Virginia's Community Colleges

The article explores instances of Holocaust denial on college campuses and addresses issues of academic freedom for faculty as well as students. The author explores questions regarding how we teach the Holocaust and how to better decrease denial and antisemitism

Hall, Sarah H

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 26 Number 1 Article 8 
4-18-2023 
Denial On Campus: How Antisemitism Affects College Faculty 
and Students 
Sarah H. Hall 
Germanna Community College, shall@germanna.edu 
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 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Hall, S. H. (2023). Denial On Campus: How Antisemitism Affects College Faculty and Students. Inquiry: 
The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges, 26 (1). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/
inquiry/vol26/iss1/8 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
Denial on Campus: How Antisemitism Affects College Faculty and 
Students 
 
Sarah H. Hall 
 
This Notes in Brief contribution explores instances of Holocaust denial on college campuses and addresses 
issues of academic freedom for faculty as well as students. The author explores questions regarding how we 
teach the Holocaust and how to better decrease denial and antisemitism. 
 
 
 igher education might seem an unlikely place to encounter seemingly backward ideas  
 like antisemitism and Holocaust denial, but it is in fact a real problem among students and 
faculty at colleges and universities. Particularly in the United States and Canada, recent years have 
seen several professors accused of antisemitism, either for outright hate speech outside the 
classroom or for espousal of antisemitic views on campus. Students, too, have been guilty of 
antisemitic speech and Holocaust denial. Some have carved swastikas into their Jewish peers’ 
residences or thrown Nazi-themed parties. Others have made misguided historical arguments as part 
of a poorly vetted class assignment. 
What do recent events tell us about Holocaust denial on college campuses and what might 
that suggest for the future of Holocaust education? These are the questions I hope to explore in this 
paper. First, I focus on Holocaust deniers in faculty positions, their arguments about the protections 
of academic freedom, and the different consequences they face for antisemitic speech. Second, I 
explore students and their relationship to antisemitism and Holocaust denial, particularly as it relates 
to their rights to free speech and expression.  
 
Academic Freedom and Deniers on the Faculty 
Holocaust denial has appeared among academics in the guise of free academic thought and 
debate. However, there are different levels of denial in the classroom, which means there is also a 
H
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difference in the severity of consequences (or any action taken by college administrations) as a result 
of this denial. Some teachers have incorporated questionable content into their classrooms and 
curriculum, ranging from simulations (considered inappropriate in Holocaust education) to badly 
worded questions that leave the existence of the Holocaust up to interpretation. This is a difficult 
problem because many teachers do this out of ignorance. They know that Holocaust education is, if 
not required, then greatly desired, and seek out information about these events that may come from 
biased sources. This sort of problem has inspired educational stakeholders such as Facing History 
and Ourselves or Echoes and Reflections to provide guidance and resources for instructors. 
Recently, the United States Congress passed the Never Again Act which allows for millions of 
dollars in funding for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to develop and disseminate 
training on Holocaust education (Braunstein, 2022). 
While better training and resources may address the well-meaning but ignorant instructors, it 
is more difficult to determine how we might handle others who have outright denied the Holocaust 
in the classroom. One might expect that Holocaust denial would earn a professor immediate 
expulsion from a college or university, but this is rarely the case. Feldman (2019) writes that a 
professor at Arkansas Tech University was honored with a posthumous scholarship in his name 
despite the fact that he was accused of assigning “Holocaust-denying books” to his students and was 
“briefly removed from teaching duties before being reinstated” (para. 5). This is not only a problem 
in colleges, but in secondary education as well. Joseph DiMarco, a history teacher in Ontario, 
Canada, was removed from his position in 2019 and had his teaching certification revoked after he 
“spent so much time teaching his own unapproved Holocaust [denial] instructional work that the 
students fell behind in what they were supposed to be learning from the actual curriculum” (Bessner, 
2022, para. 12). DiMarco’s dismissal and decertification was a first for Ontario, made easier by 
DiMarco’s decision to discuss and push these views in his classroom. When professors are dismissed 
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for views they admit to holding but deny having shared in the classroom, the institution must often 
find other reasons with which to explain that dismissal. Instead of firing the professor for their 
views (expressed on campus or not), they instead must find “a reason to investigate and fire them 
over something unrelated, after they’ve said something controversial” (Goldstein, 2022, para. 1). 
Others have been outspoken Holocaust deniers outside of the classroom, while keeping their 
views quiet on campus. Arthur Butz, an electrical engineering professor at Northwestern University, 
has continued to spout denial rhetoric outside of his official capacity as a professor, though he has 
not addressed denial in the classroom, and he has escaped sanctions from his administration because 
of that restraint (O’Neil, 2017). In autumn of 2021, Perimeter College math instructor Larry Coty 
was accused of making antisemitic posts online, though he did not appear to share those beliefs in 
the classroom. Nearly one year later, he appears to still be employed there as an assistant professor 
(Jaben-Eilon, 2021). Kaukaba Siddique, an English professor at a historically black college in 
Pennsylvania, spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally not associated with the school. His anti-Zionist 
comments there led to further investigation into his “past statements that the Holocaust was a ‘hoax’ 
intended to buttress support for Israel” (Berrett, 2010, para. 3). Siddique claimed his statements were 
protected as part of academic freedom, “as an example of a questing mind asking tough questions” 
(Berrett, 2010, para. 4). 
Siddique’s defense brings up an interesting question. Does academic freedom allow for the 
denial of established fact? If so, who is responsible for deciding what is fact and what is not? The 
institution? Experts in the field? The government? If the academy decides to punish or silence those 
who speak out against established facts, then any revisionist thought in any field could come under 
attack. Some believe that we must allow for the protection of Holocaust denial in order to protect 
academic inquiry in other areas because “academic freedom [is] a value that survives only if it 
protects remarks we despise as well as those we endorse” (Nelson and Schaefer Riley, 2010, para. 
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30). Consider the history of science and, particularly, Nicolaus Copernicus’s assertions of a 
heliocentric solar system, which went against the accepted facts at the time but were later proven 
correct. If academic freedom is meant to allow for progress and updated thinking, then we cannot 
police facts as accepted facts can sometimes change. 
According to the United States justice system’s Blackstone Principle, it is preferable that ten 
guilty men go free than one innocent man be imprisoned. This principle carries over into academic 
freedom. Better that a person who challenges known facts and spouts antisemitic rhetoric is allowed 
to remain in the academy than for an academic on the cutting edge of a new theory to be ostracized 
when they might turn out to be completely correct. 
Should Holocaust denial be the exception here? After all, denial of the Holocaust involves 
the denial of the multitude of evidence available and there is seemingly no proof of the Holocaust 
that would ever change the mind of deniers. In this way, it is not a revisionist historical argument 
but an antisemitic argument. If Holocaust denial is by definition antisemitic, then it is hate speech, 
not academic discourse.  
 
