The Occupy Movement and the Community

College

The Occupy Movement started in the spring of 2011 as a statement against an economic system

that disenfranchises the majority of the population in order to exorbitantly reward the wealthiest

1%. Corporations hold power in our political

systems, and a chasm between the uber-wealthy

and the rest of society grows wider. At least one

message board poster on the Occupy website

realizes the economic value of attending a

community college for all or part of a 4-year

degree program. On April 1, 2009, Walt writes

the following:

A friend bought a condo in Pheonix and

sent her son to the local community

college, out of state (cheap). After two

years, her son had residency established

and transfered everything to the

University of Arizona. He used in-state

tuition ($900 a semester) and after two years became an accountant. And, she has a condo

in Pheonix and he has no student loans. Think outside the box.

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/blackspot_blog/student_loan_scam.html

Walt’s friend realized that a community college enrollment saves money, prepares students for

four-year degree programs, and moves them more quickly into a debt-free life. Not all Occupy

Movement message board posters are so positive about the community college, and even

disparage them. This viewpoint is ironic, even hypocritical, especially since the community

college system in the United States works toward providing an economical education to the

masses and solving many of the economic crises experienced by the protesters. This essay will

focus on that duality later in the work; first, though, it will examine how the community college

provides a college education at an affordable rate.

Excessive Costs of College Education

A sister organization of the Occupy Movement is Occupy Colleges, a site that mobilizes

college students to protest the excessive cost of a college education. One of their branch

organizations is Occupy Graduation, which encourages students to use white tape on caps and

gowns to show “the actual dollar sign of their debt incurred ... or by wearing symbolic ball &

chains on their ankles in silent protest” (http://occupygraduation.org). They’re also selling the

inflatable balls and chains, a ten-pack for $50, so that students may wear them to graduation.

Their motivation: according to the Occupy Graduation website, US student debt reached the one

trillion dollar mark on April 25, 2012. Their ultimate goal is to have free public higher education

in the US, and they encourage visitors to their website to contact the president with the following

requests:

http://www.occupygraduation.net/pledge.html

Occupy and Tarrant County College

As a professor at Tarrant County College who will be attending graduation ceremonies this

Friday, May 11, 2012, I wonder if I’ll see either of these protests among the graduates.

I doubt it. It’s not that our students aren’t politically active or aware of the movement. It’s

because their debt level is relatively low. According to the table below, a typical student at TCC

will spend $3,000 per year on tuition and books, if the student goes full-time. That does not

include living expenses such as room and board, transportation, and personal living expenses.

That also doesn’t include our multiple technical programs, which may be $1400 for the entire

program with multiple job offers available immediately after completion.

http://www.tccd.edu/Student_Services/Financial_Aid/COA_and_Outside_Web_Resources.html

Affordability as a Goal

One of TCC’s primary goals is to make a quality education affordable:

http://www.tccd.edu/Documents/About%20TCC/PRM/TCCfactCard2012Final7LR2.pdf

The tuition is $52 per semester hour, a $2 increase from a few years ago. Compared to local

universities, the student saves anywhere from $2513 to $15,420 by attending TCC for one year:

http://www.tccd.edu/Documents/About%20TCC/PRM/TCCfactCard2012Final7LR2.pdf

Books a Major Expense

Tuition is only part of the student’s expense, though. While the tuition cost may be $780 per

semester, the books may be at least that much if not more. As a faculty member who has served

on numerous textbook committees, I know that an affordable textbook is a primary component in

our selection process. The district is also currently studying the option of common textbooks

throughout the district to see if that would decrease costs for our students. (Common textbooks,

in this definition, means that every course throughout the district would use the same book. For

example, every English 1301 course would use the same textbook.) Additionally, we’ll evaluate

open source texts in hopes of finding quality textbooks for no or greatly reduced cost. Personally,

in my technical writing course, I have created my own textbook of sorts that is now being used

by 3 or 4 other instructors at my campus. Also, our British Literature instructors are planning to

use open source material, saving students $72 per semester for the Norton Anthology. We

consider carefully every move we make that is going to mean money out of our students’

pockets.

Scholarships Available through the TCC Foundation

The TCC Foundation is another alternative for funding for students. It gives thousands of dollars

in scholarships each year through a competitive application process. This year, I started a

Scholarship Club on my campus, which encouraged students to apply for these and other funding

opportunities. I will also serve on the selection committee of several scholarships so that I may

better understand the process and help future students be successful in their application process.

Also through this club, students research and share scholarship opportunities for TCC and their

transfer schools. I will also set up workshops in which I help students write an essay for the

scholarship, showing their ability to overcome obstacles, succeeding as a first-generation college

student, and preparing to enter their career and give back to their community.

