CHAPTER I

Introduction

DURING THE PAST 60 years, 2-year colleges have increased

rapidly in numbers and in enrollment of students. Over 650 institutions of the 2-year type have been established in this short period, and the number of students served each year by the public and private 2-year colleges has grown to the impressive total of over three-quarters of a million.

Considering the rate of development of the 2-year college movement, it is little wonder that procedures for the establishment of these colleges have not been examined exhaustively. If an institution succeeded, it was assumed that the conditions must have been adequate. If it failed, it was assumed that the conditions were inadequate or that adequate conditions had subsequently become inadequate.

An even greater acceleration in the further expansion of 2-year colleges is indicated by the growing demands of the American people for higher educational opportunities. There is urgent need, therefore, for answers to the questions, "When, where, and under what conditions should a 2-year college be established?" These are the questions that are being asked continually by committees of local citizens, boards of education, school superintendents, study commissions, and legislatures from many States. Answers to these questions were sought in the study reported in this bulletin.

Methods of Establishing the First 2-Year Colleges

In the first quarter of the 20th century, four different methods were used in establishing 2-year colleges. These were identified by the terms amputation, stretching, decapitation, and independent creation.1

1 Walter Crosby Eells. The Junior College. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1931. P. 44.

The independent creation method is used almost exclusively today; however, the effect of the other three methods is still evident. Nowhere is this effect seen more than in the repetition of an academic question, "Is the 2-year college an extension of the high school or the retraction of the 4-year college?"

The amputation method was used by a college or university which decided that its service could be improved by cutting off the first 2 years and establishing with this amputated part a separate institution or division. This lower division became known as the junior college, or the general college. The first example of this method may be found in the history of the University of Chicago when, in 1892, President William Rainey Harper established the first 2 years as a junior college.

The stretching method was used by a number of preparatory secondary schools and academies. In a time when transportation was somewhat difficult and few rural students had an opportunity to commute to college, some academies, especially along the eastern seaboard, expanded their programs to include the first 2 years of college work. Both public and private academies used this method extensively around the beginning of the 20th century. It is in evidence again as many private secondary schools see the needs and opportunities for service at the post-high school level.

The decapitation method was observed extensively during the first 20 years of this century. It was occasioned by small colleges realizing that they were not adequately equipped, staffed, or financed to satisfactorily offer a strong 4-year program. The institution, therefore, eliminated the upper division offerings and became a 2-year college. A former president of Yale described this action as the "retraction and condensation of a 4-year emaciated course to a robust and well nourished program."2 The rise in strength of the regional accrediting associations of colleges and secondary schools stimulated this method of organizing 2-year colleges.

The independent creation method did not gain much favor until around the 1920's. Through the years, increased experience in using this method, greater public knowledge and acceptance of 2-year colleges, and changing conditions in the socioeconomic setting of higher education have increased the odds for success of the method. In the early stages, however, the development was more by chance than by plan, and little attention was paid to desirable.or necessary criteria by which to judge in advance the likelihood of success of a 2-year college.

2 J. R. Angell. Problems Peculiar to the Junior College. School Review, 25: 6, June 1917, p. 387.

Scope, Status, and Nature of 2-Year Colleges

At the present time, 44 States have private 2-year colleges; 39 States have public 2-year colleges; and only one State, Nevada, has neither. In the United States and its outlying parts there are 677 2-year colleges; 398 public, and 279 private. The total cumulative enrollment of all 2-year colleges in 1958-59 was 905,062. Of this number, 806,849, or approximately eight-ninths, were in public 2-year colleges and 98,213, or one-ninth, in private 2-year institutions.

The rate of development of 2-year colleges and the type of institution varies greatly among the States. Of the 398 public 2-year colleges, California has 65; Texas, 35; Wisconsin, 31; New York, 20; Illinois and Mississippi, 17; Florida and Michigan, 16; Pennsylvania. 15; Kansas and Indiana, 14; Maryland and Oklahoma, 13; Georgia and Washington, 10. Most of the 279 private 2-year colleges are found in the eastern and southern States. New York has 23; North Carolina and Pennsylvania, 18; Massachusetts, 17; Illinois, Missouri, and Virginia, 12; Texas, 11; Mississippi and Kentucky, 10. The American Association of Junior Colleges' Directory includes 2-year technical institutes and 2-year extension centers of 4-year colleges and universities. Technical institutes are found mainly in New York and Michigan, and extension centers are found mainly in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Alabama, Ohio, Arkansas, and the District of Columbia.