Students and Holocaust Denial 
What happens when students, rather than faculty, are the ones exhibiting denial behavior 
(intentionally or not) or are the ones responsible for deciding on the veracity of Holocaust deniers’ 
claims? For this paper, I have divided antisemitic student actions into two categories: students who 
intentionally deny the Holocaust or participate in antisemitism or hate speech and students who 
unintentionally deny the Holocaust because of poorly conceived assignments or exercises. 
Intentionally antisemitic incidents are not rare on college campuses. In the first few months 
of 2022, swastikas were painted or carved on walkway and buildings at more than twenty colleges 
across the United States, including Kent State University, New York University, the University of 
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Georgia, and the University of California San Diego (“Search and Filter Data,” 2023). These are just 
a few examples of the hundreds of antisemitic incidents reported by the AMCHA Initiative in the 
first five months of 2022. In May, university presidents from across the United States gathered for 
the University Presidents Summit on Campus Antisemitism to discuss possible responses to 
antisemitism when it occurs on their campuses. Hillel International president Adam Lehman told the 
Jerusalem Post that “university leaders are our most important allies in confronting antisemitism on 
campus” (“Higher Education Groups,” 2022). But how can they successfully reduce antisemitic 
incidents on their campuses?  
For example, can antisemitic incidents (even those outside the classroom) be addressed with 
student codes of conduct? Can students be held accountable, according to college policies, for racist 
themes for a party that occurs off campus? Can they be disciplined for these types of activities?  
One example makes it very clear how difficult it is for a university to handle racist actions by 
the student population. Randolph-Macon College, a private institution in the suburbs of Richmond, 
Virginia, includes in its student handbook a “student bill of rights” including provision II-A, which 
states that “students have the right to participate in free discussion, inquiry, and expression” 
(“Student Bill of Rights,” n.d.). This became a problem when one of its fraternities took part in a 
racist “United States versus Mexico”-themed party and Randolph Macon announced plans to 
discipline the parties involved and suspend the fraternity’s activities while they investigated further. 
According to Kruth (2013) from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the student bill 
of rights at Randolph-Macon makes clear that “students should, therefore, be able to host parties 
with offensive themes and dress in controversial costumes without being subject to investigation 
and discipline” (para. 6). To deny students the right to express themselves and to reprimand them 
for doing so would mean that the college was reneging on its promise to safeguard students’ rights. 
This could apply to something as innocuous as “streaking” or to something as nefarious as a mock 
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slave auction. Without clear indication from the college of what is considered free expression and 
what is considered hate speech, there is much room for interpretation.  
Finally, students can suffer from badly designed assignments such as one that asked students 
to argue for or against the existence of the Holocaust. In this case, eighth grade students were 
provided with three sources – two from popular history websites and one from a denial group – and 
asked to write an essay in class about whether the Holocaust occurred. Whether the instructor 
intended this to be an open-ended question or a rhetorical one, many student submissions showed 
that they were “expressing doubt or flatly denying that the Holocaust occurred” based on the 
evidence made available to them (Yarbrough, 2014, para. 2). 
When students are presented with this type of assignment, whether it is misguided or 
malicious, they might be misled into making denial statements or thinking that there is more room 
for interpretation and opinion than there actually should be. The ramifications of this could be 
severe. They might actually think there is room for debate on something like Holocaust denial, or 
they might believe in the history of the Holocaust, but their argument has still been put into the 
world. Future employers might come across these written ideas and assume that they accurately 
express the thoughts of their potential hire. One of them might run for office before someone digs 
up their past college paper arguing against the existence of gas chambers based on faulty information 
provided by their instructors rather than on actual fact. In the digital age where papers cannot simply 
be shredded or thrown away, bad assignments can live forever, with students paying the 
consequences. 
 
Ideas for Further Research 
Holocaust denial has infiltrated higher education in varied ways and must be met with 
equally multifaceted opposition. Faculty and student conduct are two pieces of the puzzle, but 
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Holocaust education and its efficacy in discouraging Holocaust denial also makes up a large part. 
Does Holocaust education prevent antisemitism and, by extension, denial? The Anti-Defamation 
League, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and many others think so. Proponents of 
human rights education, though, assert that teaching about the Holocaust does not make students 
more likely to behave more ethically or be upstanders in the future. Wisse (2020) wrote that “anti-
Semitism in the United States has spread in tandem with increased teaching about the Holocaust,” 
rather than decreasing as the population becomes more educated (para. 4). This could mean that the 
message of Holocaust education is not reaching far enough, or it could mean that the education 
itself is backfiring. Is it possible that the way we teach the Holocaust might make denial worse? 
These are questions without easy answers, but if our goal for Holocaust education is to decrease 
denial and antisemitism, perhaps they are questions that must be considered. 
  
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References 
Berrett, D. (2010, October 26). Academic freedom and holocaust denial. Inside Higher Ed. 
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/26/academic-freedom-and-holocaust-
denial  
Bessner, E. (2022, January 23). A former Timmins Catholic School teacher’s license was revoked due to his 
Holocaust denial and antisemitic lessons. The CJN. https://thecjn.ca/news/a-former-timmins-
catholic-school-teachers-licence-was-revoked-due-to-his-holocaust-denial-and-antisemitic-
lessons/ 
Braunstein, M.L. (2022, January 13). This is not how Holocaust education was supposed to work. The 
Dispatch. https://thedispatch.com/p/this-is-not-how-holocaust-education?s=r 
Feldman, A. (2019, April 23). “Arkansas College Honors Alleged Holocaust Denier With 
Scholarship.” Forward. https://forward.com/fast-forward/423052/arkansas-college-
honors-alleged-holocaust-denier-with-scholarship/ 
Goldstein, A. (2022, May 31). A tale of two pretexts: sham investigations silence professors at Central Florida 
and Princeton. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. 
https://www.thefire.org/a-tale-of-two-pretexts-sham-investigations-silence-professors-at-
central-florida-and-princeton/ 
Higher education groups and university leaders work to counter campus antisemitism. (2022, May 17). Insight 
Into Diversity. https://www.insightintodiversity.com/higher-education-groups-and-
university-leaders-work-to-counter-campus-anti-semitism/ 
Jaben-Eilon, J. (2021, November 12). Local college teacher accused of antisemitic postings. Atlanta Jewish 
Times. https://www.atlantajewishtimes.com/local-college-teacher-accused-of-anti-semitic-
postings/ 
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Kruth, S. (2013, November 22). Randolph-Macon forgets its promises of free expression in responding to party 
theme. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. 
https://www.thefire.org/randolph-macon-forgets-its-promises-of-free-expression-in-
responding-to-party-theme/ 
Nelson, C., and Riley, N.S. (2010, November 14). Does academic freedom protect Holocaust deniers? 
Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/does-academic-
freedom-protect-holocaust-deniers/ 
O’Neil, R.M. (2017). Academic freedom to deny the truth: beyond the Holocaust. Minnesota Law 
Review, 101(2065), 2068-2088. 
Search and filter data on incidents of antisemitic activity that occurred on U.S. college and university campuses from 
2015 to present day. (2023). AMCHA Initiative. https://amchainitiative.org/search-by-
incident#incident/display-by-date/ 
Student Bill of Rights. (n.d.). Randolph-Macon College. https://www.rmc.edu/offices/student-
conduct/the-student-handbook/student-bill-of-rights 
Yarbrough, B. (2014, July 11). Exclusive: Holocaust denied by students in Rialto school assignment. The Sun. 
https://www.sbsun.com/2014/07/11/exclusive-holocaust-denied-by-students-in-rialto-
school-assignment/ 
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English

Denial On Campus: How Antisemitism Affects College Faculty and Students

DuBois, Glenn

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 1 A Lasting Legacy Article 12 
4-6-2022 
Commencement Address at Piedmont Virginia Community 
College 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Commencement Address at Piedmont Virginia Community College. Inquiry: The 
Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges, 25 (1). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/
vol25/iss1/12 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
Commencement Address at Piedmont Virginia Community College 
 
This address was delivered at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville on May 15, 2014. 
 
 
istinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, proud moms and dads: good evening. And to the 
members of the class of 2014: Congratulations! 
 
