n State of College address, LBCC president says six-year completion rates are 'unacceptable'

Sean Belk
Staff Writer
It takes “way too long” for students to move on from community college.
That was the final message that Long Beach City College (LBCC) Superintendent-President Eloy Ortiz Oakley left with people during his annual “State of the College” address on Friday, Feb. 6.
During the event that filled the Hall of Champions Gymnasium at LBCC’s Liberal Arts Campus (LAC) with hundreds of attendees, including college staff, faculty and administration, along with local government officials, Oakley touched on a number of successes the college has achieved over the past year, including continuing its $616-million modernization plan, adding more course offerings and hiring 53 new faculty.
In addition, Oakley said Gov. Jerry Brown’s new state budget, which was released last month, is “the best budget we’ve seen in years” that gives a “rosy outlook,” continuing a rebound from nearly three years ago, when the State’s financial woes forced LBCC to make harsh budget cuts just before voters passed a statewide tax initiative.
At the end of his speech, however, Oakley called on college officials, including the Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees, to make college completion for students a “primary mission” in coming years.
He explained that, at LBCC, 42 percent of students earned associate degrees, certificates or enough units to transfer to a four-year university in a six-year timeframe. However, only 27 percent of students moved on from community college in four years. And, in two years, only 5 percent of students left the college.
The problem, Oakley said, is “the way that our system is structured in the way that we have expectations for our students.”
Currently, community colleges across the state and country use a model that measures college completion rates in a six-year timeframe, he said, adding that state and federal legislative bodies see this model as the standard. However, Oakley challenged college officials and legislators to change this mentality by “tightening” measures of student success and shortening the number of years expected for completion.
“I’m proposing that Long Beach City College strive to do better,” he said. “I propose that we change the way we measure success and then change the outcome. We need to start tightening up the way we measure our success rates, first by using [a] completion rate of a four-year timeline and then moving, over time, to a three-year completion rate. This will really tell us and you all in the community how successful we really are at moving students through the system.”
Oakley said that the college also needs to change the “culture” of student success by putting a focus on getting students through college faster, adding that LBCC can build on the recent success of its Associates Degree for Transfer program, which guarantees a “pathway” for students going on to a four-year California State University institution in addition to the Long Beach College Promise program for high school students.
LBCC offered pathways to 300 students who transferred to a four-year university last year, Oakley said, noting that this ranks the college second in Southern California and 12th statewide among community colleges that are awarding these degrees. 
“I think we’ve made great progress in years, Promise Pathways is one great example, but we can and we must do more,” he said. “We need to take a hard look at the way we schedule classes and ensure that the priority is placed on students.”
Oakley said the college would need to “re-engineer” the way students enroll at LBCC, “eliminate barriers,” and “revamp” the way faculty counsels and advises incoming students to make this objective possible.
“We need to arm [students] with all the tools necessary for them to succeed,” he said. “This is not going to be easy. This is actually going to be pretty hard. Many institutional and regulatory barriers exist. It’s going to take a lot of big changes, and it’s going to take courage, but the status quo is simply unacceptable.”
Oakley called on the faculty, staff and administration in addition to the Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees to join in “raising the bar” for completion rates as a goal for the college’s five-year strategic plan.
Meanwhile, Oakley recognized Leangkheng “Lin” Ouk, who is a recent Promise Pathways graduate. Although the student achieved “excellent” grades in high school, she was placed in remedial classes after taking the LBCC entrance exams, he said. Ouk was later placed in college-level classes due to the Promise Pathways alternative placement. She is currently a student at California State University, Long Beach, pursuing a goal of owning a fashion-design business.
Greg Davis, a product of LBCC’s commercial-driver program who launched his own trucking business, was also recognized.
Oakley also honored business owner Max Aram, who received a no-interest loan of $100,000 from LBCC’s newly established Innovation Fund SoCal. His solar-energy business is now growing and has gone from having two full-time employees to six.
Oakley noted that LBCC is home to the Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which helps create and retain jobs in the region. He said the SBDC assisted nearly 13,000 business clients in 2014, creating nearly 1,600 new jobs, and retained more than 1,000 jobs.
Other speakers during the State of the College address included LBCC Board of Trustees President Jeffrey Kellogg, LBCC Executive Vice President Lou Anne Bynum and LBCC Academic Senate President Karen Kane. ß