On November 1st, the Better Government Association (BGA) and Crain’s Chicago Business published an article written by David Kidwell. Kidwell documented an investigation regarding your education’s role in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s public image.
The BGA is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization dedicated to informing the public about local government and recent political events. Since this association does not accept funding from government organizations or political parties, it ensures that public officials are held accountable for making decisions that affect the state of Illinois.
Mayor Emanuel promotes the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) and emphasizes the importance of improving education in the Chicagoland area.
Since 2010, the amount of degrees earned by students in CCC has increased. That same year, reinvention took place and Mayor Emanuel assigned each CCC campus a specialized area of study. For example, Wright College’s specialty is Information Technology (IT).
This investigation alleges that despite enrollment rates decreasing across all seven CCC campuses, the amount of degrees granted to graduates increased. Some alumni of CCC were given an extra degree despite not completing mandatory credit hours to receive one, which led to some confusion for the degree recipients.After the 2010 reinvention of CCC, the extra degrees awarded were for General Studies, whereas in previous years, those degrees were sparingly awarded. Statistical data released by the CCC shows Wilbur Wright College distributed about 600-650 General Studies Degrees in 2016 which surpasses the amount of degrees granted for Science and Applied Science.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chancellor Juan Salgado of the CCC declined to be interviewed for this investigation. However, Chancellor Salgado did respond to this news via email saying, “Our decline in enrollment is turning around. This summer, CCC came together to turn that trend around. As a result, 3 of our 7 colleges grew fall enrollment compared to last year.”
Salgado continues, “While community colleges across the state of Illinois experienced an average enrollment decline of 3.5%, CCC declined by only .5%.” Salgado wishes to leave the past behind and focus on the future. Wright College President David Potash also had some things to say.“When we found out about this we were dismayed to put it mildly,” said Potash. He then referred Sarmiento to Catherine Hayes, an overseer of communications who has data to refute the BGA article’s claims.
With all of this commotion, what do students at Wright think? Carmen Calderon, a new student at Wright College, says, “I think it would be unfair for CCC to give degrees out to people who did not finish. If more people knew about Kidwell’s article they’d probably feel less motivated.”
Calderon also expresses that Wright College does not always efficiently distribute information for students to be informed of events that affect the City Colleges system.
“Mayor Emanuel is not sharing enough information and people don’t really know what this could mean. He should make things more clear and public,” continued Calderon.
President of the Student Government Association (SGA) Mai Mai Villasenor added, “I feel the BGA has attempted to degrade the City Colleges with this investigation.” Villasenor continues, “This article frustrates me as a City Colleges student, because we all work incredibly hard to achieve an Associate's or certificate in our field. The CCC has undergone major changes in recent years to benefit our students, and offers many opportunities for us to excel when we're ready to transfer.”
There are various perspectives tied to the BGA’s investigation. They provided statistical info which is either rejected or accepted by the CCC communications department, high-ranked officials, and students who are directly affected.
The Better Government Association’s investigation creates negative implications about CCC’s credibility and the reactions of the people have made that very clear.