When National News Paints Your Institution With Too Broad a Brush
Chato Hazelbaker
May 31, 2023
Higher education isn’t a monolith, but media attention on trends that aren’t impacting your campus can cause confusion. A community college president considers how and when to respond.
On April 3, The Hechinger Report published an article titled “The Reckoning Is Here: More than a third of community college students have vanished.” The following morning, I received an email from a stakeholder inquiring about our institution’s numbers and actions. This direct approach provided an opportunity to address concerns, shed light on our unique situation and acknowledge the real issues highlighted in the article that required attention.
Over the next week, as I observed the article being reposted and commented on, it became evident that it had struck a nerve and was receiving significant attention. However, it failed to consider major regional differences and variations among college types, leaving a skewed impression. Furthermore, it couldn’t determine whether this was a short-term fluctuation or a long-term trend.
