Tag: Community College

This is Our Moment: Let’s Seize It

20 Jan. 2021

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. . . .” (Charles Dickens. “A Tale of Two Cities”)

We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the West. We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the Lake Rim cities of the Midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-baked South. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful. (Amanda Gorman. “The Hill We Climb”)

How many times have I read Dickens’ wry and finely crafted opening to “A Tale of Two Cities” and yet not once had the eloquence packed an emotional punch for me?  Well, that time has passed.  I feel the power of those words as never before.  Dickens’ oft-quoted lines have taken on a special urgency for these times and for this country.  As I write this post, one year has passed since COVID-19 reached our shores and changed life as we knew it.  And as an educator at an open-access, public community college (where I have taught full-time for more than three decades), I can bear witness to the “season of darkness” that has blighted the path for many of my students.  Yet, on this, the 20th  day of January 2021, I feel a sense of hope and renewal.  Whether these times will prove to be the best (to return to Dickens) depends on our ability to rise up, as the inaugural poet Amanda Gorman exhorts us, “battered and beautiful.”

Just this morning, I listened to a podcast (The Key, Ep. 36) that recounted the impact of the pandemic on the especially vulnerable among our students:  transfer, returning and adult students and students from lower-income households. This past fall has been devastating in its impact on all sectors of public education, but particularly community colleges.   Among the findings released by the National Clearinghouse Research Center (relayed in the podcast):

  • This past fall half a million fewer students didn’t show up in our public schools
  • All of higher ed saw 13 % fewer first-year students enroll
  • Community colleges saw a decline of over 20% in first-year students
  • Amid that decline, the hardest hit have been students of color.

We all have anecdotal evidence of the virus’ impact on our students.  I recall a student who stopped attending for a time my online first-year writing course because her laptop had been damaged by her young child, a child who would normally have been in day-care but given the fact that the student had just lost her job due to COVID she would try so hard to take up that responsibility while doing her best to persist in school.  She would eventually repair the laptop but lost valuable time and perhaps some of her desire, too.

Even as this year of the plague continues to reverberate in the new year, I note some hopefulness in these early weeks of 2021.  Of course, we hope that vaccinations will begin to be administered smoothly and that social distancing and masking will take hold as acceptable, indeed, necessary, behavior. And we earnestly hope that as the virus’s fury declines, jobs will return and whatever counts as the new normal will take hold.

And then there is this:  I write this post on the day that Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and Kamala Harris were sworn-in as President and Vice-President, respectively.  While the change of regime brings a new day to our country, I am most heartened that Dr. Jill Biden will receive even more prominence than ever.  She is one of us.

The headlines are like a balm for the soul:

Jill Biden Reiterates Support for Free Community Colleges

Jill Biden Will Reportedly Back Debt-Free Community College as First Lady

Jill Biden Promotes Community Colleges’ Role in Workforce Development

We have a voice in the Halls of Power.  For that, I am most grateful.  I know that Dr. Biden will do us educators proud, especially those of us who work in public education.

As powerful as it will be, her voice is but one, however.  It is incumbent upon us to seize the moment that is available to us. To that end, I urge all community college faculty, staff and administration—and the leaders of our various professional organizations (like the Modern Language Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, and the Two-Year College English Association)—to sign this petition of support for Dr. Biden’s advocacy of our students’ success. Consider this effort a pledge:  not only to promote Dr. Biden’s efforts but also to do what each of us can to foster the values of equity and inclusion in the wake of this devastating pandemic.  All of our students matter. All of our students deserve a fair shot at success.

From the editors: If you would like to add your name to this petition to support Dr. Biden’s advocacy of our students’ success, please e-mail Patrick Sullivan at psullivan@manchestercc.edu or Darin Jensen at

We will add your name to our list of signatories. Please include your department, college name, and location.

