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Gary
L. Toebben:
Our Community Must Focus on Reopening King-Harbor
Cox
on College: ‘It’s Not Going to Take 10 Years’
New provost
at Compton Center pledges to speed the pace of re-accreditation
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – Just
under a month after taking control of the community’s flagship
educational center, Compton Center’s new provost says he’s
confident the school will be back under local control and reaccredited
more quickly than the current estimate of 10 years.
After nearly two years of confusion and calamity fueled by misinformation
and rumors relative to what officials say is the partial and temporary
transfer of power to El Camino, Provost/CEO Lawrence M. Cox Ph.D. says
the college “is beginning to turn around.”
“Do we still have problems? Absolutely. Will we have problems
for a little while longer? Probably. But we’re diminishing them
day by day,” he said.
It was this message of hope laced throughout his brief speech at last
month’s Concerned Citizens of Compton meeting that drew Cox much
enthusiasm from the crowd before a final standing ovation.
If Cox has his way, which he appears fully committed to, the school
will be returned to local control in about eight years, give or take
a little.
“I try not to say what I can’t do, and I do what I say.”
His plan?
Cox says the place to start is sprucing up the school and boosting enrollment.
“We’ve gotta clean the place up. We’ve got to make it look
the way
it’s supposed to look so that students will feel invited, and they will
feel grateful to be there.”
But the situation is very much a Catch-22.
“The thing that’s gonna make a difference in how successful we can
be is
the number of students that we have,” he said. “If we can get the
students back, we can improve the programs. Now, the sad part is…it’s
tough, because if we don’t have the classes that students need, then they’re
not comin’. We need the numbers in order to pay for the courses that we
need.”
To that end, things are already starting to look up. Enrollment this summer rose
30 percent, at about 2,000 students, he said. Campus officials say that the school
will this fall be at capacity – a far cry from the bare roster lists of
the last two years – and maintenance and facilities crews are working to
fix up currently water-damaged classrooms to make room for all of them at the
beginning of the 2008-09 school year.
Cox said he has plans to further up the numbers by launching a program that will
guarantee any Compton Unified high school graduate a scholarship to the college.
“Some people call this ‘voodoo education,’ but it really works,” he
said. “The higher the college-going rate is in your community, the more
jobs you’ll attract. The more homeowners you’ll attract. The more
employment you’ll attract. Fewer gang members, less crime – it works.
If we can take these young people, and if we can invest in their futures and
in our own, we can make this community one of the most thriving communities not
only in Southern California, but in the nation. That’s how we intend to
turn this around.”
No. 2 on his list is tackling the school’s poor FCMAT scores.
The center must receive a score of 6 or higher consistently in at least 21 categories
in order to even be eligible to apply for re-accreditation. The scores as of
January 2008, the date of the first six-month progress report and comprehensive
assessment, were dismal at best, most hovering below 3 and showing little improvement
over those of April 2007.
“Now, as much as we dislike this, and as much is it’s unlike anything
else
that I’ve seen in the world, we still have to comply,” he said of
the FCMAT requirements.
“We’re going to do two consecutive years of high scores with this
FCMAT
report. Until we do two consecutive years, we can’t get there. We can’t
even start to get there,” he said.
But if high scores are earned for two years in a row, the state-appointed special
trustee, currently Peter Landsberger, will effectively be erased from the picture – a
notion that drew a heavy round of applause from those gathered in the fellowship
hall of Citizens of Zion Missionary Baptist Church July 17.
Cox expects it to take twice as long to “get ready” and become a
candidate for re-accreditation. “That’s a four-year process,” he
said. Finally, it will take about another two for the actual re-accreditation
to take place.
“We’re going to restore this college. It’s Not Going to Take 10 Years.
It’s gonna take a lot shorter because we’re going to work together.
We’re changing the culture. We are doing something different, something
more than has been done in a long time,” said Cox.
The new provost and CEO also extended an invitation to the community’s
gang members to enroll in classes at the college.
“I don’t care if a person is gang-affiliated. I don’t care
about it.
As long as they’re coming and they want to be educated, I want them on
the campus,” he said. “I don’t want them harassed by policemen
just because they look a certain way. I don’t care how they look. I want
them in the college. I want the community to know that I want them in the college.
Because that’s gonna help everybody. That serves the entire community.
We want those kids in our school.”
Cox made a special plea to the community to pitch in and help boost enrollment
by referring young people to head on over to the campus and sign up for a class
or two.
“I’ve done this before. I know what’s it’s like to start
out
with 2,000 students and grow that to 10,000. I know how to do that,” he
said. “But I can tell you that I need your help.
“With your help, we will do this – you have my word on this… We
will
get there.”
Cox, most recently the provost of Stark State College of Technology in Ohio,
assumed his post at Compton Center July 1. He has more than 25 years of academic
and leadership experience. He has served as an educational and research consultant,
president of Olive-Harvey College in Chicago from 1995-2002 and president of
Shelby State Community College in Memphis from 1990-1994.
Thus far, the community has received him warmly, and for many he is seen as a
beacon of hope in the fight to return the school to local control.
“We want him to know that we have his back,” said Marie Hollis, president
of Concerned Citizens. “He’s what the doctor ordered.”
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