examine the experience of St. Louis, Mo., a community of similar population which has recently begun an outstanding community college system.

In mid-1958 the Committee on Higher Educational Needs of Metropolitan St. Louis began an intensive study of the needs of young people and the community for higher education. Among their findings were

(1) Twice as many young people in the city and county would be seeking admission to college by 1966 and three times as many by 1973.

(2) Tuitions in area colleges had doubled in the past decade. The closest State institution was 125 miles away, and the costs of living away from home were soaring. Some 38 percent of area high school seniors listed "lack of finance" as their reason for not entering college.

(3) Local private colleges were becoming increasingly selective and were thus inaccessible to many slow-to-mature potential students.

(4) St. Louis was one of the few remaining metropolitan areas that failed to provide posthigh school, 2-year, technical training programs, although the needs for trained technicians in local business and industry were steadily mounting.

Given these alarming facts, the committee recommended to a statewide committee established by the Governor of Missouri that there be established a 2year public college financed by State and local taxes and student tuition, offering curriculums both terminal and transfer in nature. Legislation to this end was entered in the State legislature. A political battle then began, too long to detail here, except to say that support for a community college proved to be so widespread among business, labor, the press, educators, and citizens from every walk of life, that the legislation passed by overwhelming majorities in the summer of 1961.

The legislation permitted the creation of community college districts across school district or county lines; provided payment of $200 per student in full-time enrollment; vested authority for community colleges in the State department of education; gave power to tax and bond for community college purposes. The law also required local initiative in creating a community college district. An election in St. Louis City and County in April 1962, approved the area community college district by a 2-to-1 majority.

A few months later, the newly elected trustees of the community college district employed Dr. Joseph P. Cosand of Santa Barbara City College in California, as president of the new community college district-a district, by the way, which takes in 1.5 million people living in a diverse area of 550 square miles. Since 1962 three centers of the community college have been opened in the St. Louis metropolitan area, one in the city and two in the county, strategically located to serve every possible citizen. As the current 1965-66 academic year began, some 7,000 students were enrolled.

The Meramec Community College is on a 78-acre tract in the South County, currently operating classes in temporary frame buildings from 8 o'clock in the morning until 10 o'clock at night. Future plans anticipate an enrollment of 4,500 students by the early 1970's.

Forest Park Community College is now offering classes in a St. Louis high school from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. Permanent buildings for it are now under construction and will be ready in February 1967 to hold 3,000 students. Eventually, this campus is to enroll 7,000 students.

Florissant Valley Community College is operating now in temporary frame buildings in North County from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. Permanent buildings are to be built to serve 3,500 students in the fall of 1967.

What a dramatic growth the St. Louis Community College District has had. Its enrollment has jumped from 790 in February 1963, to 2,400 in September 1963, to 5,000 in September 1964, to almost 7,000 in September 1965-and the end is not in sight.

Their students can choose from a variety of programs, from the traditional college transfer or degree-oriented course of study to terminal technical programs of 1 or 2 years' duration aimed at immediate job placement. Students may attend any of the three campuses, regardless of where they live. The academic courses are offered on all three campuses. In the interest of economical and efficient operations, however, not all technical courses are offered on all campuses. Engineering technology is concentrated at Florissant Valley, with students permitted to complete the first requirements at one of the other campuses if they so choose. Professional nursing programs are offered at both Meramec and Forest Park. At Forest Park, too, there is a hotel, motel, and restaurant program. At Forest Park, too, an exciting "opportunity program" is being de

veloped (with a foundation grant for research) to help highly motivated underachievers.

Many students are recent high school graduates, but the community college district, like community colleges everywhere, attracts many mature men and women who enroll in courses for self-improvement, for job advancement, or for the joy of learning. St. Louis officials say it is an exciting student body. And I believe the entire St. Louis story is an exciting one--and an instructive one for those of us in the District as we look to the creation of a community college. It would appear that if Washington, D.C., had the type of community and adult education programs that are now in existence in California, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, and New York, there would be several times as many high school graduates and adults continuing their education through a community college program or entering similar programs under the auspices of a 4-year university.

The situation in Washington is further complicated by the fact that this city has little heavy industry; its chief industry is the Government and firms contracting with the Government in complex research, development, and scientific programs. There is a great need for professional and technical personnel. The establishment of free or low-cost public colleges in Washington would greatly increase the number of local citizens who would qualify for the skilled and technical jobs available in Washington.

Our experience at the Graduate School of the U.S. Department of Agriculture demonstrates the need for increased educational opportunities.

The school which was established in 1921-45 years ago was designed to serve the needs for continuing education of employees in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From the first, it has attracted employees from other Federal departments.

We do not offer college degrees; yet during the school year 1964-65, we had over 13,000 different men and women enrolled for courses. They study in the Graduate School for several reasons-to upgrade their performance on the job or qualify for new jobs, for the pleasure of learning about something they want to know, etc.

We are very much aware that the Graduate School, USDA, does not and cannot fill all needs for the adults of this community. Our fees, though nominal, are beyond the reach of thousands of adults in the District who could benefit from education. I simply cite the experience of the Graduate School as evidence that the people of Washington will take advantage of evening and day classes if the courses are designed with their needs and interests in mind and offered in convenient and familiar locations, at a cost within their means.