Serving as a commencement speaker is a singular honor that carries with it three specific 
responsibilities: my first responsibility is to congratulate those wearing the caps and gowns. So, to 
the 609 students who make up the class of 2014: Job well done. 
 
In addition, I want to thank the friends and families here today. Nothing is easy about earning a 
college credential. Nobody travels that journey alone. It would probably be impossible without the 
help of the people filling the stadium around you tonight: your moms and your dads, your spouses 
and children, your siblings and friends. These important people knew when to encourage you. They 
knew when to support you. And they knew when to give you a kick in the pants. 
 
My second responsibility is to share some advice, some experience or some wisdom with the 
graduates who are – at this very moment – wondering who I am and why their commencement 
speaker isn’t Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, or John Stewart. 
 
And my third responsibility is the most important: be quick about it. These families are here today to 
hear a particular 
name called and to 
see a particular 
person on this stage 
and I assure you, it 
isn’t me. 
 
Attica 
So, today, I want to 
share with you, my 
friends, some of the 
lessons I learned 
during one of the 
most challenging, 
surreal and 
unexpected times in 
my life.  
 
I say unexpected because I learned these lessons in a place I never thought I would be. It’s a place 
that my mother never wanted me to be.  
 
I’m talking about the years I spent behind bars, in a super-max prison. I’m talking about the four 
years I spent at Attica State Prison in upstate New York. 
 
D 
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Attica’s dark shadow 
Attica State Prison earned national notoriety in 1971 – long before your time – when a prison riot 
led to a four-day inmate takeover of the facility. Those inmates had a long list of demands, including 
access to more educational opportunities. Negotiations broke down eventually. The state police were 
ordered to retake the prison by force. When the dust cleared, 39 people were dead, including ten 
corrections officers. 
 
That was a terrible and dark moment in our nation’s narrative. Movies have been made about it. 
Like I said, that occurred in 1971. Thankfully, it was before my time too. I was there in the early 
1990s. 
 
Make the most of your freedom 
The first lesson I want to share with you from my time at Attica is to make the most of your 
freedom. While this is probably not unique to Attica, the prison building itself is a monument to 
despair. It looks like a fortress from the Middle Ages with watch towers and razor wire. The walls 
are tall, thick and painted what I would call “government contractor gray.” 
 
When I say the words, “Times Square”, you probably think about New Year’s Eve, Ryan Seacrest 
and tens of thousands of people crammed in together, singing as confetti drops and a shiny ball 
slowly drops below building-sized video billboards. But the Times Square I experienced in Attica 
was nothing like that place. 
 
In Attica, Times Square is the central control hub where the four wings of the prison come together. 
It leaves a rather different impression: the smell of bleach; the hum of industrial fluorescent lights; 
and the “buzz…ka-bang!” percussion of heavy steel doors opening and closing. Only one of Times 
Square’s gates can open at a time. Inmates can pass through a gate only in single-file lines of ten. 
The process is deliberately slow. 
 
The rhythms and echoes of everyday life in Attica remind you of the freedom that doesn’t exist 
there. We take that freedom for granted in our everyday lives. The word “freedom” itself can feel 
like little more than a talking point in a political speech. But the freedom to go where you want to 
go; to learn what you want to learn; to be whatever it is you want to be is an incredibly precious gift. 
 
My time in Attica taught me to be grateful for it every day. 
 
Mind your manners 
The second lesson I want to share with you from my time at Attica is to mind your manners. 
 
I have worked in community college education now for a long time. It was in prison, however, that I 
saw some of the very best and some of the very worst students I have ever seen. The college classes 
offered behind bars typically had about 15 students in them. Those students were focused on 
learning. They respected their instructors and their assignments to a degree not often seen in a 
typical college classroom. They read their materials. They were prepared for class. They would ask 
very sharp, insightful questions. 
 
But holding a good in-class discussion was nearly impossible. The students lacked the manners that 
are necessary to engage in a group conversation. People would talk over each other. They would 
interrupt each other. They would ridicule each other. Even worse, they would ignore each other. 
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You know, it’s a lot like those evening talk shows on those so-called cable news stations where 
everyone on the screen just screams at each other. It’s deeply troubling to watch that kind of 
interaction in person. 
 
To achieve anything in this world, you will have to work with others. Collaborations, partnerships, 
teamwork – these are really the only way things get done. So, mind your manners. You’ll never 
regret it. 
 
Never stop learning and value your education 
The third, and last, lesson that I want to share with you from my time in Attica is to never stop 
learning, to value your education, and to encourage that in people around you. 
The phrase “Lifelong Learning” has been around a long time but the idea has never been more 
important than it is today. Experts predict that today’s 609 graduates will have four or more 
different careers in their lifetime. Everything technical you learned and every piece of technology 
you touched along the way will be obsolete in a decade – if not sooner. That credential you earn 
today is not a finish line. It is a starting line. 
 
Most of the inmates I encountered behind the walls of Attica never finished high school. Inside 
prison, however, these convicted felons were desperate to learn. To them, the chance to earn college 
credits was as important as the air they breathed. The thought of going to class is what got them up 
in the morning and off to work their prison day jobs. They took two classes a night, four nights a 
week. And they took them seriously. 
 
Some of those people I encountered were some of the very best students I had ever seen. Many of 
the prisoners who took these college courses eventually earned a credential, and prison officials 
allowed them to have a commencement ceremony, similar to this. They were permitted to wear caps 
and gowns. They had a commencement speaker. Their families came to witness their big moment. 
And, most importantly to the graduates, they got to celebrate by eating food from outside the prison 
– pizza that was brought in for the special occasion. More than one graduate, I’m sure, described it 
as the greatest pizza they ever had. 
 
Let me ask you something: these people had reached rock bottom in their lives. They experienced 
the day-to-day realities of life behind bars. They knew that it would be years before they could use 
the skills and knowledge they learned in college classes. If the people I’m describing could 
understand the value of continuing their education then why can’t each of us value that? 
 
Never stop learning, my friends. Value the education you earn and encourage the people around you 
to do the same. 
 
The reveal 
I’m sure, by this point, you’ve asked yourself at least once, “How did this guy go from inside Attica 
to being the head of Virginia’s Community College System – and what did he do to end up inside a 
super-max prison to begin with?” 
 
Well, the truth is that I earned it. But that’s not to say that I was convicted of a crime. 
 
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I was a senior administrator at Genesee Community College. I was in charge of college programs 
that were offered at five different state prisons. I volunteered to teach criminology at the toughest 
prison which just happened to be Attica. 
 
