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The University of DC campus

Have you always had a hankering to get a law degree but the costs were too high or your job too good to pick up and leave? The University of the District of Columbia has an answer. Starting this fall, the David A. Clarke School of Law at UDC is offering a part-time program at night for about $5,000 a year.

The Law School Leads the Way
The part-time program is the lead initiative in a university-wide effort of change. Located on the main campus at Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness Street on the Metro’s Red Line in Northwest, the law school has been referred to as the “jewel” of UDC. Built on a philosophy that law is the “people’s tool for equality,” the law school has spent the past 10 years earning recognition, and more recently accolades, for its clinic-based education that provides lawyers for the District and legal services for the poor and the not-so-poor. The school has successfully incorporated the outreach, public service and educational qualities that President Allen L. Sessoms has claimed are his bywords for the university’s future.

The law school’s dean, Katherine S. Broderick, is an experienced litigator whose skills in the courtroom are matched by her 10-year-long commitment to UDC. A no-nonsense woman of commanding presence, Broderick is president of the faculty senate and an enthusiastic supporter of Sessoms.

President Sessoms, who assumed office a year ago, is a physicist by training and comes to UDC from the presidency of Delaware State University, Dover. Previously, he had been at Queens College, a senior college of the City University of New York. His experience with diverse student bodies, especially the multi-cultural student body that characterizes New York City’s public higher education, bodes well for his tenure at UDC. A popular choice by the board of trustees, Sessoms could have no better partner than Broderick in his efforts to transform UDC into a 21st-century model school of higher education.

History
Despite the law school and some strong programs in business administration and hospital services such as nutrition, the best to be said about UDC is that it has had a lackluster history. Chartered in 1974 by Congress as the only urban land-grant university in the nation, UDC is legally akin to the major state universities around the country. In contrast with public state universities from Maine to Texas, however, the university has not become a center of intellectual excellence with a faculty renowned for academic achievement. Moreover, the quality of the undergraduate students has echoed problems endemic in the District high schools. Not surprisingly, UDC has so far failed to capture Washingtonians’ educational allegiance or gain widespread financial contributions, and its congressional support, despite the steadfast efforts of our shadow legislators, has been more grudging than generous.

Today, the concrete no-frills campus built more than 30 years ago shows its decades of use. Its architecture, classic late mid-20th century modern, is harsh concrete and glass, linear and uncompromising. In a city green with flowers, shrubs and trees, its plazas are largely empty spaces that do not invite lingering. The escalator to the main entryway lurches, and the elevators are small. There is no student center, nor any student housing, a dismal rate of graduation, and an academic reputation that encouraged Congress to award up to $10,000 a year to any DC student who chose to attend a state university anywhere in the country, except UDC.

To Sessoms’ credit, the good has begun to overcome the inherited bad. The campus is clean and filled with people eager to help. The walls are pasted with colorful posters and multiple announcements that defy the hostility of the environment with the promise of social justice and unseen student conviviality. Structural repairs are underway. The money for a student center has been raised, and construction will begin soon.

President Sessoms’ Vision
Across the nation, public universities face uncertain futures – UDC even more than most others. Sessoms, however, relishes the challenge. He has a big vision. Sessoms has plans for a university without walls, with active educational centers located in every ward in the District. He welcomes technology and has plans underway for a technology center that can incubate new ideas and applications. He envisions technology connecting the university to everyone’s home computer and smart phone with the ability to deliver interactive electronic learning.

In Sessoms’ vision, UDC and the District form a single holistic learning environment. He plans to partner with business and government to develop internship and apprentice programs that tie together “doing and learning” to build a skilled modern labor force for the District.

The New Community College and Four-Year School
The first steps will be visible this fall. Not only will the law school admit part-time students, but UDC will admit students to the first public community college in the District. Sessoms’ new community college has the support of the board of trustees and the DC Council. Vincent Gray, chair of the District Council, is unequivocal. “I have supported the community college concept for years and am delighted President Sessoms is moving forward with its implementation as a distinct arm of the University of the District of Columbia. He has kept me up-to-date on the progress the university is making in turning UDC into a first-class institution. The role UDC plays in the District’s educational spectrum and in workforce development is vital. I believe Dr. Sessoms and his administration will enhance that role with innovation and advancements that will put UDC in a position to be even more responsive to the higher education needs of the residents of the District of Columbia.”

This year the new community college will offer some 20 associate degree and certificate programs and over 25 workforce development programs, many of which will be situated in the local wards. Look for the business-education development center coming near you on Capitol Hill, which will be among the initial sites.

The separation of a community college from the four-year college of arts and sciences addresses several key educational issues that have bedeviled the university for decades and seriously retarded its development. Open admissions for any District student with a high school diploma will continue at the community college, where there will also be extensive support to bring students’ skills to college levels. The community college will have an articulation agreement with the UDC four-year school and with surrounding colleges allowing UDC community college graduates to smoothly transfer into the second two years of four-year baccalaureate programs in local colleges.

Modern community colleges are more than institutions for the first two years of a four-year baccalaureate or technical training centers. They serve the local and larger community for the enrichment of personal needs and professional life. They are the places where the community can find inexpensive instruction in everything from metal working to foreign languages. In the lingo of education, they are centers for “lifelong learning.” They are probably also the lifeblood of outreach in Sessoms’ drive to co-join the District and UDC.

However, Sessoms is not depending solely on the outreach of community colleges. He also has intellectual pretensions for the university, which would make UDC a “destination school.” As of this year, admission to the four-year college requires a 2.5 high school GPA and 1200 on the combined SATs or a GPA of 2.0 and 1400 combined SATS. This brings the admission standards into the range of the surrounding state universities. The incoming freshman class will resemble more the classes at the universities of Maryland and Delaware than ever before.

So too will the faculty. The separation of the community college from a four-year institution allows the faculty to find its comfortable place. This time, change at UDC is not accompanied with hostility from its board of trustees or from the faculty, but with support. The trustees are firmly behind the president and the faculty senate unanimously endorsed Sessoms’ proposal.

The Future
Support from the faculty and the board of trustees gives Sessoms a window of opportunity. He has two “secret weapons.” Washington is increasingly the “place to be.” It has a new and enviable buzz among the nation’s cities. Students want to come here, and parents are no longer fearful of sending them. UDC also has a price that can’t be beat. Most state universities range between $15,000 and $20,000 for tuition. UDC is in the vicinity of $5,000. It’s a bargain that cannot go unnoticed in this economy.

Universities are as much an abstraction as a concrete reality of campuses and learning centers. They embody a spirit, incorporate tradition, and at their best offer an environment that respects the intellectual and practical past while also promoting the future. Their certificates and degrees credential practitioners in every avenue of society, and they hold special responsibilities in a democratic meritocracy for inclusiveness and expansiveness. At their best, they have permeable membranes that incorporate business and government with education to reach deeply into the society.