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ALASKA'S COMMUNITYCOLLEGES: BIG STATE, BIGCHALLENGES, AND BIGCHANGESJames Patrick Hussey aa Prince William Sound Community College ,Valdez, Alaska, USAPublished online: 09 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: James Patrick Hussey (1997) ALASKA'S COMMUNITYCOLLEGES: BIG STATE, BIG CHALLENGES, AND BIG CHANGES, Community CollegeJournal of Research and Practice, 21:2, 137-145

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ALASKA'S COMMUNITY COLLEGES: BIG STATE,BIG CHALLENGES, AND BIG CHANGES

James Patrick HusseyPrince William Sound Community College, Valdez, Alaska, USA

Alaska's system of higher education has primarily operated through the Universityof Alaska, founded in 1917. Several attempts were made to start community collegesduring the first half of the century, but it was not until President Terris Moore'sefforts during the 1950s that significant progress was made. In 1954, AnchorageCommunity College was founded, followed by 10 other institutions over the next 25years. The community colleges, although responsive to local concerns, were alsoexpensive. As a result of the collapse of oil prices in the 1980s, the University ofAlaska faced a fiscal crisis. To save money, the board of regents reorganized theuniversity system, assigning each of the 11 community colleges to one of the system'sthree major universities. Prince William Sound Community College was allowed toretain its relatively autonomous status by virtue of its local support. That structureof three major universities, combined with branch campuses or learning centers inAlaska's smaller communities, continues today.

In 1916, Alaska's shortest lived institution of higher education wasfounded on the snowy shores of Prince William Sound. A. C. Baldwinopened the University of Valdez, and barely survived the winter. Oneyear later, Baldwin's university was gone, but several hundred miles upthe Richardson Trail in Fairbanks, civic leaders were also attemptingto start a new school—the Alaska Agricultural College and School ofMines (AACSM), later to become the University of Alaska.

As the century draws to a close, the University of Alaska dominatescollegiate life in the state, but ironically higher education in Valdez hasalso proved to be a survivor. Once 1 of 11 community colleges statewide,today Prince William Sound Community College is officially the onlysuch institution in Alaska. The other colleges did not disappear; instead,they have become one with a statewide system that has evolved sub-stantially over the decades in an attempt to meet the higher education

Address correspondence to James Patrick Hussey, 803 Fourth Street, Kalona, IA52247.James Patrick Hussey is currently manager of test administration, ACT, Inc., Iowa

City, Iowa, USA.

Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 21:137-145, 1997Copyright © 1997 Taylor & Francis

1066-8926/97 $12.00 + .00 137

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needs of the largest, and perhaps most economically and academicallychallenging, state in America.

EARLY HISTORY

As noted, public higher education established its first firm toehold inAlaska with the AACSM, founded in 1917. Graduating its first class in1922, the college attracted students who often lived in log cabins or sodhuts, who studied by the light of oil lamps, and who sometimes subsistedin large part on snared rabbits. AACSM was a land-grant institution,designed to bring the benefits of modern education and research to thecommon citizen (Cashen, 1972).

Although an institution of the people, AACSM was not a communitycollege, although it almost became a victim of one. In 1919, the Alaskaterritorial legislature passed a law establishing "normal high schools"in the form of a 13th grade, which a later university president describedas "a sort of teachers junior college system" for Alaska. In 1921, thelegislature reconsidered its action, instead deciding to put its limitedresources behind AACSM (Moore, 1951a).

Despite the initial failure of the community college concept in Alaska,support for the colleges never went away. In the 1920s, a Stanford Univer-sity graduate student conducted a study of the Alaskan educational envi-ronment and in 1930 proposed a bill to the Alaska legislature that wouldhave created a junior college system. However, "at about this time AACSMadvanced from college to university status, and the Alaskan Legislaturecontinued instead to move forward with it" (Moore, 1951a, p. 1), voting$30,000 to initiate a vocational education program in the high schools.