So, yes, I spent four years inside the walls of that super-max prison, but I got to go home every 
night and sleep in my own bed – a small detail that, you know, makes all the difference. As a fellow 
community college graduate, I – and my story – am proof that a good education – like the one you 
earned here at Piedmont Virginia Community College – can and will take you just about anywhere. 
 
And the lessons are real. It doesn’t take four years inside a super max prison to understand them:  
• Make the most of your freedom;  
• Mind your manners;  
• Never stop learning and value your education. 
 
The places you’ll go 
I want to leave you with just one last thought. I have given a number of commencement speeches 
throughout my career. That includes one to a class of graduates inside Attica State Prison. I read Dr. 
Seuss to them. It’s one of my favorites.  
 
Dr. Seuss wrote it when he was invited to be a commencement speaker for a college class that 
included his granddaughter. It was the last book he ever wrote. So, in closing, let me share with you 
just a few lines from “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” 
 
Congratulations! 
Today is your day. 
You're off to Great Places! 
You're off and away! 
You have brains in your head. 
You have feet in your shoes. 
You can steer yourself 
any direction you choose. 
You're on your own. And you know what you know. 
And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go… 
And will you succeed? 
Yes! You will, indeed! 
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.) 
 
Thank you and congratulations to the class of 2014. 
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Commencement Address at Piedmont Virginia Community College

Remarks at the VCCS Annual Planning Retreat

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 18 
12-14-2022 
A College Graduate in Every Virginia Home 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). A College Graduate in Every Virginia Home. Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia 
Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss2/18 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
A College Graduate in Every Virginia Home 
 
This op-ed was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on September 15, 2013. 
 
 
irginia’s Community Colleges aspire to a goal that would tangibly elevate the economic 
outlook of the entire commonwealth. We strive to see a college graduate living in every 
Virginia home by the year 2025. This is neither a dream nor a fantasy. It is a necessity. Two out of 
every three jobs available in Virginia will require more than a high school education before this 
decade is through.  
 
A game-changer for Virginia 
Having a college graduate in every Virginia home would give future Virginia governors a unique 
advantage on foreign trade trips. Existing employers would benefit from convenient access to 
educated and trained talent. Moreover, higher education would no longer be a mystery to any 
Virginia child because she or he grows up sharing a home with a college graduate. 
 
It took America less than eight years to meet President Kennedy’s challenge to send a man half-a-
million miles to the moon and return him safely to Earth. 
 
Is it too much to think that over the next twelve years we cannot convince every Virginia family to 
travel 30 minutes, or less, to their nearest community college campus and earn a postsecondary 
credential? 
 
Where we begin 
Ensuring there is a college graduate in every Virginia home is guiding Virginia’s Community Colleges 
in forming its next statewide strategic plan, which will carry us into the next decade. 
 
A series of listening sessions, beginning later this month, begins that work. People in the 
communities we serve know best about the challenges we can help them solve. Similar sessions 
helped us create our current statewide strategic plan, Achieve 2015. 
 
From a statewide perspective, there are three significant challenges standing in our way. 
 
High school is no finish line 
First, our community colleges must help prepare more high school students for the rigor of college 
work in partnership with K-12 public education leaders. Nearly half of last June’s high school 
graduates required remedial education when they began community college this fall. We must bridge 
that gap. 
 
That means finding systemic ways to build on the partnerships we already have with Virginia’s K-12 
leaders: 
• Dual enrollment is helping more students than ever before earning college credits while still 
in high school; 
• Community college Career Coaches work in more than half of Virginia’s high schools 
helping students create career and college plans; and 
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• The Virginia Education Wizard, our free online tool, serves a growing number of families to 
connect a student’s ambitions and aspirations with the education needed to realize them. 
 
Uniting the two Virginias 
Second, we must bridge the educational divide that separates the two Virginias, and I’m not talking 
about West Virginia. 
 
Of the state’s 8.2 million residents, more than six million live in Virginia’s urban crescent, stretching 
from Northern Virginia to Richmond to Hampton Roads. Were that its own state, it would rank 
number two in the nation for educational attainment, with 90 percent of the population have 
graduated high school and 38 percent holding at least a bachelor’s degree. 
 
If the rest of Virginia – stretching from the Eastern Shore through Southern Virginia to Southwest 
Virginia and up through the Valley – were its own state, it would rank last in the nation for 
educational attainment with one in four people there failing to finish high school and only 19% 
holding at least a bachelor’s degree. 
 
Our Virginia Rural Horseshoe Initiative will take time to address this pipeline issue. Ignoring it, 
however, means a lot of Virginia talent will be untapped and many families will find themselves 
locked out of 21st century 
career opportunities. 
 
Education for 
tomorrow’s jobs 
Third, we must do a better 
job across Virginia aligning 
our educational offerings 
with the science, 
technology, engineering, 
mathematics and health 
science (STEM-H) 
opportunities that will drive 
tomorrow’s economy. 
 
One out of every five jobs 
available in the year 2011 
was a STEM-H job. Half of 
those jobs were available to people who had graduated with nothing higher than an associate’s 
degree. Those jobs offered an average annual salary of $53,000, 10-percent higher than jobs with 
similar educational requirements. 
 
Yet, less than one out of every four Virginia graduates in 2011 earned a postsecondary credential in a 
STEM-H field. That figure lags behind the national average – a figure that needs to grow too if 
America is to meet the projected workplace needs of the year 2020. 
 
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There are, of course, other challenges we face in ensuring there is a college graduate in every Virginia 
home by 2025. That includes making it easier for military veterans to earn college credit for prior 
learning experiences and deeply examining the meaning of the phrase student success. 
 
I am convinced, however, that we can set and meet the ambitious goal of having a college graduate 
in every Virginia home by the year 2025. We must. The workplace demands of the near future 
require this priority focus from us. 
 
Virginia created its 23 community colleges to do what no one else would, to address the 
commonwealth’s unmet needs in higher education and workforce training. We have been at it for 
nearly fifty years now and the urgency of our mission has never been clearer. 
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A College Graduate in Every Virginia Home

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 30 
12-14-2022 
Remarks at the VCCS New Horizons Conference (2016) 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Remarks at the VCCS New Horizons Conference (2016). Inquiry: The Journal of the 
Virginia Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss2/30 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
 
Remarks at the VCCS New Horizons Conference (2016) 
 
These remarks were delivered at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center in Roanoke, VA on April 13, 2016. 
 
 
adies and gentlemen: good evening. “If there is a universal enemy, if there is a main root to the 
excesses and to the inertia which get in our way, if there is a handmaiden to poverty and 
failure, it is ignorance. Let us marshal all our resources against it.” 
 
That declaration, made a half-century ago, became a battle cry. The stakes were nothing less than 
Virginia’s future. That battle cry ignited imaginations across our commonwealth, setting ablaze a 
revolution whose bright embers, today, continue to light our way and lead us forward. Education 
sparked that revolution. Industry’s need for it; individuals’ hunger for it; and the undeniable promise 
of it all led to the creation of the Virginia Community College System. 
 
