Several North Carolina community colleges are offering free tuition for students this fall. Using a combination of federal, state, local, and philanthropic funding, these colleges are guaranteeing free tuition, and in many cases books and fees, for students regardless of financial need.

Many colleges see this as an opportunity to encourage new and returning students to enroll this fall.

At Forsyth Technical Community College, applications were up 829 compared to the same time last year. Southwestern Community College had 495 students apply for the free tuition program in the first 10 days.

Is your community college offering free tuition beyond the Longleaf Commitment Grant? We want to know!

Mackenzie Dobson is a former McDowell Early College student. Now, at just 20-years-old, Dobson is starting a Ph.D. program this fall in American Politics, Public Policy, and Research Methodology at the University of Virginia.

Dobson received both her high school diploma and associate degree in college transfer in May 2018. After graduating from McDowell Early College and McDowell Technical Community College, Dobson went on to study at Appalachian State University. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science in May 2020 and her Master of Arts in Political Science with a concentration in American Politics in May 2021.

“Objectively, attending McDowell Early College and McDowell Tech before transferring to a four-year university helped me acclimate to the university setting much faster than students who attend a traditional high school before enrolling in college as a freshman,” said Dobson.

NC State will receive $180,000 for a hardship fund. The North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation created the fund to “increase its ongoing support of NC State’s Community College Collaboration (C3) program.” According to the press release, “Qualifying applicants are students who have transferred or will be transferring to NC State from one of the C3 program’s participating community colleges.”

As part of the TD Ready Challenge, TD Bank issued a call for proposals from organizations with “innovative solutions to address the predicted learning loss in math and reading for disproportionately impacted students in grades K-12 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Organizations can apply for grants ranging from USD $375,000 up to $1M which they can use over three years. Read more here. 

Central Piedmont Community College received a $10-million gift commitment from an anonymous donor. The gift will be used to transform CPCC’s role as a community resource for arts and humanities programming and learning. This is the single-largest individual donation the college has ever received.

Duke Energy awarded $615,000 in grants to 19 workforce development and education programs in North Carolina. Recipients of the grants include community colleges, HBCUs, and nonprofits.

Linda Lockman-Brooks becomes the first Black person and first woman to chair Central Piedmont Community College’s board of trustees.

The Better Skills. Better Jobs. campaign to attract adult learners is underway. Fayetteville Technical Community College shares about their efforts in this recent article.

Mitchell Community College received $1 million from Statesville residents Frank and Carol Childress. Their gift created an endowed scholarship fund through the Mitchell Community College Foundation and Endowment for Excellence. “The Childress’s gift was part of a record-setting fundraising year for the college and its foundation.”

“Countless students would agree: transfer does not work. Despite sustained efforts to ‘fix’  transfer over the past several decades, the current system continues to produce dismal, inequitable outcomes and unnecessary roadblocks that thwart students’ educational goals.”

In a recent report from HCM Strategists, the Tackling Transfer Policy Advisory Board released clear recommendations for change when it comes to the transfer system.

The state, system, and federal policy recommendations span three interrelated areas:

• Harnessing data for transformational change;
• Maximizing credit applicability and recognition of learning; and
• Advancing strategic finance and impactful student aid.

You can view their recommendations in this executive summary. The full report can be found here.

In this opinion article, Nahshon Blount discusses how Biden’s plan to make community college free would be a dream come true.

Blount is a North Carolina resident who previously attended Durham Tech before having to drop out.

“I started taking courses at Durham Tech Community College, where I was taking prerequisites to the nursing course, but I had to drop out. I couldn’t afford my expenses, and couldn’t afford to pay for school.”

You can read Blount’s opinion article here.

This article is a follow-up to the webinar hosted by Strada last week.

“Strada research released Wednesday found that 2 in 5 Americans hold a nondegree credential, and that they are especially valuable when combined with a college degree, particularly  an associate degree. Sixty-nine percent of nondegree credential holders with an associate degree report their education was worth the cost, compared to only 48 percent of individuals with an associate degree who do not have a nondegree credential.”

During the webinar, panelists discussed what the findings say about the value of nondegree credentials.

Some of their insights include:

• Adding credentials to a bachelor’s or associate degree might be a norm of the future.
• The timeline for completing nondegree credentials is less rigid and is changing the landscape of postsecondary education.
• In the absence of an existing system from education providers, employers are starting to do the work of standardizing credentials and making them transferable.

Read the full article here.