commentary

Washington Watch: FY25 TRIO funding still in flux

With less than two weeks left in fiscal year 2025, many community colleges have not yet received their expected TRIO award disbursements. Many colleges expected to see awards processed for TRIO’s Upward Bound, Veterans Upward…


Investing in relationships as a workforce development strategy

Community colleges are essential to workforce and economic development ecosystems, and our speed to market strategies facilitate talent recruitment and development, workforce retention and upskilling. Our institutions are well-known in our regions as problem-solvers for…


Washington Watch: ED to nix funding for MSI grants

The U.S. Education Department (ED) on Wednesday announced that it will end discretionary funding to several Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) grant programs that provide substantial support to community colleges, including Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs),…


Powering local innovation through workforce development

Community colleges educate a significant portion of our communities’ current and future workforce, serving as key producers of local talent and providers of workforce training. For example, today, in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area, Maricopa…


Washington Watch: Setting the table for upcoming neg-reg sessions

The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) last week filed public comments on the sector’s priorities for implementing the education components of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) reconciliation legislation. AACC’s comments were part of…


House Republicans release key funding bill

The House Appropriations Committee leadership has released the text of the fiscal year 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS-ED) appropriations bill. As expected, the bill makes deep cuts to education…


Equipping the toolbelt generation

In higher education, we are often reminded of the inevitable: we are standing on the edge of an enrollment cliff. The number of people turning 18 each year is declining nationwide, and in turn, annual…


Sustainability as strategy

As community college leaders, we face mounting pressures: tighter budgets, changing student demographics and changing funding landscape. At Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3), we discovered that sustainability isn’t just about doing good — it’s smart…


The quiet power of organizational culture

After 25 years in higher education leadership, spanning classrooms, boardrooms and crisis rooms, one lesson rises above the rest — one I wish I had fully appreciated at the start of my journey: leadership is…


The benefits of women’s sports

The National Junior College Athletic Association’s Region 19 — which comprises 26 two-year colleges in New Jersey, Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania — is proud of its women’s sports opportunities. During the 2024-2025 academic year, 999…