As a school, Grand Rapids Community College has made it a goal to increase the number of minority faculty to equal the number of minority students enrolled at the college.
The article on page 1, “Minority staff numbers continue to rise,” stated that the student body is currently made up of 25 percent minority students and the faculty and staff sits at 18.7 percent.
Although the numbers are not there yet, Grand Rapids Community College has seen a steady increase in these numbers.
While some may wonder why these numbers are important, the goal of this equality revolves around the idea of providing all students with a comfortable and balanced learning environment.
Students spend many hours each semester with faculty, and having faculty available that students can relate to, especially within a student’s minority group, helps students succeed both in and out of the classroom.
The ability to provide students with someone to look up to and go to for guidance serves as motivation and encouragement during the tough times college sometimes creates.
GRCC’s officials are continuously trying to improve the education they deliver to students, and balance plays a huge role in this.
In the past five years, Grand Rapids Community College officials have done much to improve the education they provide.
By expanding the campus to better accommodate students, updating software to continually meet the needs of the student body, and continuously adding more class options to students, the college continues to push forward.
If Grand Rapids Community College wants to separate itself from the other schools in the state though, it’s time to look deeper to help students.
The school needs to look at the things that are vital to overall student success while at the school.
The process is three-fold. The school needs to continue to push for minority faculty numbers to equal the student body, and also provide students with the tools needed to be successful, which involves technological improvements in all classrooms and the ability to allow curriculums to continuously evolve at the same speed as our culture.
The last step is to better provide students with opportunities after finishing at GRCC. The school needs to help students not only move on to other institutions, but also become more involved in the job finding process.
With unemployment rates at all-time highs, being able to aid students in the job-finding process will help separate GRCC from the rest.
The improvements made by the school in regards to minority faculty shows that the school is willing to work to improve. It’s time to take the next step and set the example for the future of community colleges.