Others also carried the community college torch. In 1928, EducationCommissioner L. D. Henderson tried to persuade the legislature to startjunior colleges (Dafoe, 1971). In 1940, a second commissioner suggestedcommunity colleges should be established in Ketchikan, Juneau, andAnchorage. Before the 1940s were over, a second graduate student foundthat nearly half of the 344 Alaskans who had attended the Universityof Washington between 1933 and 1948 had stayed a year or less, andonly 7 had studied fisheries or forestry, despite the importance of thoseindustries to Alaska (Moore, 1951a).

In 1941, the Alaska legislature allowed city school boards to offer 13th-and 14th-grade classes, provided they be limited to vocational offerings,but through the end of the decade, no city did. As Moore (1951a) pointedout, accreditation of the programs as community colleges would have beenimpossible given the restricted nature of the curriculum. Because of thelack of progress with locally administered colleges, in 1947 TerritorialGovernor Ernest Gruening proposed that the university extend its reach

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to provide "community-junior college type programs" (Dafoe, 1971).Still, no concrete action followed. Indeed,

the whole idea seemed just a little insulting to those who devoted their livesto higher education. . . . They offered something to society so special thatsociety ought to be eager to come to College Hill [in Fairbanks] to get it.Academics ought not to have to scramble for either students or money; heapsof both ought to be pushing inward on the campus's classroom doors. (Davis,1992, p. 372)

TERRIS MOORE

It was not until the arrival of Terris Moore, the second president of theUniversity of Alaska, that community colleges had an advocate with thepower to turn ideas into reality. Moore observed that in 1951, only 900 ofthe 135,000 people in Alaska were enrolled in college and that AlaskaNatives "scarcely got into the University at all" (1951). He also realizedthat Alaska's people were spread out over an area one fifth the size of thecontiguous United States. In a comparable area of the lower 48 states,Moore noted, there would be several hundred colleges, but in Alaska, "allthose related social, economic, political and technical problems [that] theUniversity ought to do something about [are] falling upon a single one!"(Moore, 1951b, p. 2).

Still, Moore was convinced the University of Alaska needed to reach outfrom its campus, literally situated on a hill overlooking the city of Fair-banks. He soon developed a relationship with nearby Ladd Air Force Basein which airmen could enroll in courses on base rather than traveling tocampus. Not only did the move extend the reach of the university, but whenthe Air Force was unable to fill a class with 20 students, civilians were alsoallowed to enroll, thereby establishing a precedent of off-campus deliveryto the general populace. Although the program was modest,

By May 1950, the president's office was able to put out a press releaseannouncing the opening of "the University of Alaska at Fort Richardson"near Anchorage, in addition to stating that the "University of Alaska hasbeen operating a branch at Ladd Air Force Base for some time." "Sometime," in this case, was about four months. (Davis, 1992, p. 361)

Confident of his ability to deliver courses off campus, Moore pre-sented the board of regents in 1951 with a detailed plan for establishingcommunity colleges in Alaska. Moore believed it was important that thecolleges fall under university accreditation, which also helped to ensurethat they would not become a competitor for legislative funding. Accord-

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<ing to Davis (1992, p. 366), "Over and over, he argued that Alaska shouldfollow the lead of California in establishing a unified system of highereducation under the control of one governing board."

Moore (1951a, p. 15) wrote that although some students may havewished to travel to Fairbanks to study,

there is also a large potential second group who cannot or do not want to"go away to college" and who instead, for economic or other reasons, willgo to night classes of a two year community college while holding downjobs in the daytime.

He sent a copy of his paper to S. V. Martorana of Washington StateUniversity, asking him to conduct a feasibility study.

