The Wilmington morning star., 1947-03-18
For A Junior College

Reasons For A Junior college,
There are innumerable reasons why
"a junior college serves a vital need in
educational advantages of the area in
which it is located. All of these reasons
obtain in Wilmington and southeastern
North Carolina. To reject the oppor-
tunity now available to the people OF
New Hanover County to establish one
here would be a definite step backward.
Studies conducted of conditions in
localities where the nation S GA junior
colleges exist show, among other things,
that junior college graduates who have
transferred to standard colleges and
universities have been. adequately pre-
pared for upper division work - that,
as a rule, they have done their scholas-
tic work as satisfactorily as students
whose lower division work was taken
in the university, and in many cases
even more satisfactorily.
Much more important, however, has
been the opportunity the junior college
has offered to the larger number of
secondary school graduates who, be-
cause of economic or other limitations,
cannot or probably should not attempt
to complete a college course four years
or more in length. To thousands of STU
dents who probably will finish their
formal education at the sophomore
level, the junior college offers two years
of general education designed to develop
good citizenship and broad social un-
%derstanding through courses of study
that emphasize breadth, unity, and
comprehension. Curricula are being Of
fered to give the student about to COM
plete his general education a u~nitary
conception of our developing civilization
and of the place which he should oc-
cupy in it.
The young citizen should be epa
ed not only to live a better life but also
to earn a better living than would be
possible without collegiate education.
There is a considerable group of semi
professions between the level of the
trades and the level of the professions
for which two years of college edu-
cation are commonly considered neces-
sary and sufficient. Such semiprofes.
slonal positions are especially ume
Gus in the business, engineering, agri-
cultural, secretarial, homemaking, pub
lie service, and health fields. In engi-
neerlng, for example, a careful analysis
has shown the existence of at least
three positions on the semiprofessional
level for each one of the graduate level.
The junior college has almost a UNIQUE
field here.
AS a local institution close to the
tastes and needs of the community, the
junior college also has a peculiar o.
I%portunity to conduct courses of study,
both technical and general. for adults.
Under normal peace-time. conditions.
with growing chronological unemploy.
ment, with increasing leisure whether
voluntary or forced, with shortened
hours OF work, it is becoming more and
more evident that education, especially
for social citizenship, never can be
and never should be terminated. FIRE.
quently the local junior college is par
tlcularly well equipped to meet this sit
uation. All of it's resources-plant.
equipment, library, laboratories, staff.
guidance service, athletic facilities
can be used to correlate and to satisfy
needs of adults who desire further
study, discussion, recreation, and stimu-
lus to intellectual growth.
Since the minds of the voters has
been freed from the f~allacy that to vote
for a college would send our taxes
'~sky-high" there can be no reasonable
excuse for any person to fail to vote
for the college.