Article in Support of Candidate Lan Elizabeth Jefferson

By Lan Elizabeth Jefferson

I believe change starts at the top and we must have better leadership for our Community Colleges. I am convinced that Lan Jefferson is committed to making all of our Community Colleges a place of high quality education and that she will provide the leadership for the Community College Board that is needed to ensure this level of success will be reached for all of our Community Colleges!

My recent experience in San Diego has led me to believe that the San Diego Community College District Board is in desperate need of new leadership and that Lan Jefferson is the exact type of candidate that is needed now for the College Board. I worked as a visiting Professor in Sociology and Criminology at California State University San Marcos last school year. What was most noticeable in my classroom was the amount of new students. What I did not appreciate at the time was that the vast majority of these students were transfer students from the community colleges. I discovered that these "Freshmen", that made up the largest class of new students for this campus, were not from high schools in the area, but from community colleges.

Given this reality for the San Diego area and part of national trends that are taking place in our community colleges and state colleges/universities, it is imperative that we find leadership for Community Colleges that understand these trends and prepare our Community Colleges accordingly. This leadership must be first grounded in the community that it is designed to serve. There should also be an effort made to connect these community concerns to the way in which the community colleges are structured and how they operate now. Second, this leadership must understand what is needed for Community Colleges to prepare students for the rapidly developing new job market and the demands and requirements for 4-year colleges and universities now.

There is no doubt that there is a substantial amount of community college students that are successfully finishing their required course load and receiving AA certificates. What is most needed is not just an awareness of which students are able to complete these requirements and transfer to a 4-year college/university and/or move into the work force, but a keen sense of who is exactly being left out of this successful community college experience. I have looked at the Office of Institutional Research and Planning report from 2014 and I discovered a significant discrepancy in the 30 Unit Completion Rate for City College is 48% in comparison to the other two community colleges: Mesa College 59%; and Miramar College 70%. I find unconscionable in this day and age that we can have such abysmal successful community college completion rates for our students at one of our colleges, while the other two flourish. This 30 Unit Completion Rate is even more troubling given the fact that City College has the largest percentage of African Americans and Latinos/as. This begs the question of why City College is lagging so far behind the other schools? Who are these students that are not completing their course work in six years and what can be done to improve their course work completion record? We must also ask why the current leadership for the Community Colleges has allowed for this situation to become so dire and what is their level of commitment to making Community Colleges work for all of our students?

These are the exact reasons why I believe so strongly in Lan Jefferson's candidacy for the community college Board of Trustees and I am very convinced she possesses the leadership San Diego needs now for Community College Board. Lan Jefferson background includes a wealth of local education experiences, as well as academic expertise and training: Masters of Social Work in Public Policy and Social and Economic Development. She serves as a Citizens Equal Opportunity Commissioner and has also served as a Graduate Advisor for undergraduate students and Leadership Enhancement Coordinator for high school students.

I believe change starts at the top and we must have better leadership for our Community Colleges. We should expect and must demand higher-level success rates for ALL of our Community Colleges. We should not accept the fact that the Community College with the largest percentage of African Americans and Latinos/as has the lowest percentage of students with a 30 Unit Completion record. I am convinced that Lan Jefferson is committed to making all of our Community Colleges a place of high quality education and that she will provide the leadership for the Community College Board that is needed to ensure this level of success will be reached for all of our Community Colleges!

Darwin Fishman, Ph.D.