College enrollment and a fired school bus driver
Students at Farmingdale State College. Freshman enrollment this fall at Farmingdale and at other Long Island SUNY colleges is above pre-pandemic levels. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
4-year schools hurt community colleges
The article on college enrollment neglects one specific common-sense element of the different trends at community colleges compared with four-year colleges [“LI colleges seeing enrollment up after pandemic,” News, Oct. 17].
Since higher education institutions share a pool of students, one that is not growing, an obvious but rarely addressed reason for enrollment rising at four-year colleges while community colleges struggle is the intentionally lowered barriers to entry at the former.
While one can debate the merits of forsaking applicant test scores and instituting more generous interpretations of high school transcripts, there is no doubt in my mind — and in those of many community college faculty and administrators — that these policies poach students who would be better served by the expertise and special attention that community colleges provide. It is a simple cause-and-effect situation.
We cannot afford to reach a point where short-term trends — robbing here to pay there — manage to decimate the powerful-but-already-underfunded system of community colleges where, as of two years ago, 41% of students get their start.
We are excellent at what we do and need enhanced partnerships with four-year colleges and local industries to keep New York moving for everyone.
— LIzzie Harris McCormick, East Moriches
The writer is an English professor at Suffolk County Community College.
I made same error as fired bus driver
School bus driver Amal Hanna was fired for drinking a can of White Claw hard seltzer while transporting students home [“Double standard in firing bus driver,” Letters, Oct. 16]. She claimed she did not know that the seltzer contained alcohol.
About a year ago, I made the same mistake. After drinking the seltzer, I felt dizzy. I then read the small print and realized it contains 5% alcohol. I believe Amal Hanna, and I believe she was unjustly fired. The bus company should give her job back.
— Samuel Ango, Baldwin
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