Current "State of the Proposed Merger"

[adminjulia]

If this matters at all to you, it's time to step up and make your voice heard. Don't delay if you care.

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The "merger" of two-year colleges and tech schools
genmail-bounces@ls.gpc.edu [genmail-bounces@ls.gpc.edu] on behalf of Beth A Jensen [Beth.Jensen@gpc.edu]
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 19:16

GPC Faculty and Staff,

The Tough Choices or Tough Times Committee is quietly maneuvering as it prepares its final recommendation for Governor Perdue. GPC’s forceful response against the December 15 Tough Choices proposal to consolidate the two-year colleges with the technical schools may have prevented an immediate merger. If we had done nothing, many believe the merger would be a “done-deal.” We are now concerned that our recent silence may be viewed as complacency.

It appears that the Chair of the Higher Education Committee, Senator Seth Harp, in consultation with Lt. Gov. Cagle, will permit House Bill 294 to die in committee. (We supported HB 294 because it required legislative approval to change the technical schools, a deterrent to the merger.)

Lt. Gov. Cagle has recently appointed a “Senate Study Committee on the Merger of Georgia Technical and Two-year Colleges.” The Senate Study Committee begins its discussion, Monday, March 23, so an immediate response on our part is essential.

We need to remind our governor, lieutenant governor, and state representatives that we do not support the merger of the two-year colleges with the technical schools. We also need to contact the members of the “Senate Study Committee on the Merger of Georgia Technical and Two-year Colleges.” This time, however, we need to CALL and e-mail. Below are the phone numbers for each party along with their e-mail addresses.

Summary of our opposition to the merger:

1. The Tough Choices or Tough Times Committee did not have DIRECT two-year college representation.

Its membership consisted of politicians, commissioners, businesspeople, teachers and administrators from K-12, an executive director from the Governor’s Office, and three high-ranking tech school officials: Carl Swearingen, Chair of the Technical College System of Georgia Board; Ron Jackson, Commissioner, Technical College System of Georgia, and the committee’s Co-Chair Dean Alford, a current member of the Technical College System of Georgia Board. The two members from the USG (an associate professor from Georgia State and the Executive Vice-Chancellor with oversight over research institutions) are not DIRECT representatives of two-year colleges.

The two-year colleges have much at stake, and one of their presidents should have represented our interests.

2. Missions of a tech school and a two-year college differ.

Two-year colleges prepare students for their junior and senior years. They teach students to think critically. Technical schools prepare students for immediate entry into the workplace. They teach them a specific skill.

3. Two-year colleges are the only point of access to the four-year institutions for many students (non-traditional students; remedial students; ESL students; students who have made poor choices). Without this point of entry, many Georgia students will be denied a USG education.

4. In Kentucky, a merger identical to the one The Tough Choices Committee is recommending has resulted in a notable decline in the number of students transferring to four-year institutions from the comprehensive community college system which formed ten years ago.

In Kentucky, university requirements make it difficult to transfer academic credits; the community college system lacks sufficient financial aid and advisors to help students transition to the four-year institutions; and the four-year schools are reluctant to recruit community college students. In essence, a caste system has formed.

In Kentucky, the academic value of the two-year colleges has decreased in this tech school/liberal arts hybrid.

5. The effect this will have on the four-year institutions.

Two-year colleges in Georgia transfer approximately 50,000 students a year to four-year colleges and universities. Transfers will decrease, resulting in a decline in the number of classes offered and in the budgets received at the USG four-year institutions. As a result, faculty and staff may lose their jobs.

Please CALL (leaving a voicemail is fine) and e-mail the following to express your views today:

1. Governor Perdue
Call: 404-463-6225
Georgia.Governor@gov.state.ga.us

2. Lt. Gov. Cagle
Call: (404) 656-5030
CaseyCagle@ltgov.ga.gov

3. The Senate Study Committee is meeting today, Monday, March 23, so CALL and e-mail as soon as possible:

I. Sen. John Douglass 404-375-1234
john.douglas@senate.ga.gov

II. Sen. Chip Rogers 404-463-2535
chip.rogers@senate.ga.gov

III. Sen. Cecil Staton 404-656-5039
cecil.staton@senate.ga.gov

IV. Sen. Jack Murphy 404-656-7127
jack.murphy@senate.ga.gov

V. Sen. Seth Harp 404-463-3931
seth.harp@senate.ga.gov

4. To locate your state representative and senator, go to congress.org (Be sure to tell them you are their constituent.)

This is like voting. Don’t count on the person down the hall to call or to write, and please don’t think that your calls and e-mails don’t matter because we have proof that they do.

Thanks,
Beth

Beth Jensen, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Georgia Perimeter College
GPC Online
678-584-0459