Martorana found the population in most Alaska cities to be a bitskimpy to support true junior colleges (Davis, 1992). To Moore's delight,though, Martorana also "strongly urged that the university take the leadin the development of the community college system," noting that

By starting to play such a role at the start of a community collegemovement in Alaska, the University will act as a stimulant to educationalprogress in the Territory and will forestall many difficulties which otherstate universities have undergone. (Dafoe, 1971, p. 9)

Moore ran with Martorana's directive, developing a proposal in whichmunicipalities would provide high school classrooms and 25% of theoperating funds necessary to operate a community college. The collegesthemselves, using the high schools during their off hours, "were goingto be like werewolves: largely unseen by day but out to howl at night."The 25% local matching funds would assure accountability, and if thecolleges did fail, there would be no "physical albatrosses to remindeveryone of a sad mistake" (Davis, 1992, pp. 268-371).

The 1951 Alaska legislature approved Moore's proposal. For Moore,the legislature's action was an important first step, and one he believedwould provide the framework through which "the two year communitycolleges would naturally grow into full fledged four year branches of theUniversity" (Davis, 1992, p. 367).

EARLY DAYS OF ALASKA'S COMMUNITY COLLEGESThe Community College Act of the Territory of Alaska allowed anyschool district with at least 175 high school students to establish acommunity college under the jurisdiction of the board of regents. OnJanuary 1,1954, Anchorage founded the first community college underthe act, followed later that year by Ketchikan and then by Juneau-

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Douglas in 1956 (Dafoe, 1971). New community colleges followed inPalmer (Matanuska-Susitna) in 1957, in Sitka in 1962, in Kenai in 1964,in Kodiak in 1965, in Bethel (Kuskokwim) in 1972, in Fairbanks (Tan-ana Valley) in 1974, in Nome (Northwest) in 1975, and in Valdez (PrinceWilliam Sound) and in Kotzebue (Chukchi) in 1978 (Community CollegeInterim Committee, 1981).

Although the community colleges were off to a running start, pres-sures also began to mount. The tension between the community-basednature of the colleges relative to their responsibilities to the universitysystem was of concern. According to a university consultant, thatreporting relationship helped link the community colleges

with other university programs rather than with the elementary andsecondary schools. This gives the community college greater prestigewhich helps to attract students and their parents; also, it becomes anespecially significant element in the general morale of faculty and admin-istrators. (McLean, 1974, p. 19)

McLean (1974) further argued that Alaska's population was such thatit was unrealistic to believe that the state could support viable universityand community college programs in the same cities. Consistent with suchthinking, 1 year later Anchorage Community College was merged with theUniversity of Alaska Anchorage, a marriage that failed to finish the decade.

The anger started in 1977-1978 when the university began to offer lower-division work and the faculty began to feel threatened, said Randy Miller,dean of community relations at ACC. They felt the university was dippinginto their area. The community college felt like it was a second-class organi-zation." With the formation of a rural community college administration in1978, ACC and UAA were clearly split, and separate chancellors wereappointed to administer their programs. (Mireles, 1986)

Because of the tension that was already building between the universityand community colleges, in 1976 a bill was introduced in the Alaska legisla-ture to provide for separate systems with distinct governing boards. The billwas not passed, but in 1977 the Community Colleges, Rural Education andExtension division was created within the University of Alaska to provide anadministrative structure focused on community college concerns.

The result was 11 community colleges, paid for with the billions ofdollars flowing into the Alaska treasury annually from its Prudhoe Bay oilfields. Several of the colleges were in communities with fewer than 5,000residents, whose limited populations were also isolated from the roadsystem, further increasing costs. Still, there was significant support for theschools.

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Many of the activities of community colleges, especially in the rural areas,address survival of community residents. For instance, courses such assmall engine repair, emergency medical technician training, and housewiring have been identified as essential to the well-being of variouscommunities.... Additionally, the residents often look to the communitycollege for the resolution, or at least an understanding, of communityproblems. (Community College Interim Committee, 1981, p. 18)

By 1982, despite the continued wealth of the state, there weredemands for financial accountability. The Alaska Commission on Post-secondary Education (1982, p. 1) wrote that Alaska's community col-leges and extension centers "have been created and funded with noreference point for their need or composition. Further proliferation ofthese types of institutions must be governed by some guiding principlesfor their creation and expansion." The report prompted a stingingrebuke from the University of Alaska's vice president for academicaffairs.

