Community College Symposium and Steering Committee

In 2006, Civic Consulting convened a symposium on urban community colleges, the first or only point of entry to higher education for more than 40% of Americans, and the primary educator of African American and Hispanic college students in Chicago.

Locally, our City Colleges serve nearly 130,000 students annually, and more Chicago Public Schools graduates attend the City Colleges of Chicago than any other institution of higher education. Still, our City Colleges remain, in many ways, on the periphery. Chicago is not unique regarding this problem.

The symposium led directly to the launch of our Steering Committee to define the role of community colleges in Chicago.

Civic Consulting brought together a cross-section of leaders from business, philanthropic, and not-for-profit communities, and asked the group to suggest what role they hope Chicago's local colleges, the City Colleges of Chicago, should play in Chicago. The committee made recommendations on:

• Job opportunities across Chicago
• Challenges the Colleges face
• Which parts of the community college mission are most critical for Chicago's future.