A community college or a complex of community colleges would not seriously overlap with the work of any existing institution. It would provide educational opportunities not now being offered. It would reach people who are now beyond the reach of existing educational institutions. It would provide a base for experimentation and innovation for which there is great need.

I am thinking of the application of new techniques of teaching and learning using new knowledge from the behavioral sciences about how adults learn and of using new equipment in audiovisuals such as closed circuit television. I am thinking of innovations in the use of building that are convenient to the homes of people now bypassed by our educational programs. I am thinking about the opportunity to make educational centers for adults of all ages that will involve our people in the pursuit and use of knowledge so that the District of Columbia becomes an exciting and wonderful place for all people who live here.

Until a community college is built, the citizens of Washington, D.C.-the ninth largest city in the United States-will continue to have no access to lowcost, high-quality, education in a publicly supported institution of higher education.

Many of us in the field of adult education see the creation of a community college complex in the District of Columbia as a magnificent opportunity to show our fellow Americans and the people of the world that we truly cherish the ideal of learning, of learning throughout life.

Decentralization could be the key to a successful community college program in the District. In Washington, perhaps we should be thinking of as many as eight centers of adult learning. These centers can be new and separate, or they could be operated strategically within the 16 senior high schools and vocational schools. Each center of learning should have self-satellites in libraries, in churches, and in other public buildings, where people could go at their convenience

and tap the source of knowledge that is available in this world capital. They should have the opportunity to learn alone or with other people. They should have counselors that would help them and coach them to overcome blocks of learning—to help them to help themselves in solving problems and in understanding man and the world in which he lives.

In closing, I again urge the passage of this legislation. And I urge that the proposed community college be viewed not only as an institution to fill the particular needs of a particular city, but as a proud demonstration to all our city's visitors, and to all the world, that Washington is leading the way in solving the problems of continuing education in a changing world.

Dr. HOLDEN. The essence of what I have to say is, I am proposing a learning community for the District of Columbia, and I am speaking as an adult educator and with all due respect to everything that has been said about these two institutions, I would like to think that the total adult learning of this community is as important or equally important as to the other particular phases of this program.

The first concept that I would like to indicate is that here in the District of Columbia you have the disadvantaged people, and in a sense these disadvantaged people—and to some extent, we are all in this, it is a matter of degree-we have a maze. In other words, the people who are born poor have limited money and limited opportunities, and so because they have low incomes they try to go one way, and they run into one kind of a hurdle. They have limited motivations, they run into another kind of hurdle until finally, perhaps, they do work them through our community.

But as I see it, they run into a dead end, and from an adult education standpoint, I would say we have five big jobs. One is, that we have 100,000 people in the District of Columbia who are functionally illiterate. We have an additional 100,000 people in the District of Columbia that have not finished their high school. Then we have more than 50 percent of the people who enter college who are pushed out or dropped out, so they are here and need training. Then a fourth big job is the whole area of continuing education for adults to be better parents, to be better citizens, to have a fuller life.

A fifth big job in adult education is to try to update and upgrade and renew, refresh all of the people in the professions, the scientists, the doctors, the lawyers, the nurses, and the accountants. And as I see it, the District of Columbia has very few opportunities to solve these five big jobs.

So my second concept, here, is that we need to have a community college. I say that the community college should not only be at one location but should be at least six locations. Also, not directly connected with it but an essential part of this total particular purchase would be the college of arts and sciences. I even see at each one of those six areas at least seven different satellites where people could go to learn.

In a sense then you have many opportunities, and there is a relationship. Someone just before here talked about the cost of getting to a school, and I would like to mention here that that the U.S. Department of Agriculture Graduate School has been in existence for 45 years and I would like to think that it has been the directors that have been the great contributing factor, but this is not the case. One of the things that has made our program great is its accessibility. People could work during the day, get their dinner at night and go in, continue their education in the same building. They could go to

school for 2 hours and they could get home and still be able to meet their obligations the next day.

In other words accessibility. So if you try to get even all the people that need this education to come to one central location, you put another artificial hazard. So I am proposing here that we have a central program of a community college, but that we decentralize it into at least six, or it could be the central college with at least six branches and the branches would then-it would be a galaxy, a satellite—and have many lesser learning stations around each of the decentralized campuses.

Now, the one thing we might say here is, Would this duplicate any of the other educational programs that are now going on?

On this particular chart [indicating] I have tried to indicate that we have at least major other kinds of institutions that will continue to make a contribution toward these five jobs. In the red circle are community colleges and the black circles representing the other major contributions to the educational life of this community.

I would like to go back to my five jobs, five big jobs and indicate where they are going to be done.

Job No. 1, is the hundred thousand illiterates. We need to step up, we need to dramatize the elementary, junior high school programs to help these functionally illiterates that are living in the District of Columbia.

The second big job of training to finish high school; we need to expedite, to reinforce the educational opportunities for people to complete their high school or get a high school equivalency.

THE
DISADVANTAGED