Funds and Information Available

TCC’s website and Financial Aid offices educate current and potential students regarding the

costs of education and the processes for receiving grants, loans, scholarships, and other forms of

financial assistance, as shown in the graphic below:

http://www.tccd.edu/Student_Services/Financial_Aid/COA_and_Outside_Web_Resources.html

More Grants than Loans

As the chart below shows, most financial aid awards given to TCC students comes in the form of

grants—26% and 34%--compared to 9% receiving student loans.

http://www.txhighereddata.org/

Grant Information

Information about grants is also available to TCC students through the website:

Oil and Gas Money

Students may also apply for the Stars of Tomorrow program, a generous opportunity funded by

the college’s oil and gas royalty payments. TCC has 5 campuses and various other properties

throughout the county, totaling hundreds of acres. Even critics of TCC applauded their decision

to give this money back to the community.

The requirements are below:

Cost of a 4-Year Degree Considered

Students are educated by the Financial Aid office regarding the cost of their entire college

coursework, not just the TCC component of their plan. Students are directed to view the “Net

Price Calculator” offered through the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The first

screen of questions is shown below.

http://collegeforalltexans.com/apps/CollegeMoney/index.php

The Hypocritical Stance of the Occupy Movement toward the Community

College

When discussing higher education in general, the community colleges’ reputation suffers. This

characterization often stems from our open-door policy, which admits anyone with a high school

diploma or high school equivalency degree. However, students are tested and placed in the

appropriate classes-sometimes remedial classes, sometimes credit classes. And it’s true

community colleges don’t have major research installations that bring in large funding to our

institutions, and we probably do have a higher rate of people who are just trying out college to

see if they can make it. Nonetheless, our credit classes transfer to almost every public institution

in the country, and our students succeed in their transfer institutions. One of the primary reasons

students say they attend TCC instead of a four-year university for their freshman and/or

sophomore year is cost—it is just so much more economical.

So one would assume that a financial choice such as this one—that saves students money and

puts them on the path to financial self-sustainability, tenets of the Occupy Movement—that

community college would earn some respect. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

The following excerpts are from message board postings on the Occupy Movement website and

were found using the search feature. These (and the quote at the top) are the total references to

“community colleges.” The quote at the top of the page is very positive, but the following

excerpts negatively characterize the community college and point out two glaring assertions:

first, members of the Occupy Movement seem very class conscious when comparing community

colleges to four-year universities, a viewpoint that seems to be diametrically opposed to the

movement’s prime directive; and second, the community colleges have some work to do to

educate the public and the members of the Occupy Movement regarding the egalitarian

educational opportunities they offer. Here are the negative posts, with my commentary.

Post #1

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters/camila-vallejo-chile.html

by AnonymousStudent on February 03 2012, @01:01 pm

[....] The money trap has caused the deflation value of even higher degrees. Compare and

contrast the worth of a B.S. degree in 1960 and today. A bachelor's today has not gained in value

and can be even compared, generally, in dollar worth to the community college A.S. of just a few

years ago. And the A.S. itself has all the value of a GED today. Many factories demand even an

A.S. now where once your own literacy may not even have been necessary.

Interpretation: a community college’s associate’s degree is equal in worth/earning power to a

GED. Perhaps the poster meant it was worth the same thing as a GED to the previous generation.

Either way, the person is misinformed, especially since many of our graduates enter high paying

jobs immediately after graduation and have job security for many years to come.

Post #2

http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/95/walter-bond.html

by Anonymous on March 31 2011, @07:14 am

Randie! You're back! See we don't all hate you. The world isn't out to get you - at least not yet.

As usual your argument reeks of a young fella who has recently graduated from an American

community college. Trying so very hard to define yourself in a world that doesn't quite work like

the sheltered campus life back in your thoroughly white-bread hometown.[....]

Interpretation: Randie seems to be yet another idiot who posts his illogical opinions on a

message board, and the best way “Anonymous” has to insult him is to say he sounds like he

graduated from a community college. Does this post really need a response to explain how

wrong it is? Do I really need to post the data showing most community colleges are anything but

“white bread” homogeneity? Suffice it to say that the president of my community college

campus is herself a graduate of TCC, an immigrant, a non-native Englsih speaker, and many

other non-white-bread characteristics. Many leaders of the local community are community

college graduates.

Post #3

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/blackspot_blog/alms_culturejammers.html

by greengestalt on November 19 2008, @01:07 amWe are at a social stage where there is going

to be a strong push "Left" that we can add pressure to. The first priority should be the "Fairness

Doctrine" that we call the "Media Carta". I miss LaRouche getting TV ads that scream Ronald

Reagan is a member of the KGB. IMHO, that as much as serving the media interests was why he

bashed the "Fairness Doctrine". The second priority is to end the LIE that "Outsourcing" saves

money. The cost of fuel alone, it costs more. Companies get tax breaks and subsidies to ensure a

profit. Obama is going against this. Notice the attacks on him in the media went from a steady

stream of annoyance to a literal attempt to strip him of his citizenship and deport him once he

said that a month or so before the election. The third priority should be to have law enforcement

enforce existing laws to go after employers who hire illegals. I don't mean harass illegals. I mean

harass those modern slavedrivers who exploit their fellow man. We can do this; Just get a dozen

or so people to local city meetings and argue to reduce the wages of cops because they don't-----.

