ISSUES CONFRONTING LONG BEACH CITY COLLEGE (LBCC) Student Success California Community Colleges, including Long Beach City College, have a strong record of providing access to higher education; but our record of student success is much less impressive. Too few students graduate, transfer, earn certificates, or attain their educational goals. The state of the economy and the future of employment make the lack of success unacceptable. Historically, education provided a path for Californians to improve their lives and standard of living; but looking forward, a college education is a prerequisite to meaningful participation in the California economy. By 2025, seven or eight of every ten new jobs will require a college degree. With 220,000 University of California students, 420,000 California State University students, and more than 2,600,000 community college students, it is self-evident that, if community college students don’t succeed, our community and our state will not survive, much less thrive. At LBCC, student success is a top priority. We have adopted a new Educational Master Plan that emphasizes student success. The LBCC Promise is a contract between the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), LBCC, and California State University Long Beach (CSULB) that provides a free semester at LBCC for LBUSD students who take required classes and maintain a 2.0 grade point average. Those same students are guaranteed admission to CSULB in non-impacted majors. Also, in the Fall of 2012, LBCC will start a learning community called Promise Pathways of over 1,000 LBUSD entering students, who will be tested, oriented, counseled, and given priority registration, convenient course scheduling, and additional resources. By providing these students with what it takes to succeed, we expect them to succeed at higher rates than in the past. These programs are some of what we are doing now. But there is more work to be done in these difficult economic times. Supporting the Local Economy Among institutions of higher education, community colleges are uniquely positioned to help the local economy, and small businesses are the backbone of that economy. LBCC has several programs to help small businesses grow, to reduce the unemployment rate, and jumpstart the economy. LBCC hosts the Small Business Development Lead Center for Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties and it also recently opened a local service center in downtown Long Beach. In total, there are 7 Small Business Development Centers and 35 Satellite Centers in the 3 counties. These centers provide one-on-one business advising and training classes in marketing, finance, international trade, and procurement in both English and Spanish. In addition, LBCC has also helped a select group of business owners in the Greater Los Angeles area access a dynamic combination of course work, business advising, and peer mentoring to help these businesses grow their firms with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program. Since its launch last year, LBCC has helped more than 95 small business owners. Approximately 50% of those business owners have added employees and 75% have increased sales or seen their businesses grow after completing the program. Further, LBCC offers certificates in business in state-funded instructional for-credit programs; offers workforce development programs to train incumbent workers, new entrants to the workforce and unemployed residents; and provides business development programs and services to businesses to help grow businesses and create and retain jobs. LBCC also operates the Center for International Trade Development (CITD)and the Long Beach International Trade Office (LBITO), which is a partnership with the Port of Long Beach. These programs offer local small businesses specialized services, including consulting, training, and technical assistance. In 2011, 137 small businesses were involved in training 386 entrepreneurs and adding $6.1 million while helping 10 new international trade startups. These programs are essential to growing the local economy and make LBCC an essential component in stabilizing and growing the local economy. Modernizing Long Beach City College It is critical that LBCC buildings, infrastructure, and technology-enabled classrooms meet the educational needs of 21st century students and teachers. To that end, Greater Long Beach residents have approved more than $600 million in construction bond funds for the expansion and modernization of both the Liberal Arts and Pacific Coast campuses. At the Liberal Arts campus, the South Quad Complex (Building T), new bookstore facility (Building I), Community Outreach and Services Facility (Buildings 01 and 02), Library Learning Resource Center (Building L), and a 900-car, solar-paneled parking structure have been completed. The LAC Student Services Center is under construction. At the Pacific Coast campus, the Library and Learning Resource Center, Industrial Technology Center, Child Development Center, and Automotive and Aviation classrooms have all been completed, and the Multi-Disciplinary Academic Building and Fitness Center are under construction, as well. In November 2009, the Construction Project Prioritization List was updated. Despite drastic cuts to community college funding over the past three years, capital projects are moving forward through voter-approved bond funds. A campus construction master plan has been adopted and additional construction projects are on the drawing board.