It’s Time to Finish What We Started [Opinion]

It’s Time to Finish What We Started: Community Colleges and the Bachelor’s Degree

For generations, California’s community colleges have stood as the front door to opportunity. They are where dreams begin—where working families, first-generation students, veterans, and caregivers take the first step toward something more.

At College of the Desert, we are guided by four commitments: Access, Basic Needs, Enrollment, and Engagement. These are not just strategic pillars. They are a promise to our community.

But today, we face a hard truth: for too many students, the door we open does not lead all the way through.

The world has changed. Workforce expectations have changed. The question now is whether our system is willing to change with it.

Access has always been our strength. We meet students where they are, remove barriers, and open doors. But in today’s economy, access cannot stop at the associate degree. In fields like healthcare, advanced manufacturing, public safety, and technology, a bachelor’s degree is no longer a luxury—it is the baseline for advancement.

When students can begin with us but cannot finish—especially when geography, cost, or life circumstances prevent transfer—we have not fully delivered on the promise of access. True access means the ability to start and finish in the same place, supported by the same community that made success possible.

Our students are balancing real lives. They are parents, employees, and caregivers. We have worked intentionally to address basic needs like food, housing, transportation, and financial stability. But when we ask students to leave their community to pursue a bachelor’s degree, we ask them to take on new burdens—higher costs, longer commutes, and disrupted support systems. For many, that is where the journey stops.

If we are serious about basic needs, we must design pathways that allow students to continue their education without upending their lives.

We celebrate enrollment, but we must be equally committed to completion. Students are stopping out not because they lack ability, but because the pathway ends too soon or becomes too difficult to navigate. When universities are far away, schedules misaligned with working adults, and costs rising, the pathway becomes theoretical instead of practical.

Offering applied bachelor’s degrees at community colleges is not about expanding mission. It is about strengthening completion—ensuring that enrollment leads to outcomes.

Community colleges are deeply connected to the regions they serve. We work alongside local employers, understand workforce needs, and respond in real time. This is why the bachelor’s degrees already offered by community colleges have been successful: they are targeted, workforce-aligned, and built for the communities they serve.

This is not duplication. This is responsiveness.

Programs offered far away or only online do not meet the same need as locally grounded, applied programs designed for place-bound students. Engagement means meeting people where they are—not asking them to leave to succeed.

California’s Master Plan for Higher Education was visionary, but it was built for a different time. Today’s students are older, more likely to be working, and rooted in their communities. Housing costs are higher. Life is more complex.

We cannot rely on a system that assumes students can relocate, pause their lives, or absorb rising costs. We must build one that reflects how people actually live.

This is not an argument against universities. California needs strong UC and CSU systems. This is an argument for alignment—recognizing that community colleges are already doing this work and doing it well and giving institutions like College of the Desert the ability to respond to the needs we see every day.

Most importantly,

Our responsibility is not simply to open doors. It is to walk alongside students until they reach the finish line. They do not get there alone.

We rise together.

The question is no longer whether community colleges should offer bachelor’s degrees. The question is whether we are ready to fully deliver on the promise we have made.

The moment is here.

 

Photos courtesy of College of the Desert