If most Americans are dealing with lower wages, even college educated ones, why shouldn't the

cops who are only good at stopping law-abiding citizens and non-violent offenders not live with

less for the same work? The threat of that, phrased in polite concern over illegals will sour the

pot for the illegals and force wages higher. These things sound tough but are achievable and

they'll make the average person quite richer. A new "new deal" is in the works and this modern

population is far more educated and far more feeling entitled to basic luxury. I'd love to go back

to a pre-consumer/corporate 50s/60s where a part-time job bought you a cruddy apartment and

tuition at the local community college. Perfect for us "Bohemian" types.

Interpretation: Ok, so this poster does point out the low tuition at the community college, and

even glamorizes it by saying the “bohemian types” love it. But the “cruddy apartment” reference

implies low class, ghetto status that is just plain incomplete and inaccurate.

Post #4

The Economics Textbook of the 21st Century, Paul Ormerod , 09 Nov 2007, More Sharing

ServicesShare.

At the forefront of economics, major changes are happening. And many of them are changes for

the better. The old economics view of the world, in which everyone acts purely in his or her own

self-interest, in which free markets are the solution to almost everything, has been abandoned.

The list of economics Nobel laureates in the twenty-first century reflects these changes. It is

largely made up of scholars who have worked outside the traditional Rational Economic Person,

free market paradigm. The work of Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith deserves special

mention even in this distinguished list. They created almost single-handedly the burgeoning

discipline of experimental economics. Standard economics merely assumes that people act in a

particular way. Kahneman and Smith actually tested how people really do behave. Many of the

assumptions economists make turn out to be wrong in important ways.

But there is a problem, and a very big one at that. Most economists continue to try to shape

public policy as if very little has changed and that the old view of the world remains generally

valid. Got a problem with inflation? Just fix the money supply. Want to develop out of poverty?

Just privatize all industries and pull down trade barriers. These answers are routinely trotted out

regardless of the evidence. And the evidence is often starkly different from the theory. Look at

trade: with the sole exception of the first country to industrialize, Britain, no country has

developed successfully without protecting domestic industries from foreign predation.

The problem stems from the way economics is taught. For many of the very best students, a

course in economics has become almost indistinguishable from a course in the math department,

wholly abstracted from reality. A friend of mine has a world-wide reputation in physics. A few

years ago, he got interested in economics and looked at some of the advanced textbooks and

journals. I warned him. He was still appalled. The proliferation of math, with "theorems" and

"lemmas" on almost every page, totally astonished him. "But I haven't had to prove a theorem for

at least 20 years. Physics is judged on how well your theory explains the real world, not on

whether you can do clever math – all of us can," he fumed.

Most students are fed not on esoteric math but on the standard textbooks. But these have, if

anything, gone backwards in recent years. Aimed at the mass market of US community college

students, they have dumbed down the subject to a terrifying degree.

I have in front of me the 1967 edition of Richard Lipsey's Introduction to Positive Economics.

This, along with Paul Samuelson's textbook, was the best seller for many years. It is not aimed at

geniuses, just ordinary, regular students, "designed to be read as a first book in economics." Of

its 861 pages, only 32 contain any math, and even that is of the simplest possible kind.

Interpretation: If the author is going to make such a blanket statement that this is the community

college textbook of choice for economics classes, then show the data. Further, if it’s a textbook

aimed at first-year college students, why can’t that factor alone cause it to be “dumbed down”?

More data is needed before this assertion is anything but inflammatory and inaccurate. And even

further, if community colleges area dumbing down the American education system, then put

your money where your mouth is—lead the campaign to have universities no longer accept

students’ credit from the community colleges.

Post #5

by ball hugger on December 03 2009, @12:11 am

http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/85/are_you_happy_yet.html

*sigh*, let's just wax poetic about semantics because it makes us sound smart. we're on a

message board! girls can't tell if you'rve even a guy on these things! who are you fucking trying

to impress with your two years of community college?

Interpretation: “Ball Hugger” thinks that two years of community college aren’t

impressive. I know many students and their families who are very proud of completing

two years of community college. Hundreds of them will fill the Will Rogers Convention

Center on May 11, 2012. They’ll whoop and cry because they made it—they graduated.

Their families will take pictures to mark the occasion. They will go on to 4-year

universities or into the job field and have a successful life, most of them with little to no

student loan debt. Comments made by “ball hugger” defy the employment data

(http://www.tccd.edu/Documents/About%20TCC/Institutional%20Research/TCCD_Emp

loyment_Attainment_2010_Graduates.pdf ) and are an affront the proud moments

experienced by the graduates.

Conclusion

I welcome your comments, questions, requests for data, etc. Please contact me at

angela.chilton@tccd.edu.