List of Signatories

  • Howard Tinberg, English Department, Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
  • Patrick Sullivan, English Department, Manchester Community College, Manchester, Connecticut
  • Dr. Brett M. Griffiths, Macomb Community College, Warren, MI
  • Dr. Darin Jensen, Des Moines Area Community College, Carroll, IA
  • Sarah Z. Johnson, Two-Year College English Association National Chair, English Department Chair, Madison College, Madison, WI
  • Dr. Cheryl Hogue Smith, Two-Year College English Association Past Chair, English Department, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY
  • Dr. Leigh Jonaitis, Professor, English and Theatre, Bergen Community College, Secretary, Two-Year College English Association (TYCA)
  • Renee Rule, Chair,  TYCA Midwest, English Department, Associate Professor, Ivy Tech Community College
  • Dr. Stacey Donohue, Professor of English, Central Oregon Community College
  • Dr. Cheri Lemieux Spiegel, English Department, Northern Virginia Community College
  • Dr. Annie Del Principe, English Department, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, Brooklyn, NY
  • Dr. Bethany Sweeney, English and History, Des Moines Area Community College, Carroll, IA
  • Robert Lazaroff, Ph.D., English, Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY
  • Dr. Christie Toth, Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
  • Dr. Deborah Mutnick, Professor of English, LIU Brooklyn, New York, NY
  • Dr. Jason Evans, English Department, Prairie State College, Chicago Heights, Illinois
  • Sravani Banerjee, English Department, Evergreen Valley College, San Jose, CA
  • Stacy Wilson, English Department, Mesa Community College, Mesa, Arizona
  • Christie Bogle, Department of English, Linguistics & Writing Studies, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Jerri A. Harwell, Department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Dr. Stacey Van Dahm, Department of English, Linguistics, & Writing Studies, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Ron K. Christiansen, English, Linguistics, & Writing Studies Department, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Dr. Lynn Kilpatrick, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Dr. Charissa Che, English Department, Queensborough Community College, Bayside, NY
  • Bruce Martin, Department of English. Lone Star College-North Harris, Houston, TX
  • Emily Suh, Graduate Programs in Developmental Education, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
  • Jeffrey Klausman, Professor of English, Whatcom Community College, Bellingham, Washington
  • Holly Hassel, Professor of English, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, past editor, Teaching English in the Two-Year College
  • Elizabeth H. Keefe, Professor of English, Gateway Community College, New Haven, Connecticut
  • Stephanie Dowdle Maenhardt, Department of English, Linguistics & Writing Studies, Salt Lake Community College
  • Rose-Mary Rodrigues, First-Year Studies English, Gateway Community College, New Haven, CT
  • Dr. Sarah Snyder, Professor of English and Writing Program Administrator, Communications Division, Arizona Western College, Yuma, Arizona
  • Margot A. Edlin, Ed.D., Professor of English, CUNY-Queensborough Community College and Treasurer, Two-Year College English Association – Northeast (TYCA-NE)
  • Barrie McGee, Curriculum and Instruction Dept., Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
  • Alan Hutchison, English Department, Des Moines Area Community College, Ankeny, Iowa
  • Dr. Anne Canavan, Department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, UT
  • Stacy Wilson, English Department, Mesa Community College, Mesa, Arizona
  • Clint Gardner, Program Manager of Collge Writing & Reading Centers, Salt Lake Community College, Past-President, Rocky Mountain Writing Centers Association.

  • Tiffany Rousculp, Director, Writing Across the College, Salt Lake City Community College

  • Brian Anderson, Humanities Department, College of the Mainland, Texas City, Texas
  • Cara Diaconoff, English Department, Bellevue College, Bellevue, Washington
  • Kate Sullivan, Instructor, Writing, Cinema History, Division of Arts and Humanities, Lane Community College, Eugene, OR
  • Dr. Sharon Mitchler, English Department, Centralia College, Centralia, WA
  • Ronald Weisbergerr, History Department, Bristol Community College
  • Dr. Karen S. Uehling, Professor Emeritus, English, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho
  • Dr. Rhonda C. Grego, Dean/School of English and Humanities, Midlands Technical College, Columbia, SC
  • Ron K. Christiansen, English, Linguistics, & Writing Studies Department, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Dr. Lynn Kilpatrick, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Krystal Cox, English, Des Moines Area Community College
  • Dr. Jean-Paul Nadeau, English Department, Bristol Community College, Fall River, Massachusetts
  • Dr. Bill Kelly, Professor of English (retired), Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
  • Martha Ucci, Ph.D, English Department, Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
  • Michael Geary, Associate Professor of English, Writing Center Coordinator, Vice President of the Faculty and Professional Staff Senate, Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
  • Robyn Rohde, English Department, College of Southern Nevada, Henderson, NV