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We are living in exciting times and, as two-year
college faculty, we are major players in these times. The
community college phenomenon is a significant part of our modern
history, perhaps equaling if not surpassing the importance
of the land-grant college in education. Our industrial and
political leaders recognize the importance and relevance of
community colleges even to the point of two-year colleges
being featured in President Clinton's reelection campaign. This
is a long way from just a short time ago when John
Clevenger, the 1989 2YC3 chairperson, wrote an article, "Why Don't
You Teach at a Good School?" Since the start of the
community college movement in the 1960s we have exploded in
enrollment, improved the quality of our programs, and earned
respect and influence within the educational community.
While we know that more than half the students who first
take chemistry at the college level do so at the 2-year college,
we are finding out that our students who transfer to 4-year
colleges perform as well as if not better than native
students. Book publishers have long recognized us as a major
market. If you look at any first-year chemistry textbook, you will
see a good representation of 2-year college reviewers.
As a discipline-related two-year organization,
2YC3 has paralleled this journey and has played a leadership role.
For example, National Science Foundation officials gave
presentations at a number of our meetings during the 1980s.
At those meetings, it became clear that the NSF program
excluded two-year colleges and that we wanted very much
to be eligible for them. (These were some of the most
exciting 2YC3 meetings that I attended!)
2YC3 was a major factor in opening NSF programs to two-year colleges. Two-year
college faculty now routinely participate as peer reviewers and
have been represented in long-term appointments at the
National Science Foundation. Two-year college chemistry faculty
had an approval rate of 47% of the Instrumentation and
Laboratory Improvements Program in 1995 (compared to an
overall success rate of 40%). We are definitely competitive
but still need to write more proposals if we want a bigger
piece of the pie! 2YC3 is part of a coalition of 2- and 4-year
colleges offering a series of workshops on instruments (see page
483). A major component is a proposal-writing workshop
designed to encourage more proposals from 2-year college faculty.
SOCED (Society Committee on Education), a
policy-making organization of the ACS, has written "Critical
Issues in Two-Year College Chemistry" (1986) and "Guidelines
for Chemistry and Chemical Technology in Two-Year
College" (1988), both of which had an overwhelming number of
2YC3 members on their authoring task forces. These two
documents have been invaluable in catalyzing chemistry
program development at two-year colleges. Recently, SOCED
has sponsored a conference to bring the "Guidelines"
booklet up to date. SOCED also hosted a conference on
articulation between 2- and 4-year colleges. These documents will
provide further resources and strengthen our programs.
At the same time that
2YC3 has played a leadership role, it has also been affected by external forces. One interesting change we made was the result of our association with
the Division of Chemistry (DivCHED) of the American
Chemical Society. We began as a subcommittee of DivCHED
and were pretty much left alone, until someone at DivCHED
noticed that their committee of 20 or so had a subcommittee
of 500 plus in the form of 2YC3! As a result, the
2YC3 executive committee (9 members) became COCTYC, the Committee
of Chemistry in the Two-Year College, and it is the official
subcommittee of DivCHED. To preserve our established
identity the COCTYC conducts its business through
2YC3.
DivCHED and COCTYC are cooperating on
improving their working relationship. Both the National Science
Foundation and the American Chemical Society have been
working to increase cooperation between 2- and 4-year college
faculty as well. One new policy, approved at our meeting in
San Antonio, Texas, in November 1996, is a joint individual
membership with both 2YC3 and DivCHED for new members
of DivCHED. For $20 you can join both
2YC3 ($15 alone) and DivCHED ($10 alone). I strongly urge every
2YC3 member who is not a member of DivCHED to take advantage of
this opportunity. Through cooperation, all college students
will reap the benefit!
Another major change adopted at the San Antonio
2YC3 meeting is a new "Bylaws and Procedures". The key
component is the opening up of elections to the entire
membership rather than just the executive committee or COCTYC.
This is a long-overdue change influenced by our closer
relationship with DivCHED.
I am looking forward to serving as chair of
2YC3 in 1997 as we continue our journey during these exciting times
and hope to see you at a 2YC3 meeting this year.
Notes
1. Adapted from 2YC3 Newsletter 97 I.
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