The quote I read to you a moment ago, the battle cry, came from the 1966 inaugural address of 
Governor Mills Godwin. As a newly-elected governor, Godwin courageously put everything on the 
line to create our colleges. Through a statewide referendum, he convinced a smaller, more rural 
commonwealth to pay new taxes they didn’t want for educational opportunities they never had. 
Godwin convinced people that the idea of our community colleges – what he called “A bold new 
concept” was worth the chance, and he was right. 
 
Virginia families thought so. One by one, as our 23 community colleges opened over the next six 
years a consistent pattern emerged. The demand exceeded the availability of classes every time, and 
everybody noticed.  
 
“Whatever else our community colleges may accomplish,” Godwin said at the 1967 dedication of 
John Tyler Community Colleges. “They have taught us that we can never again think of a college 
education as something that belongs to the privileged or the few.” 
 
Since our doors first opened, Virginia’s Community Colleges have served more than 2.6 million 
individuals. That’s nearly the entire population of Jamaica. Over the same time, we have put more 
than half-a-million degrees and credentials into Virginia’s economy. 
 
Today, we serve people between the ages of 16 and 94. When it comes to public institutions we are 
the leading provider of higher education to African Americans; Hispanics and Latinos; first 
generation students; and new Virginians. While other institutions define themselves by who they 
keep out, we define ourselves on how many more people we can serve. 
 
“No computer, no scientific study, will ever be able to measure in full the benefits accruing to 
Virginia and to coming generations from our community college system,” Godwin said in 1969 
while dedicating a library at Northern Virginia Community College. 
 
We are celebrating our 50th anniversary throughout this year with a focus on the progress we’ve 
made to date and the promise of what’s to come.  
 
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And that’s the big question, right? What is to come for the colleges that we love and the people that 
we serve? Like Winston Churchill once famously said we are at neither the beginning nor the end, 
though perhaps we are at the end of the beginning. Let me offer you just two data points that 
whisper to us about the road ahead. 
 
The first is a national statistic. Since the end of the Great Recession, 97-percent of all the good jobs 
– and by that I mean fulltime with healthcare and retirement benefits – have gone to college 
graduates. We’ve said for years that a high school diploma is no longer a finish line. Each passing 
day makes that truth more stunning. 
 
The second one is a Virginia statistic. Over the next decade Virginia will have to fill 1.4 million jobs. 
As many as two thirds of them will require more than a high school diploma but less than a 
bachelor’s degree. They will demand the associate degrees and industry-recognized credentials that 
our students earn. In other 
words: As our community 
colleges go, or more specifically, 
as the students we serve go, so 
goes Virginia. 
 
The mission of Virginia’s 
Community Colleges over the 
next 50 years is clear. We must 
see to it that there is a college 
graduate in every Virginia 
household. We must strive to 
see the day when the phrase 
“first generation student” is a 
rarity, if not obsolete. We have 
now at our disposal two 
tremendous tools to help us 
pursue that ideal. 
 
The first is a six-year statewide 
strategic plan, Complete 2021, 
which is defined by a single goal: 
for us to collectively triple the 
number of credentials we put into the Virginia economy in six years. We are in the first year of that 
plan, building the culture, the mindset, and processes that will help us enroll more students and help 
more of them earn a degree or credential before they leave us. 
 
The second is an historic achievement realized this year with the help and leadership of the 
McAuliffe Administration and the Virginia General Assembly, and the support of business leaders 
from across the state. 
 
Beginning this year, for the first time ever, Virginia will invest public resources in our short-term 
workforce training programs that lead to industry-recognized credentials. This historic investment is 
a game-changer for so many of our students. Many of these credentials can lead people into high-
demand jobs, paying family-sustaining wages, in a matter of weeks or months. The credentials are 
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stackable. And at least one out of every three people who earn one go on to later earn a traditional 
degree. 
 
Inside our colleges, this means we are nearing the end of the divisions that have held us back and 
confused our students. The days of “credit” versus “non-credit” and “academic” versus 
“workforce” are drawing to a close. The paths to success we offer will increasingly be presented on 
an equal footing. From welder to engineer, from electrician to cyber-security analyst, from medical 
technician to nurse, we are better poised to help the people who count on us find their next success. 
 
The passport to the American Dream, has taken many forms over the years. Many of our 
grandparents made due with an eighth grade education. For many of our parents it was often some 
combination of a high school diploma and a union card, with perhaps a little time in a trade school. 
The results are in for what it will take for our children and that’s a postsecondary credential. 
Mills Godwin knew it. That’s why he was willing to stake his political life on it. He had the foresight 
to predict it 50 years ago. 
 
“In every walk of Virginia life,” Godwin said. “There will be thousands of men and women of every 
creed and color who will look back with grateful thanks to the new horizon opened for them in the 
classroom and laboratories of our community colleges.” 
 
Ladies and gentlemen, there’s never been a better time to be a part of Virginia’s Community 
Colleges. Our mission has never offered more importance, urgency, and clarity than it does today. 
Our best days lie ahead of us, and it lifts my heart to know that we are moving forward toward them 
together. Thank you. 
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Remarks at the VCCS New Horizons Conference (2016)

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 26 Number 1 Article 1 
4-17-2023 
Front Cover (Spring 2023) 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Art and Design Commons, and the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
(2023). Front Cover (Spring 2023). Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges, 26 (1). 
Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol26/iss1/1 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
1
et al.: Cover
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Video: Working with 23 Community College Presidents

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 21 
12-14-2022 
Remarks at the VCCS New Horizons Conference (2014) 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Remarks at the VCCS New Horizons Conference (2014). Inquiry: The Journal of the 
Virginia Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss2/21 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
	
Remarks at the VCCS New Horizons Conference (2014) 
 
These remarks were delivered at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center in Roanoke, VA on April 10, 2014. 
 
 
n the year 2012, seven out of every ten Americans who earned a bachelor’s degree acquired 
student loan debt along the way. The average amount each borrower owed was $29,400. That’s 
just shy of the sticker price you’ll find on a brand new BMW X-1 Sports Utility Vehicle. 
 
Collectively, Americans owe more money for student loans than they owe to credit cards. The 
numbers are slightly better in Virginia – but they’re nothing to brag about. Six out of ten Virginians 
who earned bachelor’s degrees in 2012 
amassed student loan debt. That ranks 
Virginia #23 in the nation.  
 
Their average debt load came to just 
under $25,000 – that’s the same amount 
of bonus money the US Olympic 
Committee gave to an athlete who 
earned a gold medal at the Sochi games. 
 
Affordability efforts 
There are a number of things that we do 
within our community colleges to help 
families navigate the costs of a college 
pursuit: 
 
o Our mandatory tuition and fees 
are about one-third of the 
comparable costs at a public 
university. 
o We have dozens of guaranteed 
transfer agreements and now a 
state-supported transfer grant 
that’s looking better all the time. 
o Through processes like strategic 
planning, reengineering and 
benchmarking, we put our 
operations under bright lights and 
microscopes to minimize 
inefficiencies. 
 
But there’s another way to help our 
students and families save a lot of 
money. We’re just at the beginning of that and everyone in the room tonight can help in the effort. 
We’re finding creative ways to reduce textbook costs. And by doing that we are fighting back against 
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one of the biggest punch-in-the-gut rip-offs in higher education. I know, because I lived the 
experience of expensive textbooks and I bet you did too. 
 
