Baltimore City Community College Joins Community College Awareness Month Campaign, #CCMonth

(April 13, 2021) Baltimore City Community College announces it joins #CCMonth, a monthlong grassroots education and stigma-busting campaign coordinated by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). The primary goals of #CCmonth are to improve awareness of the economic, academic and equity advantages of attending community colleges, and to end longtime stigmas wrongly associated with public two-year colleges.

“The past year has proved beyond any doubt that Baltimore City Community College is absolutely vital to our community and our state,” said Dr. Debra L. McCurdy, BCCC President. “#CCMonth is an opportunity to demonstrate not only that community colleges like BCCC should be the first choice of collegegoers of all ages, but why community colleges are first-class institutions that are important to our local and state economies.”  BCCC has expanded access for students during the pandemic by creating easier pathways for paying for college. The free text books initiative was started during the summer 2020 terms as a way to remove the barriers of the high cost of books. During the fall semester, students enrolled for tuition free classes, another way to remove the financial burden of paying for college.   

Public community colleges are a uniquely American educational model that was designed to guarantee access to affordable, high-quality higher education for all people. They are the primary educators of life-saving nursing and other healthcare professionals among many others. They also serve as an onramp to bachelor’s, master’s and higher-level degrees for many students, and particularly for the most demographically and socioeconomically diverse students. They guarantee fair admissions for all students. They offer supports for adult students who have to work to support their families. And without community colleges, many American students would not be able to access higher education at all.

Despite all this, many American people wrongly believe that community colleges are inferior institutions, and in most states, universities receive significantly more per-student state support than community colleges do. These negative attitudes and disparities support and encourage ongoing socioeconomic and demographic disadvantages and inequities in the United States.

“Community colleges are engines of diversity, equity and inclusion,” said ACCT President and CEO
J. Noah Brown. “They give opportunities to all students, and they support all students throughout their educations, whether they attend to attain an associate degree or certificate, intend to transfer on for a bachelor’s or higher degree, or they take one or a few courses to learn a new skill or expand their horizons.”