The Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Faculty Association will host a legislative forum Nov. 12 at 10 a.m. in the Jefferson Davis Campus Fine Arts Auditorium in Gulfport.
John Speed, JD Campus language arts instructor and vice president of the Faculty Association at the JD Campus, said the forum’s goal is to educate Gulf Coast students and employees and the public about Mississippi’s higher-education funding process. “This comes at a crucial time, when state funding cuts are imminent and could hurt community colleges in South Mississippi still recovering from Hurricane Katrina,” he said.
Members of the Mississippi House and Senate have been invited to speak and answer questions during the forum. “The forum will be non-confrontational and non-political,” Speed said. “We simply want the members of our Gulf Coast family and the community at large to become more knowledgeable about the funding aspect of our state government.”
Legislators will explain the funding process as well as proposed budget cuts for the community-college system, which could be 2 percent this year and as much as 4 percent next year. A question-and-answer session will be included. At least seven legislators and senators have confirmed they will attend.
Mississippi community and junior colleges are one of the top four systems in the nation, according to a 2008 Policy Brief by the Rockefeller Institute of Government. The State Board for Community and Junior Colleges reports that funding is crucial for the community-college system, because it is the major access point for higher education in the state, providing education for 273,000 Mississippians annually. Additionally, Mississippi’s 15 community and junior colleges trained more than 150,000 workers last year at the request of employers and currently boast an enrollment of half the college undergraduates in the state.
For more information about the forum, contact Speed, 228.897.3962, john.speed@mgccc.edu.
