In Florida, the number of community colleges that offer baccalaureate degrees has increased significantly. Students attending community colleges in the sunshine state now have the option of selecting from over 100 four-year degrees.

 This phenomenon is the result of a bill Governor Charlie Crist signed in 2008 that allowed the state’s community colleges to more readily offer baccalaureate degrees. The idea was to make these degrees available in disciplines such as nursing and education and career-specific concentrations of the applied sciences. Currently 18 community colleges in Florida offer 111 fouryear degrees, mostly in nursing and education.

Now, thanks to a recent change in the law, community colleges that have successfully implemented baccalaureate programs can request local autonomy in pursuing further four-year degrees.

“This will pretty much give our community colleges the same protocol that state universities have when they add baccalaureate degrees,” said Judith Bilsky, executive vice chancellor in the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Student and Academic Success. “It doesn’t say colleges have to go that route. If anything’s changed, I think it’s that there’s a better understanding of what it means to be part of the Florida College System.”

But will that system be able to accommodate training for faculty and staff and provide other necessary resources for growing programs? Enrollment at the University of Central Florida has mushroomed in recent years, prompting stakeholders to eliminate some majors due to budget and resource limitations.

As a result, the university asked Valencia Community College to implement several four-year programs in engineering and the health disciplines. “We would not have done this if [Central Florida] had not approached us,” said Sandy Shugart, Valencia’s president. “We have our hands pretty full already. As long as the need was met elsewhere, we wouldn’t have done this. At least for now, ‘community’ is our middle name. I’d like to keep it that way.”

But sometimes demand has a way of compromising the best of intentions. Faculty can be spread too thin. Class sizes can quickly double in size. In a tug of war between budgets and integrity, who shall be the victor?