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For some students, going to college means going away — driving across the state, hopping a train up north or down south, or stuffing a suitcase into the overhead compartment of a cross-country jet.
But most students enroll close to home. And if home is a place nestled between mountains or swept by dry desert winds or planted beside green fields, the nearest college may be a rural one.
These institutions play a big role in making higher education accessible and (relatively) affordable to people who live in communities far from city centers and sprawling suburbs. While part of the payoff comes from supporting regional economic development and helping people train for jobs available nearby, that’s not their only purpose.
Rural colleges offer students the opportunity to study literature, science, history, economics and philosophy. They teach students how to write, ask deep questions and conduct research. They make ideas and information from around the world available locally.
An article about rural community colleges produced by our partners at Barn Raiser tells the story of Alex Stevens. He grew up in a small town on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and attended the University of Wisconsin-Marinette, a two-year college about 25 miles from his home, before transferring to a four-year college and eventually becoming a history teacher.
“I was rural, poor and smart, and UWM gave me a remarkable opportunity,” Stevens said.
But in an era of tight budgets and contentious politics, leaders don’t always recognize — or endorse — the role rural colleges play in teaching the liberal arts. Wisconsin recently closed more than half of its public two-year colleges, including the college Stevens went to, as part of an effort to consolidate schools and promote vocational training.
Another story we recently co-published, this one produced by Oklahoma Watch, describes how Republican lawmakers in about a half-dozen states have introduced bills targeting tenure at public colleges. That could make it even harder for rural colleges to recruit top professors to teach students who study outside of big cities and far from flagship campuses.
“This is a new way of saying these institutions are not real universities and their students are not worthy of a real university education,” said Cecilia Orphan, associate professor of higher education at the University of Denver and founding co-director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges.
How have you seen higher ed and the liberal arts change at rural colleges? Send me story tips at koenig@hechingerreport.org.
Thanks to the Rural News Network for sharing these two stories with The Hechinger Report.
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