Most campuses within the University of Alaska system are still in theirdeveloping stages. Few institutions have achieved any economics of scalein their operations, with a resulting high cost per student at the ruralschools. It is inappropriate, at this time, to require these institutions todevelop their budgets according to their enrollments, since they have yetto achieve a "critical mass." A community college should be permitted asignificant number of years of development time and freedom from assess-ment about viability. (West, 1982)

THE 1986-1987 RESTRUCTURING

It was from that environment of relative budgetary forbearance that theUniversity of Alaska faced the most important crisis in its history: thecollapse of oil prices in 1986. Prices plummeted from $30 to $9 per barrelin a matter of months. For Alaska's state government, which received85% of its revenue from oil royalties, the crash in prices was cata-strophic. The university, funded in large part from the state, was in adouble bind: facing a drastic drop in state support while being saddledwith an infrastructure that had grown out of control.

No other state in the nation has ever built such an unwieldy universitysystem as Alaska, and that's the main problem. How did it get that way?University regents who watched the system grow say it was simplepolitical realities. Oil meant wealth for Alaska. Wealth meant not havingto say no. If people in Nome or Kenai said they needed something, theirstate representative could give it to them. (Campbell, 1986, p. 3)

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The state money did not last. Several months into the crisis, the boardof regents questioned the viability of the university in an environmentof reduced funding. In just over 1 year, $61 million was sliced from the$170 million state appropriation to the University of Alaska system.Although some money was restored, the cut was believed to be the mostdramatic suffered by any public university in the United States sinceWorld War II (O'Dowd, 1986).

Given the dwindling funds available to the university, the board ofregents embarked on a wholesale reorganization of the University ofAlaska system. University of Alaska President Donald O'Dowd (1986)said he asked himself what kind of university he would design given thecurrent level of funding and no historical constraints to shape thedecision. The result of his ruminations were announced October 31,1986, when he suggested assigning each of the system's 11 communitycolleges to one of Alaska's three public universities—the University ofAlaska Anchorage, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, or the Univer-sity of Alaska Southeast. The immediate goal was to save $6 to $7million a year in administrative costs. Prince William Sound Commu-nity College, because it was heavily subsidized by the city of Valdez, wasallowed to remain independent.

The proposed reorganization ignited a firestorm of protests. Althoughcommunity colleges were found in both urban and rural areas, they werethe only schools of higher education in most of Alaska's small- ormedium-sized cities. Many of their schools also tended to have largelyAlaska Native populations. Finally, the applied courses of 2-year schoolswere more often seen as more appropriate to local needs than to theacademically oriented curriculum of most 4-year schools.

Some administrators also had difficulties with the reorganization. Ina memorandum to O'Dowd, University of Alaska Fairbanks ChancellorPatrick O'Rourke proposed the creation of a statewide administrativeunit that would be responsible for upholding the community collegemission. Although he acknowledged the difficulties the university wasfacing, O'Rourke (1986, p. 8) wrote,

It appears that when push comes to shove, it is the community college missionthat is being submerged. Yes, the proposal will try to carry forward as muchof that as is possible and I am sure those initially charged with carrying it outwill do their very best to try to meet those multiple needs, but in reality, someof those local community functions will be lost. The proposal calls for this. Ibelieve the reason is that because as predominantly university personnel, wedo not place as high a value on some of these functions as the clientele andstaff of the community colleges do, and this is legitimate for we have othervisions that go much beyond these local community needs.

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In November 1986, John Menzie, president of Ketchikan CommunityCollege, said he was troubled by O'Dowd's plan but appeared to under-stand his superior's situation (Apfelback, 1986). By January 1987,though, Menzie had concluded he could not support O'Dowd's plan, andsubmitted his resignation (Staff, 1987).

