In his sixth address on the state of Long Beach City College (LBCC), President Eloy Ortiz Oakley provided impressive numbers despite saying the college is “in the middle of the most challenging year in recent history.”
Praising the Promises Pathways initiative—a partnership with the Long Beach Unified School District designed to improve graduation rates for local high schoolers while simultaneously giving them a free first semester at LBCC—Oakley pointed out the success of the initiatives first 1,000 students. In fact, staggering 500 percent and 200 percent increases in transfer level English and math completions were highlighted, with some of the largest gains achieved by Latino and African-American students.
“Our program is being watched closely by community colleges in California and across the nation and provides clear evidence that significant gains in student achievement are possible through reform of placement and student support services,” Oakley said.
This was also intimately attached to the college’s success in the Transfer Associate Degree program that creates a clearer, more accessible path for students with a certain level of credits to transfer to a four-year university, namely Cal State Long Beach.
Oakley was also not shy about the college’s success in job creation and economic development due to its partnerships with the Small Business Development Center Network (SBDC) and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program.
In 2012 alone, the SBDC—recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration last year—created or retained some 2,700 small business jobs while generating $133 million in regional revenue increases and $83 million in new regional capital infusion.
The Goldman Sachs program—a $500 million, five year investment that is the largest charitable donation in history—helped some 200 local small businesses where 50 percent of the small business owners in the program have added employees while 70 percent have seen an increase in business following the program.
All in all, Oakley confidently curbed criticism over the college’s program discontinuances and dwindling budget by harnessing in on numbers that provide hope rather than numbers that exacerbate the tension about California’s educational crisis.