Illaria Dana

Education Major

On a snowy morning, Dr. Genevieve Cox sat down in her office in Harborview to discuss the changes being made at Southern Maine Community College. Dr. Cox is the only full-time sociologist in the Maine Community College system. Her position was eliminated in January of this year, and her courses will be taught by adjunct instructors.

SMCC has evolved from a technical school into one that prepares students both for vocations and for continuing their higher educations. Dr. Cox commented on this change. “For better or worse, this school is becoming increasingly the first two years of college for a lot of students in Maine.” As SMCC shifts, the needs of students shift.

Sociology plays a dramatic role in the changes at SMCC. “Sociology is an important element for the first two years [of college], especially because it’s the first time that a lot of students have spent time talking analytically about racism or sexism or classism. It is an important conversation to be had.” The consistent forces of racism, sexism, and classism affect the ways people relate to each other on a national scale; in politics, wages inequalities, and class demographics; and emphasize a need for students to discuss these charged topics clearly.

Armed with the facts, students who continue on to their bachelor’s degrees understand how groups relate to each other and how to talk about these relationships. Students develop a sense of the world that calls for justice and creative solutions to modern day struggles. Dr. Cox offered her perspective of the cuts. “Some of the lay offs, or positions being cut, to me represent a short-sightedness in terms of the mission of a community college.” She called the cuts “uncreative” and would have liked to have seen other options explored.

“Full-time faculty are the heart and soul of the school. I made a particular choice to come to SMCC, because I believe in the mission of the Community College.”

Currently, full-time faculty are the only faculty who act as advisors to students. Dr. Cox mentioned that, “they’re who students increasingly come in contact with.” Full-time faculty are also more likely to have office hours and be available to students during the day when they are not teaching classes.

Dr. Cox said that full-time faculty have “had a hard year. There has been a culture of fear, of waiting for the ax to drop, which does not set up an environment of connection.” Fear can affect the ability of professors to do their jobs. In Dr. Cox’s opinion, “It seems that faculty are worried about this new perspective from President Cantor that he calls, ‘On Their Terms, Not Ours’ (OTTNO). Although of course we pay attention to the needs of students, the phrase implies a lack of setting the bar high and having students meet that bar. Faculty are nervous about grading. But you have to be strong. That is how students grow.”

If SMCC is going to prepare students for the rigors of four-year colleges, this has to be the model for academic courses. Students in vocational programs need challenges in preparation for the jobs they will enter.

As community colleges shift to accommodate both vocational and academic paths, the profile of students is increasingly diverse. Students at SMCC are parents with careers, caretakers, students with English as a second language. Community colleges make education accessible to a broad range of students. However, the expectations must be cohesive with what other college campuses expect from their students. We are capable of meeting those expectations.

As enrollment has decreased in the last year, one hopes that these new challenges do not continue to inspire fear but  call for students and faculty together to think of creative solutions to a fiscal conundrum. As Dr. Cox said, “The most excitement that I get as a faculty member is when I see connections being made, and I hope that I am contributing to a more sustainable society as a whole by fomenting these conversations. There’s nothing like being in the classroom and watching brains opening and seeing the in new ways.”