The leaders of Florida's 28 community colleges are urging Senate Republicans to halt or significantly amend legislation that would curtail the four-year bachelor degree programs many of the campuses are now offering.

  • SB 374 caps enrollment in 4-year degrees at 2-year schools
  • State colleges say bill does disservice to students, schools
  • Legislative session starts March 7

The bill, SB 374, overshadowed the agenda at a Friday meeting of the Association of Florida Colleges last week in Tallahassee. Under its language, baccalaureate program growth at community colleges -- most now formally known as 'state' colleges -- would be limited to 2 percent per year at campuses where four-year students comprise more than 8 percent of the student body.

The legislation's Republican sponsors are concerned the explosive growth of bachelor degrees at the colleges is limiting their ability to fulfill their traditional mission of awarding associate degrees and technical certificates. College presidents, however, beg to differ.

"It does exactly what it was intended to do: give mid-career adults a chance to earn a degree so that they can move up in their profession," said St. Petersburg College President Bill Law. "There's no collateral damage, it's cheaper for the state and it's cheaper for the students. It's hard to understand why people aren't encouraging us to do more rather than to do less."

Law said his campus could be hit particularly hard should the bill pass in its current form. The first Florida community college to begin offering bachelor degrees in 2001, it now enrolls more than 4,000 mostly part-time students in its baccalaureate programs. Because of that large number, enrollment would be immediately capped, per the legislation.

"They're not college-aged kids who are going to go live in the dorms, paint their face and go to the game on Saturday," Law quipped. "These are working adults, and it's been hugely successful."

Beyond offering four-year degrees at a lower cost than traditional universities, the state college baccalaureate programs also enable working professionals like nurses and law enforcement officers to complete their studies on their own schedules.

The advantages of the programs are underappreciated, Law suggested, and an advocacy campaign in advance of this spring's legislative session could already be changing minds.

"We're working with the Senate leadership; they seem to have some openness to say, 'what's the right number?'"