered to check out, or they'd know that 23% of students come from a household income of $106,000 or more, for example. 49 percent of Black students and 51 percent of Hispanic students who enrolled that year started at community colleges. Do we really want to diversify? This is a piece of that puzzle.

Ultimately, I am going to wait and see what the research committee finds out before deciding my opinion.

[Titchou]

Amen, Belle!

[Cookiez17]

Okay I'm speaking as someone who went to a big transfer campus and was aware of the schools people would come from: maybe this program could work if a CC looks at places where students transfer the most and then the NPCs would form CC chapters so if a campus has ABC they can associate with the ABC chapter on said campus? But that would take a lot of collaboration between the CC campus and the uni that has that sorority on it.

[carnation]

I highly doubt that the chapters at the 4-year college campuses are going to agree to affiliate the CC women automatically and that's a huge problem we've been discussing, cookiez--if they expect a seamless transition, it's unlikely to happen.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by carnation

I highly doubt that the chapters at the 4-year college campuses are going to agree to affiliate the CC women automatically and that's a huge problem we've been discussing, cookiez--if they expect a seamless transition, it's unlikely to happen.

Originally Posted by 33girl

Affiliating is already a problem between 4 year branches and main campuses. This would make it worse.

.

[navane]

Originally Posted by Cookiez17

Okay I'm speaking as someone who went to a big transfer campus and was aware of the schools people would come from: maybe this program could work if a CC looks at places where students transfer the most and then the NPCs would form CC chapters so if a campus has ABC they can associate with the ABC chapter on said campus? But that would take a lot of collaboration between the CC campus and the uni that has that sorority on it.

I appreciate that you are trying to look at things from all angles. In San Diego County we have three public universities, one private university, and 8 community colleges. I'm just not sure how feasible it would be to work out the "combinations" in order to meet the affiliation needs of most women.

[ForeverRoses]

Vincennes University in Indiana is a 2 year school (with a very few 4 year degree offerings) and they have local sororities and fraternities. Somehow those seem to do fine even with a 2-year turnover. Maybe due to Vincennes being somewhat residential.

[33girl]

This is another thought I had as to why this task force was created. Are local groups forming at the CCs, the CCs are worried about risk management, and they want national groups to help shoulder the burden?

[carnation]

At one college where I taught (many of you know which one), the school forced the locals to nationalize. I expect it was due to liability issues, which were so bad that I really don't know why no one was seriously injured.

[navane]

Originally Posted by ForeverRoses

Vincennes University in Indiana is a 2 year school (with a very few 4 year degree offerings) and they have local sororities and fraternities. Somehow those seem to do fine even with a 2-year turnover. Maybe due to Vincennes being somewhat residential.

Vincennes University is an anomaly with a unique history. I wouldn't hold that institution up as an example compared to the typical 2-year community colleges found across the U.S.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by navane

Vincennes University is an anomaly with a unique history. I wouldn't hold that institution up as an example compared to the typical 2-year community colleges found across the U.S.

Vincennes has been offering Bachelor Degrees since 2005, so may be allowable under today's rules of expansion. Vincennes first dormitory was in 1968.

There are a few other schools that currently or formerly had dorms while only offering 2 year programs.

Richard Bland College which is a two year that is part of the William and Mary System has dormitories, so that would fall into that group and UVA -Wise (which used to be Clinch Valley College) fell into that group prior to becoming a 4 year school.

Southwestern Oregon Community College currently falls into that group.

[Cookiez17]

I see that and as people have stated we'll have to see if the NPC decides to go through with the program they certainly will have weighted out the pros and cons of it all.

[PittDZ]

Here in Texas, we have 2 programs that accept community college students. The one at Texas A&M is called Blinn Team and the one at the University of Texas is called PACE. Students attend CC + 1 class at the main university for Freshman year and are guaranteed admission if they attain a certain GPA, which I think is about a 3.2-3.5. I believe they are limited to certain majors, such as Communications, Education, Liberal Arts, and Social Work. Most of the sororities accept these transfer students although, if I am being honest, they are not usually at the top of their lists. Most of these students were of the caliber of wait list students at major universities which, in Texas, are those that were not in the top 10-15% of their graduating classes. This is clearly difficult for those that attend high-performing suburban high schools with high academic standards which, in every other state, would be sought after students by your state universities. That is why so many of our top students attend out-of-state universities, such as Oklahoma, Missouri, LSU, Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, and Arkansas.

[BlueBayou]

Originally Posted by PittDZ

Here in Texas, we have 2 programs that accept community college students. The one at Texas A&M is called Blinn Team and the one at the University of Texas is called PACE. Students attend CC + 1 class at the main university for Freshman year and are guaranteed admission if they attain a certain GPA, which I think is about a 3.2-3.5. I believe they are limited to certain majors, such as Communications, Education, Liberal Arts, and Social Work. Most of the sororities accept these transfer students although, if I am being honest, they are not usually at the top of their lists. Most of these students were of the caliber of wait list students at major universities which, in Texas, are those that were not in the top 10-15% of their graduating classes. This is clearly difficult for those that attend high-performing suburban high schools with high academic standards which, in every other state, would be sought after students by your state universities. That is why so many of our top students attend out-of-state universities, such as Oklahoma, Missouri, LSU, Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, and Arkansas.

This is very true. Depending on your test scores - you can come out of these suburban HS in the top of the 3rd quarter (3.5gpa) - but qualify for near in state tuition at OSU, 'Bama, LSU, Ole Miss. I've written one TAMU reference (For a junior) the rest have been Arkansas, Ole Miss, OSU and Alabama. These High Schools have around 1250/25 average test scores. And that is the average. I think the state average ACT is 20.5.

But also the cost of college has skyrocketed. I found my first college bill cleaning out my mom's things last week. The whole bill, Tuition, Fees, Room and full meal plan was around $1600 in 1985. If you take into account inflation - that would be $3,830. My daughter's bill at a school in the UT system - before we cancelled the apartment for the semester - $10,845 (It's now $7345). That is a HUGE difference in price.

This whole COVID distance learning thing is once again bringing the value of the current college education structure into question.

I don't know what the answer is - but I think that at least in Texas - if the community college has 4 year degrees and a level of student retention, I can see having NPC orgs. But with the understanding that there is no guarantee that you can transfer your affiliation. Just like if I went to Texas State and transfered to UT.

Having pledged at a school without houses, but the houses were built and open by my senior year - I see the pluses of having the "traditional" sorority experience. But I still felt like I was having a full sorority experience before the house was built.