Chancellor Brice Harris
By Ashley Renteria
Chancellor Brice Harris has been an advocate for the success of students and California community colleges for years. Harris was elected to state chancellorship in 2012 and plans to retire in April of 2106.
This year at Taft’s West Kern Petroleum Summit, Chancellor Harris was a key speaker. He spoke about California’s community college system and what it really means to go to a community college.
At the summit Chancellor Harris offered many interesting statistics about community colleges. One in fourteen adults are enrolled in community college, but if students are unprepared their success rate drops 40%.
Harris and the Board of Governors established a goal to increase the total number of community college completions by nearly a quarter million students over the next 10 years. This new program is designed to help students succeed. The estimated rates of students who succeed in a junior college to transfer to a university are 5,000 within the first 2 years, 12,000 in 3 years and 21,000 in 4 years.
“Under Harris’ leadership, the California Community Colleges implemented the Student Success Initiative, which is helping students have an easier time registering for the classes they need, developing education plans, accessing support services, completing college orientation programs, earning degrees and transferring to four-year institutions. Nearly 2,000 new Associate Degrees for Transfer, which guarantee entry to California State University, are now available, and community colleges are working with University of California on streamlined transfer,” according to Geoffrey L. Baum, president of the Board of Governors for the California Community Colleges.
Chancellor Brice Harris is determined to help students succeed in attending a California community college. Harris explained that the number of students enrolled in a California community college dropped from 2.6 million to 2.4 million from the 2008-2009 school year to the 2012-2013 school year.
The goal is to increase California’s competitiveness in school and the work force and help students get a job in the field they studied and love.