Mayor Gray Releases UDC Community College Transition to Independence Advisory Board Report

(WASHINGTON, DC) – Today, Mayor Vincent C. Gray, other District officials and representatives of the University of the District of Columbia Community College (UDCCC) Transition to Independence Advisory Board released the panel’s report and recommendations on transitioning UDCCC to a status independent of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC).  The report highlighted four main recommendations, three of which have already been adopted by the DC Council and encoded in the Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Support Act.       

“Educating and preparing the District’s workforce for the New Economy is a critical goal in my One City Action Plan, and District residents need a strong, independent community college in addition to a strong flagship public university to provide them with the educational opportunities necessary to build their job skills and fulfill career aspirations,” Mayor Gray said. “The advisory board’s report gives us a road map for establishing academic, operational and financial independence for UDCCC, and we are committed to continuing to support UDC in its efforts to right-size and develop a budget that supports a refined mission and strong academic programs.”

The immediate next steps that the report outlines for UDC are 1) filing the application for branch campus status for the community college by November 1, 2012 and receiving the branch designation; and 2) improving UDC’s financial situation by developing a right-sizing plan by October 1, 2012 that reflects the size and needs of UDC’s student population.

The advisory board was established last year by the Mayor and Council Chairman for the purpose of developing (in conjunction with the president of UDC, the chairman of the UDC Board of Trustees and the CEO of UDCCC) a transition plan for establishing UDCCC as an independent community college.  

The advisory board’s report includes the following recommendations:

• UDCCC should pursue a path to independence in accordance with guidelines of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, our region’s accreditation body for higher education. 
• UDC must demonstrate financial stability in order to accomplish the dual goals of creating a separately accredited community college and a strong flagship university.
• UDC’s Board of Trustees, in partnership with elected officials, should develop a realistic shared vision of public higher education for the District that is focused on, and responsive to, the District student population it will serve; and
• UDC should move quickly to demonstrate its serious commitment to the major institutional right-sizing effort recommended by the advisory board in public testimony and required by the DC Council in the FY2013 Budget Support Act.  

DC Appleseed Executive Director Walter Smith, who chaired the advisory panel, said, “the advisory board wants to see a strong, independent community college for DC  But to get there, we realized that UDC as a whole must be strengthened.  The Mayor, the Council, and the UDC Board of Trustees are going to need to work together to decide what this stronger UDC ought to look like, and they must begin to make tough decisions now.”

UDC is the District’s only public university and is the only urban land-grant university in the United States.Through its community college, flagship and graduate schools, it offers affordable post-secondary education to District residents at the certificate, baccalaureate and graduate levels. 

For more information on UDC, visit the school’s website or call UDC’s main number at 202.274.5000.