Hayden Lampe’s dream of getting a bachelor’s degree felt out of reach after she graduated with an associate degree at Feather River College in Quincy — that is, until the community college in rural Northern California won approval to offer a baccalaureate degree.
The nearest university to Quincy is 80 miles away, so getting a degree would have meant moving. Lampe put her higher education plans on hold when she found out that rent near the universities she was considering in Reno, Colorado or Oregon was unaffordable. So when Feather River College announced it would be offering a bachelor of science program in her field — ecosystem restoration and applied fire management — she realized she didn’t have to give up on her dream or move from the community she loves.
“All of my enthusiasm I lost came back with a vengeance,” Lampe said. “The approval of this program allows me to stay in this community that I love and I have deep roots in.”
Lampe was part of a panel of experts who discussed the promise of community college baccalaureates and the barriers to expanding these programs in California in a roundtable hosted by EdSource on July 19.
California has begun offering baccalaureate degrees at the community college as a way to make higher education more attainable for students while also helping the state meet its growing workforce demands. The state began piloting programs in 2014 before its expansion was permanently enshrined in state law by Assembly Bill 927 in 2021.
Feather River College’s plan to offer a baccalaureate doesn’t just help students like Lampe who would have given up on finishing their degrees. It’s a boon to the rural community wrestling with the destruction of the 2021 Dixie Fire without enough qualified conservation workers.
Pilot studies demonstrated a range of positive benefits to both students and their communities, said Constance Carroll, president and CEO of the California Community College Baccalaureate Association. Just over half of the students said they would not have pursued a baccalaureate degree. Their annual income improved by approximately $25,000. They stayed in the state: 94% of graduates of the pilot remained in California.
Community college baccalaureate degrees have exploded nationally in popularity recently, and the pandemic seemed to only hasten its expansion, said Angela Kersenbrock, president of the national Community College Baccalaureate expansion. It is offered at some level in 24 states, and there are currently approximately 670 programs around the country, she said.
Some states such as Washington, Texas and Florida began expanding access to these degrees long before California. But Kersenbrock applauded the state for approving up to 30 new baccalaureate programs each year, which she said will provide so many important opportunities to Californians. The first cycle of programs under AB 927 were approved in fall 2022.
A sticking point in expanding these programs are concerns that the California Community College will step on the toes of colleges and universities, including the CSU and UC systems.
Kersenbrock said data from other states with more expanded community college baccalaureate programs has not shown effect on the enrollment of its public and private universities — with the exception of for-profit colleges whose tuition is exponentially higher than at community colleges. (Tuition for a community college degree in California is $10,560 for all four years.)
This reticence about expanding degrees is enshrined in AB 927, a California law that requires that new community college baccalaureate programs do not duplicate programs offered elsewhere in the state.
For instance, Feather River College’s program initially faced opposition from the CSU system, because Cal Poly Humboldt was planning a degree in applied fire science. Feather River College argued that its degree is more narrowly focused on the needs of the High Sierra region not served by any university.
“Students will be able to learn about the management and restoration practices actually in the footprint of the Dixie Fire,” Lampe said. “It provides a very unique opportunity to have a workforce of people with a foundational understanding of the area.”
The conversation about duplication between community colleges and universities has made good progress, but it has been tricky, said Aisha Lowe, executive vice chancellor of the California Community Colleges Equitable Student Learning, Experience and Impact Office. That’s because the law doesn’t specify exactly what duplication is. “Is a program duplicative because 80% is similar or 50%? Is it a similarity among lower division coursework or upper division coursework?” Lowe said.
A big impetus for expanding baccalaureate programs to the state’s 116 community colleges is that the state is facing workforce shortages. But Carroll said the ban on duplicating programs offered at universities makes it hard for the state to address some of the most dire workforce shortages in fields, such as teaching and health care.
Kersenbrock said that, unlike California, most states’ require community colleges to show that a prospective baccalaureate program addresses labor gaps rather than demonstrating that it is not duplicating what may be offered at universities. Other states that initially barred program duplication have shifted the conversation to addressing labor gaps. Some states hire independent third-parties to ensure new baccalaureate programs are directly addressing gaps in the workforce.
“We’d be absolutely ready and excited to have those conversations when the state is ready,” said Lowe. “We really will need state leadership to lean into this.”
Lowe said the expansion of community college baccalaureate programs is crucial to meeting the governor’s goal of 70% of the state’s working adults attaining a bachelor’s degree by 2030. She points out that many universities are impacted now and certainly cannot increase capacity at the level that the state needs. Because community colleges are locally oriented, they’re well-situated to meet local needs in a way that the CSU or UC system cannot.
The type of student who gravitates toward a community college baccalaureate may have needs that cannot be met by the state’s universities, Carroll said. These students are on average 31 years old, and they are juggling family and work on top of their studies. These types of students, particularly in rural areas, are not able or willing to uproot their families and leave their jobs to finish their degree.
Lowe added that these students in urban centers may struggle with the geography of attending a university, too. Living an hour away from a university may put it out of reach of working adults managing family duties.
Carroll said 63% of the students in pilot programs were students of color, largely Latinos; 75% of these students faced an uphill battle in getting a degree, faced homelessness, food insecurity or were the first in their family to attend college. A study by UCLA calls for a “strategic expansion” of baccalaureate degrees by centering racial equity in the community college system.
“We’re serving a rainbow of students that mirror California’s diversity, equity and inclusion goals,” Carroll said.