Chancellor’s OER grants 
I am supporting this effort from my office through the creation of OER Adoption Grants. These 
are incentives for faculty members to produce courses using Open Educational Resources; courses 
that can then be shared with their peer instructors across the system.  
 
The first round produced twelve, faculty-developed courses in which all required materials are free 
and openly licensed. With a modest investment of $36,000, the savings to the 520 students enrolled 
in the Fall 2013 pilot was at least $52,000.  
 
The pilot courses for Spring 2014 are underway and will more than likely produce comparable if not 
greater savings. Additional savings to students will continue to accrue with each passing semester.  
 
In addition to those grants, there were several other OER projects launched by colleges.  
 
o Tidewater Community College developed the Z Degree, the first-in-the-nation degree that 
has no textbook costs.  
o With a $20,000 Chancellor’s Innovation Fund grant, Northern Virginia Community College 
created a General Education certificate that also has no textbook costs for students.  
o Virginia Highlands, New River, and Lord Fairfax community colleges are currently in the 
process of developing OER projects with their CIF grants.  
 
Through these various initiatives, the VCCS has developed free and open course materials for 30 
courses, most of them high enrollment courses. Another 18 open courses are currently in 
development. 
 
In case you don’t know, I just announced a second round of the Chancellor’s OER Adoption grants 
to continue our momentum and scale the adoption of the OER materials that have been developed. 
Our OER work is earning national recognition. In fact, it’s helping to attract the 11th Annual 
OpenEd Conference will be held to Arlington in November 2014. 
 
We live in a time and cultural where buzzwords are often abused to the point they become 
meaningless. “Innovation” is one of those words. But efforts like OER is where innovation 
becomes meaningful; that’s where it benefits a lot of people; that’s where it becomes real.  
 
So, congratulations to those we are recognizing tonight. And thank you to all the faculty members 
here tonight who can bring so much purpose and passion to efforts like this.  
 
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Remarks at the VCCS New Horizons Conference (2014)

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 32 
12-14-2022 
Remarks at the VCCS Hire Ed Conference (2016) 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Remarks at the VCCS Hire Ed Conference (2016). Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia 
Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss2/32 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
Remarks at the VCCS Hire Ed Conference (2016) 
 
These remarks were delivered at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, VA on December 7, 2016. 
 
 
adies and gentlemen: good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be with you once again at the HIRE 
ED conference – back at what some might say is the event’s true home, The Homestead 
Resort. 
 
As we bring 2016, our 50th anniversary, to a close, I can’t help but reflect on just how far community 
college workforce development services have come. 
  
As we consider the emotions and 
fears expressed in the voting 
booth; the growing number of 
Virginia children raised in 
poverty; and Virginia’s slide out 
of the top five in the rankings of 
best states for business1: I can’t 
help but reflect on how far we 
have to go. 
 
Let’s me start with that look back. 
Workforce development has 
always been at the foundation of 
the community college mission. 
  
Here in Virginia, the creation of the VCCS was due in large part to the business community. 
Virginia’s business leaders, circa 1960, complained about the lack of trained and skilled workers, 
capable of keeping up with rapidly-evolving technology. (Who says history never repeats itself?) 
Virginia at the time had vocational institutions, and I suppose even some private training providers. 
They were insufficient, however, to meet the needs of an agrarian commonwealth that was coming 
quickly into its own industrial age. Manufacturing, welding, truck driving, plumbing, secretarial 
services – these were just a few of the initial offerings we had.  
 
Through them, we helped people earn the skills they needed to join Virginia’s middle class. And 
those offerings shaped the image of what our colleges were, even to those who had never stepped 
foot on campus. 
 
At nearly the turn of the century, Virginia decided that its community colleges would lead the state’s 
postsecondary workforce training efforts. Years later, the VCCS absorbed some of Virginia’s other 
workforce-related offices. Even then, the growing importance of workforce training was evident 
even among those who understood it only as a collection of buzzwords. 
 
Lightning struck in 2016! This year, the General Assembly and the Governor agreed to provide 
General Fund support for our short-term training programs. The Workforce Credentials Grants 
 
1 Forbes ranks Virginia #6 11/16/16 and CNBC ranks Virginia #13. 
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program represent the first such funding in our history. And while 19 other states were already 
funding similar programs, our unique plan is the first pay-for-performance plan in the nation. 
Taxpayer dollars are spent only after a student completes a program and earns a credential. And 
these grants couldn’t have come at a better time. 
 
Let me talk about last month’s election for a moment. I know, it’s not easy. Emotions run hot on 
this one. And I’ll let the political analysts, like Dr. Bob Holsworth, who will be joining us later in the 
conference, explain what it all means. But I think there’s a message in its results that applies to our 
work. 
 
People are worried. They are scared. They remember a time when a strong back and a decent work 
ethic was all you needed to provide for your family, and they wonder why that’s no longer true. 
They’re anxious, like they are standing at a darkened station platform, watching the last train fade 
into the distance, and knowing another may never come. Coal mines have been closing. The rise of 
natural gas has more to do with that than government regulation. But a promise to re-open the 
mines was an Election Day winner. 
 
Manufacturing is on the rise in America, if you measure it in dollars. While companies are returning 
their operations to America, technology means they don’t need as many employees. But a promise 
to restore those factory jobs was an Election Day winner. The studies and the statistics are 
staggering, and they all indicate that we are living in a new reality. 
 
Good jobs are available. Jobs that offer full-time hours; healthcare and retirement benefits; and the 
salary that is necessary to support a family are available today – but not for just anyone. You must 
hold a postsecondary credential to get one of those jobs. With few exceptions, it’s been that way 
since the Great Recession ended. 
 
Traditional college degrees – including our associate’s degrees – are terrific. But they can feel out of 
reach to families that live paycheck-to-paycheck, or have little or no college experience. We call the 
associate’s degree a two-year degree, but it’s really not. 
 
We looked back at those who earned our associate’s degrees in 2016. Of those who began with us as 
full-time students, it took them nearly four years to finish. Our part-time students took more than 
seven-and-a-half years to finish. The vast majority of our students, as you likely know, attend part-
time. 
 
For someone who is the first in the family to attend college, like me; for someone who’s never spent 
more than six months at any particular minimum wage job; for someone who’s intimidated to 
commit to a two-year contract for their smartphone; how viable is that associate’s degree?  
 
Our short-term credential training programs are different. We measure most of them in weeks and 
months, not semesters and years. 12 weeks? Three months? Six months? Those timeframes make 
more sense to many of our students. They’re more tangible and realistic. They’re a stackable first 
step into higher education. We don’t just think that. We know that from experience. 
 
(A quick aside here: When an individual successfully applies for unemployment here in Virginia, the 
benefits max out at 26 weeks. If someone who just lost her job, and came looking at your college’s 
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website, do we make it easy on them to learn what they could accomplish in those 26 weeks? And if 
not, why not?) 
 
The General Assembly set aside $4 million dollars for our first year of workforce credential grants. 
The clock began July 1 and runs to the end of June. As we stand here today, more than $3.5 million 
of that $4 million has already been spent. Remember, this is a pay-for-performance plan. When that 
money goes out the door that means people are completing their training programs and they are 
securing their credentials. 
The shorter time frame is only one of the incentives for people to consider. The close connection 
these credentials have to high-demand fields is compelling. It’s easy to understand that earning this 
credential leads to that job. 
 
