As a tumultuous 2025 winds down to a close, I am reminded of the bold spirit that defines the impactful work we do each day across America’s community colleges. Each year, hundreds of thousands of ambitious learners enroll in our courses and programs. They come to push boundaries, explore new frontiers, and carve out a pathway to a brighter future…
Continue readingFor decades, Thanksgiving has offered us a day to celebrate and to reflect on our many blessings. However, this year, this familiar holiday may just serve as a much-needed respite from the unusual level of divisiveness and political rancor that has permeated our everyday existence for months. All of higher education has donned battle gear to wrestle not only with…
Continue readingAs we make our way through the longest government shutdown we have yet experienced, we in the community college world occupy an unwelcome front row seat as direct witness to the impact on many of our students and employees. Roughly 85 percent of all community college students come from economically challenged areas; thus their lives are often financially challenged. While…
Continue readingRecently, the CCBC and the United Way of Central Maryland came together to celebrate two special events. Theirs was 100 years of service to the community; ours was the launch of our FY2026 United Way Giving Campaign. The significance of this event—which brought the County Executive, the CEO of United Way, and the college president together—was the celebration of three…
Continue readingAlong with so many of our colleagues, CCBC is proud to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Through acknowledging this day, we honor the many cultures and traditions that flourished long before the United States became a country. Indigenous Peoples’ Day urges us to move beyond the narrow accounts in history books which have often misrepresented, neglected and omitted vast groups of…
Continue readingAmidst fears of torrential rain and a possible tornado, fair weather brought 6,000 graduates, guests, faculty, staff, administrators, trustees and politicians together on the CCBC Essex Campus for a 68-year tradition: Commencement. We could not have scripted a better day for CCBC’s 2025 Commencement ceremony where a proud 1,000 – of the more than 2,700 graduates – cheered, marched and…
Continue readingMay is both the best of times and the worst of times in the community college world. This lovely spring month ushers in final exam week with its usual rush to grade papers and submit final grades along with some of the best reasons to celebrate any community college professional could hope for. So all that stress translates into a…
Continue reading