Another list of 2-year colleges may be found in the Education Directory, Part 3, Higher Education for 1960 published by the Office of Education. Here, 585 institutions are classified in category I, which is defined as

2 but less than 4 years of work beyond the 12th grade-includes junior colleges, technical institutes, and normal schools offering at least a 2-year program of college-level studies;

The difference between this figure of 585 and the figure of 677 found in the Junior College Directory is easily explained. The Junior College Directory figure includes a complete listing of all 2-year colleges, whereas the Education Directory, Part 3, Higher Education uses the following criteria for its listing:

3 Junior College Directory, 1960. American Association of Junior Colleges. Washington, D.C. p. 30.

"Total cumulative enrollment: enrollment of both semesters and the 1958 summer session. Includes any person who enrolled during the college year with no person counted more than once." p. 3.

• Education Directory, Part 3, Higher Education, 1959-1960. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

p. 1.

1. Institutions accredited or approved by a nationally recognized accrediting agency, a State department of education, a State university, or operating under public control, are eligible for inclusion.

2. Institutions not meeting requirements of criterion 1 are eligible for inclusion if their credits are accepted as if coming from an accredited institution by not fewer than three fully accredited institutions.

Some indication of the growth in enrollments of 2-year colleges is found in the fall enrollment reports of the Office of Education. The total degree-credit student enrollment in the 2-year colleges in 1959 was 411,495, compared with 3,402,297 for all colleges, including the 2-year colleges. A significant point reported is that from 1948 to 1959 the enrollment of 2-year college degree-credit students increased 6.5 percent as compared to 4.1 percent for all other colleges. This growth is accounted for by the public 2-year colleges which grew 7.6 percent; the private 2-year colleges actually lost enrollments by 0.5 percent.

A more complete picture of 2-year college enrollment requires consideration of students who are carrying on other than degree-credit programs, that is, programs not creditable toward bachelor's degrees. Data on these terminal students are found in the Office of Education publication, Organized Occupational Curriculums. This series of publications reviews the yearly statistics of enrollments and graduates in curriculums defined under five specific criteria. Briefly, these criteria are:

1. High school graduation is required for admission to the curriculum.

2. A series of courses is included to prepare the individual for a given occupation or cluster of occupations.

3. The objective is to prepare the student for immediate employment.

4. The curriculum requires at least one but less than four full years of fulltime attendance to complete.

5. The courses in the curriculum lead to a formal award, such as the associate degree or similar certificate.

The scope and significance of these programs in organized occupational curriculums in 2-year colleges are evident from the tabulation below:

Edith M. Huddleston. Opening (Fall) Enrollment in Higher Education, 1959: Analytic Report. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. (Office of Education Circular 621.) Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960.

P. 14. The degree-credit enrollments include no terminal and adult education programs. Henry H. Armsby, Walter Crosby Eells, and S. V. Martorana. Organized Occupational Curriculums, Enrollments and Graduates, 1956, and 1957. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. (Office of Education Circular Nos. 512 and 568.) Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

The 1958 figures were secured from the third of the series of publications on organized occupational curriculums now in preparation.

Thus, for the first time in the annual studies, the number of 2-year colleges exceeded those of 4-year duration. A further significant fact in the study is that the 2-year institutions in 1958 were carrying a greater share of the load than the 4-year institutions, approximately three-fifths of the total enrollment of 206,374 being in the 2-year institutions.

Approximately one-eighth of all degree-credit students in higher education are enrolled in 2-year colleges, as are nearly one-fourth of the lower division students. In some States, such as California and Florida, projections of college enrollments are based on the expectation that in the next few years the number of students enrolled in 2-year colleges will reach, or exceed, 75 percent of all lower division students in the State.

The scope and the significance of 2-year colleges can only be realized by understanding the role of these institutions. This role was clearly stated in the Second Report to the President:

Community colleges are not designed, however, merely to relieve enrollment pressures on senior institutions. They have a role and an integrity of their own. They are designed to help extend and equalize opportunities to those who are competent and who otherwise would not attend college, and to present a diversity of general and specialized programs to meet the needs of diversified talents and career goals."

Review of the Literature on Criteria

As a part of this study, a review was made of the major significant writings dealing with criteria for establishing 2-year colleges in order to identify and examine criteria items for possible inclusion in the study.

A study made in 1929 summarized the results of a questionnaire inquiry completed by 266 high school administrators in the North Central area and presented criteria which could serve as a basis for determining the feasibility of organizing this educational unit (the 2-year college). These criteria are given below:

Second Report to the President [Dwight D. Eisenhower]. The President's Committee on Education Beyond the High School. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, July 1957. p. 65.