- Community and technical colleges experienced a combined 24% drop between fall 2019 and fall 2021. Public four-year institutions saw a collective drop in undergraduates of nearly 7% during that time period, with some schools’ losses double or even triple that. Roughly 60,000 fewer students, in all, enrolled.
- At the UW, men comprise 46% of all undergraduates and just 40% of this year’s freshman class on the Seattle campus. The percentage of men is even lower at The Evergreen State College, 39%.
At community and technical colleges, men make up 42% of students system-wide (excluding students whose gender was not reported or who didn’t identify as men or women) — and 35% or lower at six schools, including Highline College, Tacoma Community College and Lower Columbia College.
LOL anything but the truth, right?
- Washington 4-year colleges were under a hiring freeze from 2012 to 2020
- Washington 2-year colleges have been under a wage freeze from 2015-now
- The Washington legislature does not permit cost-of-living adjustments to state salaries - if you're teaching community college in Yakima or teaching community college on Capitol Hill, your wage is the same
- 2-year degrees entitle you to make minimum wage (trust me, we're currently hiring for a minimum-wage position and despite the fact that we have no education requirements listed, 90% of our applicants have a 4-year-or-better degree)
The director of the program I was in at Lake Washington Technical College could never get admissions over 70% of goal. Why? They were a trade school... in an affluent Asian neighborhood... where everyone's kids were going to some 4 year school or other come hell or high water because nepotism was getting them their jobs, not qualifications. So our student body was guys driving 50 miles from the Hinterlands. And even then, 70%. In one of the few programs that actually pays off (2 years of school starts you at $70k). What about the programs that don't? If you have an aunt or an uncle who has been working at Starbuck's while paying off a degree in Sociology, there is exactly zero fucking appeal to going in debt to pay off a degree in Sociology.
Of the 5 people I was closest to in my machining program:
- 1 graduated and went back to working at a pet store because no one would hire her
- 1 did the math and decided he made more money fixing cars
- 1 did the math and decided he made more money walking dogs
- 1 went off to do a 4-year degree at the University of Montana because UW is utterly un-fucking-affordable
- 1 got addicted to drugs but that's another story
...and that's a program that will make you money. We won't talk about the art students at the other school. A jeweler offered me a job based simply on the shit I post on instagram. I instead threw an art school friend who's trying to make a living. She didn't get hired.
- - The Washington legislature does not permit cost-of-living adjustments to state salaries - if you're teaching community college in Yakima or teaching community college on Capitol Hill, your wage is the same
Whaaaaaaat. Brb, getting a community college job in Walla Walla or something. That is crazy.