Sloppy
reporting on RCC leads to faulty conclusions
(Editorial Bay State Banner)
Roxbury Community College is under attack. The Boston
Globe unleashed a series of derogatory articles against
the college and its administration during the month of
May, and none were substantially supported by the facts.
The first salvo came from Globe columnist Adrian
Walker on May 7 in a commentary entitled, “Taking a
pass on the future.” Readers were surprised and
disappointed to learn that RCC President Terrence A.
Gomes had passed up an opportunity “last fall” for
the establishment of a paid internship program at the
school to train students for promising jobs.
Walker’s story asserted that Gomes showed up 45
minutes late for a meeting with a committee that
included the CEOs of Raytheon, BJ’s Wholesale Club and
Suffolk Construction Co. and then, according to Walker,
Gomes rejected the offer for the program at RCC.
Walker’s facts are false. There was an incident
that he is probably referring to, but it happened on
Feb. 28, 2011, and not last fall, a difference of at
least seven months. And there was no established
meeting. A representative of the CEOs offering the
program was supposed to confirm a meeting on one of
several dates, but she failed to do so. The CEOs just
showed up unannounced at RCC.
In preparation for the meeting that was never
scheduled, Gomes’ team had prepared a PowerPoint
presentation to persuade the committee that RCC was a
good site for their “Learn and Earn” program.
However, RCC efforts to establish a meeting at a
subsequent date were not successful. The program was
taken to Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC).
Without substantiation Walker went on to assert that
“RCC has languished.” According to school records,
enrollment has increased 26 percent in the last five
years and RCC has received over $5 million in grants.
After such a journalistically inadequate column, Walker
then has the temerity to insist, again without
substantiation, that Gomes is negligent.
As an experienced journalist, Walker must have become
aware that his first salvo had misfired. So he tried
again on May 12 with a column entitled “Roxbury
Community College gets financial aid, three months
late.”
According to his source, $2 million in financial aid
to 1,400 students was delayed by three months. Other
sources indicate that there was a delay of five to six
weeks of $400,000 in financial aid for 650 students. At
any rate, there was a delay to be sure that the students
applying for aid were enrolled in the courses that would
make them eligible. This is a software problem that can
be fixed. The school would be required to reimburse the
government for any errors, so it is appropriate to
exercise extreme care with student aid decisions.
But the commentary was not primarily about the delay
in student aid. Walker wanted an opportunity to propose
the idea that Gomes should be fired and RCC should be
absorbed by BHCC. That idea has been floating around for
decades. Perhaps that is why the group of CEOs with
their “Learn and Earn” program never rescheduled the
meeting, passed over RCC and took their program to BHCC.
In November 2011, the Boston Foundation published a
report entitled, “The Case for Community Colleges:
Aligning Higher Education and Workforce Needs in
Massachusetts.” One of the proposals was
“Massachusetts should appoint a campus consolidation
commission to review opportunities to establish
multi-campus community college districts, first in
Boston, then elsewhere, if feasible.”
The recommendation went on to propose that “the
commission can be charged with determining if Boston
area students and employees would be better served
through merging Bunker Hill and Roxbury Community
College into a new ‘Boston Community and Technical
College’ with multiple campuses…”
Clearly Walker supports the idea of a merger. He
states “educationally, that could only result in
improvement…” But he seems to base that position on
a meaningless RCC graduation record. Community colleges
are unable to establish satisfactory performance
measures. It makes little sense to apply the same
standard as four-year colleges, but that is what is
usually done.
Upon entering a four-year college, almost every
student plans to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in
four years. That is not the case in community colleges.
Most students plan to transfer to a four-year college
after their first year or just take a few courses. Both
of those approaches to education will depress the
school’s graduation rate, but both are the kind of
educational opportunities that community colleges are
supposed to provide.
One way to evaluate the academic competence of a
community college is to note the admission of graduates
to other highly regarded colleges. According to RCC
records, some of this year’s 375 graduates have been
admitted to Tufts, Bentley, Leslie, Simmons,
Northeastern, Mass. College of Pharmacy and Allied
Health, Boston University, Salem State and other
schools. So a quality education is indeed available for
those able to meet the RCC academic standards.
Again on May 15, Walker filed another negative story
on RCC, “Roxbury college under federal scrutiny for
crime data.” The issue is whether RCC properly
complied with the federal Clery Act to file required
information on campus crimes. Investigators from the
U.S. Department of Education have not as yet issued a
report that establishes any violation.
Not surprisingly, armed with the disinformation from
Walker, the Boston Globe published an editorial on May
16, essentially calling for Gomes to be fired. The
primary basis for their opinion is Gomes’ failure to
be receptive to the business leaders at the meeting that
never happened. Walker failed to get the date of the
incident right; he missed by seven months or so. How can
anyone have confidence in the rest of his reporting of
the incident?
The editorial acknowledged that since his tenure
beginning in 2003, Gomes has stabilized the financial
management of RCC and “the school has also earned gold
citations from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Education
Consortium for its biotechnology program.” Apparently
Gomes’ successes have just made RCC a better target
for acquisition.
From May 7 through May 23, the Boston Globe barraged
RCC with five negative stories. Few institutions could
survive such an onslaught without capitulating. The RCC
trustees are to be commended for withholding precipitous
action until they have all the facts. They must not let
distortions from the news media influence their
decisions.
However, some facts are clear. Walker is better at
fiction than solid journalism. Gomes has improved the
financial and academic stature of RCC. And the desire to
merge RCC with BHCC is still alive and well.
|