O'Dowd's arguments were also unpersuasive to many communitycollege supporters. The Tanana Valley Community College Councilpassed a resolution in which it found the restructuring plan deeplyflawed (Kelder, 1986). The American Association of Junior and Commu-nity Colleges (Staff, 1986, p. 1) accused O'Dowd of destroying thecommunity colleges, adding that "during tough economic times, highereducation appears to circle the wagons and shoot inward." The AlaskaCommunity Colleges' Federation of Teachers sued over the plan, whichsome members claimed was designed, in part, to eliminate the union;in fact, the continued existence of the federation was not resolved until1992.

After it was implemented, the reorganization plan was also taken tothe public, who were asked to decide whether the university system andcommunity colleges should report to separate governing boards. Ulti-mately, the public voted in 1988 to support O'Dowd and not to dividethe community colleges from the university system (Davis, 1992).

COMMUNITY COLLEGES TODAY AND TOMORROW

Alaska now has only one official community college—Prince WilliamSound Community College, based in Valdez, where higher educationhad attempted to take root in 1916, if only for 1 year. Unofficially,though, many community college functions have been assumed by theuniversities in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau and more specificallyat their extended sites. The University of Alaska Fairbanks, for exam-ple, now has branch campuses in Bethel, Nome, and Kotzebue; learningcenters in Fort Yukon, Galena, McGrath, Tok, and Unalaska; andnumerous other programs, which brings the university into 113 sepa-rate communities across the state of Alaska (Cole, 1994).

In a way, this broadening of the university's role has brought it backto its roots in the land-grant tradition, with a mission of bringing "highereducation to every community and every home in our vast state" (Kom-isar, 1991, p. 2). As Alaska's system of higher education moves into thenext century, the challenge to Alaska's community colleges may be lessthe historic one of finding people to fill their classrooms, but rather oneof harnessing technology to make America's largest state a true commu-nity, one that will forever link the diverse constituencies seeking thebenefits of higher education on the Last Frontier.

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REFERENCES

Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education. (1982). National survey ofcriteria used by each state in determining the establishment or expansion ofcommunity colleges. Juneau, AX: Author.

Apfelback, P. (1986, November 12). KCC President responds to college plan.Ketchikan Daily News.

Campbell, L. (1986, November 8). Proposal divides colleges: ACC staff, studentupset over merger. Anchorage Daily News.

Cashen, W. R. (1972). Farthest north college president: Charles E. Bunnell andthe early history of the University of Alaska. Fairbanks: University of AlaskaPress.

Cole, T. (1994). The cornerstone on College Hill: An illustrated history of theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press.

Community College Interim Committee. (1981). Community colleges: A reportto the twelfth Alaska legislature. Juneau, AK: Author.

Dafoe, D. M. (1971). Community colleges in Alaska.Davis, T. N. (1992). The College Hill chronicles: How the University of Alaska

came of age. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Foundation.Kelder, B. (1986, November 12). Put off restructure plan. TVCC asks. Fairbanks

Daily News-Miner, p. 1.Komisar, J. (1991). University of Alaska looks to Alaska's future. In University

of Alaska President's Report, 1990-1991 (p. 2).McLean, E. L. (1974). Higher education in Alaska: A report with special reference

to the community colleges.Mireles, J. (1986, November 10). O'Dowd plan rekindles decade-old feud. An-

chorage Times.Moore, T. (1951a). Prospects for the community college in Alaska. Fairbanks:

University of Alaska.Moore, T. (1951b). Some problems of higher education in Alaska. Fairbanks:

University of Alaska.O'Dowd, D. (1986). Staff bulletin—President O'Dowd announces restructuring.

Fairbanks: University of Alaska.O'Rourke, P. (1986). Memorandum to Donald D. O'Dowd Re: University restruc-

turing. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks.Staff. (1986, November 16). Alaska community college crisis. AACJC Letter, p. 1.Staff. (1987, January 20). Ketchikan college president quits over reorganization

plans. Anchorage Times.West, G. (1982). Correspondence to Kerry Romesburg. Fairbanks: University of

Alaska.

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