Have you ever known a college to shrink in size?

Sure, it does happen. Some colleges even go out of business. But it doesn't happen that much. Mostly they grow.

So I was pretty surprised to see UDC's trumpeting of Backus Middle School (at South Dakota Avenue and Gallatin Street in NE DC, a couple blocks from the Fort Totten Metro station) as _the_ campus for UDC's new community college.

According to a stakeholders document I reviewed, the site is 2.91 acres, and the building is 126,000 s.f.

Doesn't sound like much room to grow. I have never known a successful college to not continually grow.

Speaking of the "need" for a planning commission in DC, I have argued that a planning commission is worth doing _only_ if it has oversight over all planning matters (i.e., health, hospitals, libraries, parks, education, etc.), not just planning matters involving land use.

Planning for the city's role in higher education screams for a master planning effort, one that doesn't appear to be happening, despite the drum roll of interest on behalf of the Growth Machine for a city-supported community college. See the report from Brookings Institution, Envisioning Opportunity: Three Options for a Community College in the District of Columbia.

The report states the options and the conclusion:

This brief lays out three options for creating a community college in the District: (1) Create a community college within UDC; (2) create a freestanding community college from an incubator institution; or (3) create a community college network that strengthens and ties together sub-baccalaureate offerings at UDC and other institutions in the city and suburbs. None of these options are easy or cheap, and all would require substantial commitment from city leaders and major new investments in higher education. If the city is not willing to make a large and long-term investment, it cannot expect much in return. While each option has benefits and limitations, we believe that the most viable, effective, and sustainable option is the creation of a freestanding community college that starts within an incubator institution.

But there has been no public vetting of this conclusion.

I reviewed a "stakeholders document" produced by resident groups impacted by the proposed college at Backus Junior High and I did not see any substantive data about enrollment projections, nor did I see any signs of their seeking out of expertise on community college planning issues, from organizations such as National Community College Council for Research and Planning, Society for College and University Planning, or the American Association of Community Colleges.

Frankly, I think Option 3, though far more difficult, makes the most sense.

Why should DC take on the economic responsibility of developing and duplicating the educational adminstrational infrastructure of a community college? Why shouldn't DC leverage the investments made by other jurisdictions in community college development? Why should the City of Washington not be concerned with reaping economies of scale that can come with working with others? Why should the city, which doesn't have a good track record for creating high quality educational insitutitions (at least in the past 40 years), take on full responsiblity for creating a high quality community college, etc.?

But there are other questions that aren't being asked or addressed when it comes to postsecondary educational opportunity in DC.

1. The much touted program that assists DC high school graduates in attending quality public institutions in other states at reduced tuition doesn't include similarly subsidized options for high quality graduate school education for DC residents.

2. Given the array of high quality educational institutions in the city, would it make sense for DC to contract with various institutions to provide "state-supported colleges" at these institutions, much like how the State University of New York System supports certain colleges at Cornell and Syracuse University as state-supported institutions, but within the broader private university. These colleges, such as the College of Agriculture at Cornell, offer in-state tuition rates to New York State students, and the SUNY system pays Cornell to provide this service.

A "City College" for DC undergraduates could be developed to take on the undergraduate educational responsibilities of UDC, but it could be "contracted out" for management by one of the city's other universities, i.e., Howard, Trinity, or GWU.

3. Perhaps it would make sense for DC to contract with the city's private universities to provide subsidized graduate educational opportunities to city residents.

But these questions aren't getting asked. Meanwhile, planning for a DC-managed and developed community college is going full-speed ahead.

Given the limited size of the "campus" available to a community college at Backus Middle School, my sense is that the effort needs a lot more initial and broader planning in order to become a robust institution.

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There has been a bunch of op-ed writing about how the economic crisis today means that we can't continue to do "business" as usual, that we have to make hard choices to move forward.

Expansion planning for public institutions, including higher educational institutions, is one area that requires hard choices and provides the city with the opportunity to truly initiate regionally-based thinking, in a region that doesn't consistently engage in such thinking (with some exceptions as it relates to public transportation).

This is a blown opportunity .

And Brookings Institution could have stuck its neck out and advocated the hard and better choice, rather than sitting on its hands and making a pretty weak recommendation.