Let me share just one example with you of a college that is really setting the example in this work. 
Southside Virginia Community College created a power line worker training program this past year. 
In just a matter of months it went from being an interesting idea tossed around over box lunches to 
an actual program. And it would have never happened without Virginia’s electric co-ops stepping 
forward to help. 
 
The results have been amazing. The program’s first two cohorts graduated a total of 30 students, 
each earning a handful of credentials necessary to work on power lines. Of those 30, 29 have already 
earned full-time jobs as power line workers. The third cohort will finish later this month. We expect 
the industry to hire them away similarly. 
 
These kind of success stories are emblematic of what inspired voters’ decisions last month. These 
are the kind of opportunities that they need and demand. Politics can be strange, tough, and messy. 
Occasionally, promises – like more jobs and career opportunities – fail to meet expectations. But for 
half a century now, Virginia’s Community Colleges have been a constant for the communities they 
serve. 
 
We face our own challenges, like drops in student enrollment or the promise of yet another round of 
budget cuts. Despite that, we have been there for people, often in their most desperate hour. And 
we will continue to be. 
 
And now that we have these Workforce Credentials Grants, this new and incredible tool, we will be 
there for people in even more, greater and exciting ways. To the business leaders in the room, we 
seek your continued help to ensure that we understand your needs and prepare would-be employees 
to meet them. 
 
To the elected leaders in the room, we seek your continued partnership to ensure that we are the 
solution you need us to be to connect the individuals you represent, who are ready to skill-up, with 
the businesses that are ready to hire. And to the community college presidents and workforce 
leaders in the room, we’re off to a good start on one of the most exciting developments I’ve seen in 
my career. 
 
Let’s really use this conference to share and learn the practices and epiphanies that will make our 
programs the life-changing opportunities we know they can be. Virginians are counting on us. 
 
Thank you, and let’s have a great conference. 
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Remarks at the VCCS Hire Ed Conference (2016)

Remarks at the Business Imperative for Diversity in Higher Education

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 43 
12-14-2022 
Remarks at the VCCS Hire Ed Conference (2018) 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Remarks at the VCCS Hire Ed Conference (2018). Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia 
Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss2/43 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
Remarks at the VCCS Hire Education Conference (2018) 
 
These remarks were delivered at the Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, VA on December 5, 2018. 
 
 
e are in the midst of an historic enrollment decline. After reaching a high-water mark in 
2012, we have lost enrollment for seven straight years. We look into those numbers, time 
and again, seeking ways to reverse them. 
 
We found something surprising – or at least, its scope is surprising. Most of our enrollment decline 
comes from one group, “non-traditional” students; some describe them as, “working adults.” I’ll 
make it simple: its people age 25 and older. We served some 18,000 fewer students, between the ages 
of 18-24, last year than we did in 2012. During that same period, we lost more than 46,000 students, 
age 25 and older. That means for every traditional-age student we lost, two or three adult students 
left with them. 
 
Instinctively, when facing these kind of trends we like to point to the economy. When it’s stronger, 
community college enrollment is typically weaker. At less than three-percent unemployment today, 
Virginia’s economy is historically strong. However, what we’re seeing is more than that.  
 
Everything about adult students is changing. Who they are; the struggles they face; the jobs available 
to them are all in flux. We need to change to help them meet those needs. We need to take a hard 
look at what we do, and how we do it, to win back those students.  
 
For several reasons I’ll mention, the future of our colleges – and it may not be overly dramatic to say 
that the future of Virginia – depends on our ability to get those adult students back. The good news 
is that we can. And, the people in this room are leading the way. 
 
FastForward 
Three years ago, at this very conference, we introduced a plan to establish the first-ever state funding 
for our short-term workforce training programs. We promised to chip-away at that big disconnect 
between Virginians who struggle to find a job to support their family, and the employers who 
struggle to find qualified, skilled candidates for the job openings they had. 
 
What we now call FastForward is our fastest-growing program, and it’s filling critical needs in 
Virginia’s workforce. FastForward makes our short-term training programs more affordable. 
Moreover, they are designed for the schedules of working adults, taking only weeks or months to 
complete, not semesters and years. In just two years, our colleges put over 12,000 high-demand 
credentials into the Virginia economy through FastForward. That tremendous number beat our 
expectations. 
 
FastForward is recovering some of those adults we’re losing. Students in our training programs are 
older, typically in their mid-30s to mid 40’s. The careers they begin after earning a credential are 
boosting their take-home pay anywhere from 25-percent to 50-percent. That’s a big deal, especially 
considering that one in five of our FastForward students received some form of public assistance 
the year before. FastForward is the fastest way out of poverty.  
 
W 
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DuBois: Remarks at the Hire Ed Conference (2018)
Published by Digital Commons @ VCCS, 2022
 
Seeking more FastForward funding 
It’s worth noting that we exhausted the available grants in each of the program’s first two years. 
Despite an increase in years three and four, we expect to exhaust them too. FastForward has a lot of 
room to grow. The commonwealth is investing just under $10 million a year in it. I suspect we 
would still run out of 
funds if that number 
doubled. After all, 98-
percent of the 
FastForward credentials 
earned have been in 
Virginia’s top 12 career 
fields, as defined by 
demand. Who wouldn’t 
want to invest in that? 
 
The good news is that I 
am encouraged by the 
conversations that we are 
having with lawmakers and 
policymakers. Our pay-for-
performance results are 
encouraging our 
supporters and turning around our skeptics. The creativity, innovation, and enthusiasm many of you 
in this room have put into FastForward is making it a vital pivot for our colleges. 
 
Demographics 
Before you know it, we will soon all experience what I believe will be the biggest disruption to 
higher education seen in our lifetimes – and that’s America’s shrinking birthrate. Our birth rate is at 
an all-time low, declining 12 percent since the year 2007. The realities of that take time to appear on 
campus, though it’s coming. Beginning in 2026, we will see an unprecedented decline in the 
traditional college-age student. The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic will take the biggest hit. 
 
What does that mean for all of higher education? There are more than 5,300 colleges and 
universities across the US todayi. How many of them, do you think, will survive higher education’s 
version of The Hunger Games? The Ivy League and top tier institutions will be fine, of course. 
However, the rest will be fighting for survival. Regional institutions will be forced to open their 
doors wider to fill their classes – recruiting the community college students they used to ignore. And 
many small, high tuition liberal arts colleges may be forced to close their doors for good. 
 
For us, serving 18-year-olds remains an important part of what community colleges do, but it 
probably won’t be the most important thing we do. Much like when our colleges began, our future 
will be about expanding the meaning of the phrase “college student” once again. 
 
Beyond 18-year-olds 
Case in point: The State Council for Higher Education in Virginia is currently promoting its strategic 
plan, called The Virginia Plan. It aspires to see Virginia lead the nation for educational attainment 
with 70-percent of our population holding a postsecondary credential by the year 2030. The Virginia 
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Plan aligns with our current strategic plan, Complete 2021, to triple the number of credentials our 
students earn. 
 
