Bad business model for State College of Florida: just look at for-profit college failures

I started my college teaching career in Brunswick, Ga. in 1973 and moved to Manatee Junior College in 1977. In 1981, I moved to Normal, Ill. to teach at Illinois State University, retiring in 2006.

My junior/community college teaching foundation came at a time when these schools were hiring Ph.Ds to handle advanced courses that were accepted as transfer courses to senior state universities. In Georgia, this process was controlled by making the junior colleges branch campuses of the University System. In Florida, the process was controlled by articulation between the local colleges and the state universities.

The reason for these course transfer concerns is that many program accrediting agencies have rules about faculty degrees and about faculty permanency.

For example, in my own field of study, the American Chemical Society has very strict rules about faculty degrees held and faculty permanency. The reason for the degree issue is pretty obvious. To teach an advanced course like organic chemistry, you need an advanced degree in organic chemistry.

While it may be tempting for the current conservative private sector evangelists to view the faculty permanency issue as professional featherbedding, nothing could be further from the truth. Program accrediting agencies know that a solid program requires an established program faculty, not a revolving door of lowest bidders who will most assuredly be transient teachers.

There is a reason that many for-profit colleges are failing: Their degrees are not worth the paper they are printed on. Yet this for-profit model is what the current State College of Florida Board of Trustees holds up as a model to be emulated.

If the policy adopted by the current board of trustees stands, the State College of Florida will not grow as a serious four-year degree institution.

Otis Rothenberger

Bradenton

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Bad business model for State College of Florida: just look at for-profit college failures ."