Dr. Avis Proctor, Harper College president, and Bill Kelley, chair of the Harper College Board of Trustees, close out Community College Month with this message underscoring the importance of allowing Illinois community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees in high-demand fields:
As we recognize Community College Month, we are called not only to celebrate but to reimagine. Illinois' community colleges have long stood as beacons of access, affordability and hope. Despite their success, our students are too often cut off from opportunity – not by a lack of talent or ambition, but by a system that still has limitations on a promising path to a four-year degree.
That is why we stand in full support of bold, proposed bipartisan legislation that would allow Illinois community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees in high-demand fields. This is not only necessary, it is long overdue.
Illinois is home to one of the most expansive community college systems in the country. Yet too often, community college students – particularly working adults and those from low-income families, first-generation college households and rural communities – face insurmountable barriers to accessing a four-year degree. According to the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, 80% of community college students aspire to earn a bachelor's degree, but a mere 16% reach that milestone within six years. Why? Because transfer systems are fragmented, relocation is unrealistic for working students and the rising cost of tuition continues to place four-year degrees out of reach.
Just as our namesake William Rainey Harper saw the need for community colleges 120-plus years ago, we must again shift the higher education landscape to prepare our future workforce. Consider these facts:
Meanwhile, our employers are sounding the alarm: We face a shortage of skilled workers in sectors like health care, education, business and applied technologies.
Community college baccalaureate (CCB) degrees offer a powerful solution.
More than 20 states, including several of our Midwestern neighbors, have embraced the CCB model. The results are undeniable: higher degree attainment, stronger regional economies and more equitable access to workforce education. These programs are thoughtfully designed, workforce-aligned and regionally responsive. They are built not to compete with universities, but to expand pathways to upper division and graduate education yielding economic mobility, particularly for students who are place-bound, working or raising families.
At Harper College, we see the promise of this model every day. Through our University Center and partnership programs like Engineering Pathways to the University of Illinois, we’ve witnessed how seamless, affordable pathways transform lives. CCBs would build upon this success by offering students the opportunity to complete a four-year degree without leaving their communities, disrupting their work schedules or incurring overwhelming debt.
This is not about changing our mission; it is about deepening it.
Community colleges were born from a vision of equity – a belief that talent exists in every ZIP code, and that education should be within reach for all. The CCB movement is a natural extension of that promise. It is about closing workforce gaps, yes. But even more, it is about opening doors that have been closed for too long to too many.
Governor Pritzker’s recent announcement offering support for this legislation is a defining moment for our state. It aligns Illinois with a national movement that understands the future of higher education must be flexible, responsive, informed by labor market needs and rooted in workforce and economic development for our state – one community at a time. The proposed bills reflect input from college and university leaders, employers and, most importantly, students themselves. Time and again, students have told us they want to stay, serve and succeed in their hometowns.
We believe in the power of education to transform lives and the ingenuity of Illinoisans to craft solutions that lift up all of our communities. And we believe that by passing this critical legislation, we can take a bold step toward achieving our state's strategic plan for higher education, "A Thriving Illinois."
Let us meet this moment with courage, with collaboration, with compassion and with a commitment to equitable outcomes. Our students are ready. Our communities are ready. Now, it’s time for Illinois to lead.
Dr. Avis Proctor, President, Harper College
Bill Kelley, Chair, Harper College Board of Trustees and Chair, Illinois Community
College Trustees Association Community College Baccalaureate Committee