The truth is Virginia may not have enough 18-year-olds for us to realize those lofty goals – even if 
every single one of them earned a credential. 
 
ALICE 
No, we simply must help more adults, age 25 and older, earn postsecondary credentials. These folks 
often lack the skills and knowledge needed for today’s high-demand careers. We’re talking about an 
untapped pool of talent that lies beneath every community – People who began but never finished 
college; People who work multiple jobs to make ends meet, and plenty of single parents. Some of 
these folks are included in Virginia’s poverty statistics, but not all of them. These families, however, 
lead a fragile existence, and have a hard time affording the basic costs of living. One missed 
paycheck, one emergency expense and they are broke! 
 
We have learned a new way to describe these households. It comes from a big report published by 
the United Wayii. They refer to these folks with the acronym, ALICE. It means Asset Limited, 
Income Constrained, Employed. ALICE. Statewide, the number of households who qualify as 
ALICE is two out of five. The numbers are even starker in some communities across Virginia.  
 
As our enrollment numbers demonstrate, very few of these folks will enroll in a traditional college 
degree program. It takes too long to complete; it’s too expensive to pursue; and it requires a sense of 
academic confidence they haven’t felt in a long time, if ever. 
 
A sense of scale 
So how many people are we talking about? If we limit the conversation to Virginians between the 
ages of 25 and 44, who today lack a postsecondary credential, we’re talking about just over 1.2 
million people. Now, that’s more than thirteen times the 90,000 Virginians who graduate from high 
school each year – More than thirteen times as many. 
 
If that weren’t enough, then look ahead. Over the next decade, that high school age range of 15 to 
19 will shrink. The number of adults between 25 and 44, however, will grow. We cannot ignore 
those population trends. FastForward is just the beginning. The responsibility is ours to create 
opportunities that attract these adults, not intimidate them. 
 
Loyal FastForward graduates 
You might be surprised to learn: FastForward is also our leading program in terms of customer 
loyalty. We recently surveyed your FastForward graduates, and most of them see their experience 
with you as a beginning, not an end. Of the graduates we surveyed, more than half – 56 percent – 
have already returned to your college for additional training or will soon. In addition, another 36 
percent said they were open to the idea. 
 
Taken together, that means that nine out of every ten FastForward graduates have returned to your 
college for training, or could be persuaded to do so. So, my question for you is who on your campus 
is responsible for nurturing those relationships? Who is responsible for helping your FastForward 
graduates return for that next, stackable credential? And, if we don’t have someone taking on that 
responsibility then shouldn’t we? 
 
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DuBois: Remarks at the Hire Ed Conference (2018)
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G-3 
That next, stackable credential might just be in the G-3 program Governor Ralph Northam 
announced last week. Many of the details are still being determined, and the biggest parts of the 
proposal will be offered to the General Assembly not this coming year but in the year after, for the 
2020 legislative session. 
 
Make no mistake, however, G-3 is a continuation of what began with FastForward. It’s a challenge 
to rethink what we do and what we offer, and to make it work within the lives of those we want to 
serve. The basics of G-3 are this: The Governor wants to create a version of a free college program 
that focuses state investment on students pursuing  career and technical programs in high-demand 
fields. 
 
The competitive grants the Governor announced last week are really setting the stage for that. The 
grant money will help our colleges turn specific career and technical programs upside down, offering 
the hands-on technical training classes first and the general education classes later in the program. 
The idea is to see that even those who stop out after a semester, or a year, still obtain the skills – and 
a credential! – necessary to secure a job. 
 
The G-3 initiative is about bringing lessons learned from FastForward into these CTE degree 
programs. In fact, FastForward will be the first rung on this G-3 ladder for many students. 
 
Partners needed 
Bold initiatives like FastForward and G-3 are promising steps. They won’t be enough, however, to 
address all the needs of the students we serve today, nor the needs of the adults we seek to serve. 
I’ve worked in community college education for 38 years now. It never ceases to amaze me how 
things continue to change. 
 
The people we serve today are struggling with the basics of life in ways that I never had to, and I 
didn’t grow up in a wealthy family. The traditions of the college experience we know – lectures, 
readings, projects, and homework – are tough by design. We expect to push students, to broaden 
their horizons, elevate their thinking, and challenge assumptions. 
 
How much harder does all of that become when you don’t know where your next meal is coming 
from? How much thought can you give to that semester-long group project when you can’t be sure 
where you’re living next month? These are the questions I ponder as I learn more about the food 
insecurity, housing insecurity, and other poverty-related woes our students face. 
 
We do what we can to help. We raise money for student emergency funds. We stock food pantries 
on campus. However, good intentions and big hearts aren’t enough in this case; we need partners. 
We need to enlist other people and organizations who share our spirit of service and our desire to 
make a difference. When it comes to food insecurity, who can be there on campus to help students 
obtain SNAP benefits? What about the options when it comes to housing insecurity? What partner 
can guide students through available resources for assistance? What about the need for childcare – 
and in some instances, senior care – that can support a student while she or he attends classes? Who 
can offer those services on your campus? If public transportation is insufficient, as it often is in rural 
areas, how can we work with the Ubers and the Lyfts of the world to make it possible to get 
students between home, class, and their job?  
 
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Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges, Vol. 25, No. 2 [2022], Art. 43
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How creative can we be? How resourceful can we be? How many win-win collaborations can we 
build to serve our students? We need to find out. Those answers will go far in determining what we 
can do for both those we serve today and those we hope to serve tomorrow. 
 
System office transition 
Speaking of creativity, I want to close my remarks this afternoon with a mention of some staff 
transition that is underway at the System Office. As you have likely heard, with the retirement of 
Donna Van Cleave, Craig Herndon becomes the Senior Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services. 
Further, Sharon Morrissey, who is currently the Vice Chancellor for Academic Services and 
Research, will also assume the leadership of our workforce development services to form a yet-to-
be-named unit. 
The reality of it, friends, is that both of these individuals are tremendous and talented leaders. Their 
respective strengths, and their strong working relationship, allowed me to make this transition. Let 
me be clear about this: this transition is not a template for our colleges. I do not consider it an 
example for our presidents to follow, though I believe it is the right move for the System Office, 
given our talent and needs. 
 
A moment ago, I described both FastForward and G-3 as bold innovations and I believe that 
deeply. They will pace the many ways we are transforming our colleges to meet the needs of the 
community and the commonwealth. I am grateful to have both Craig and Sharon in these roles to 
leverage this work and this success, and to build upon it. As for the workforce side, in Sharon you 
are getting a leader who understands your work. It’s been part of her career for a long time – from 
her tenure as vice president at AB Tech to her work as Executive Vice President for Programs in the 
North Carolina Community College System Office. The biggest difference from what you are used 
to with Craig, from what I can tell, is that Sharon doesn’t speak nearly as fast. 
 
Ladies and gentlemen, with that I will say thank you. I hope that you enjoy our HIRE ED 
conference and get a lot out of it. 
 
 
i https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/07/20/how-many-colleges-and-universities-do-we-really-
need/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.575b7fa65624 
ii https://www.unitedwayalice.org/virginia 
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DuBois: Remarks at the Hire Ed Conference (2018)
Published by Digital Commons @ VCCS, 2022


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