Looking Back; Looking Forward
The Council of College and Military Educators president-elect looks ahead.
By Kathleen Connolly
It is humbling to address such a wide and august audience on my thoughts on the direction of the Council of College and Military Educators (CCME) and the challenges we will encounter. I am but an education services officer for Army Continuing Education System (ACES) https://www.hrc.army.mil/site/education/index.html and was elected to serve and lead through CCME, http://www.ccmeonline.org. Serving soldiers, families, civilians, and other uniformed servicemembers for over 30 years has been my privilege. The journey has been challenging, fun and gratifying.
Education and community service were expected and supported in my family. My mother had not been given the opportunity to attend college and my father took advantage of the GI Bill after World War II. Rather than being aware of my legacy, I sailed though college in a cavalier and nonchalant manner. It took several life changing experiences and the need to advance in my career that launched my lifelong learning.
When I accepted a guidance counselor position with ACES, I joined the largest educational organization in the world. The job subsequently became a career and a passion. CCME’s foundations of Education, Communication, and Legislative Advocacy support and enhance that passion. CCME’s membership of military educators, civilian educators, postsecondary educational institutions and suppliers of quality education products and services is a creative, hard-working body. The members share common goals—providing quality, affordable lifelong learning opportunities to a unique segment of the American population—members of the Department of Defense. In order to better understand CCME’s mission of promoting and providing educational programs and services to facilitate communication between the membership and the DoD educational support network, I would like to briefly overview each component.
The Department of Defense Voluntary Education Program provides off-duty civilian high school, vocational-technical, undergraduate and graduate educational opportunities to U.S. military personnel worldwide. These services are provided through the respective services and their local education centers. The DoD student body is over 400,000 strong with over 1,000,000 enrollments in 120 countries throughout the world. The student body is an exclusive body of adult learners with demanding jobs often in deployed and combat areas, families and community commitments.
Accredited colleges and universities, through a widespread network, provide the classroom and distance learning instruction to hundreds of military installations around the world. Enabling servicemembers to earn college degrees, licenses, credentials and industry Certification is the primary focus of DoD-sponsored continuing education programs.
Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC) was created in 1972 to provide educational opportunities to servicemembers, who, because they frequently moved from place to place, had trouble completing college degrees. Today, SOC is a consortium of more than 1,800 colleges and universities that provide educational opportunities for servicemembers and their families. SOC is cosponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), in cooperation with 13 other educational associations, the Military Services, the National Guard and the Coast Guard. SOC is funded by the Department of Defense through a contract with AASCU. The contract is managed for DoD by the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES).
Since 1945, the American Council on Education (ACE) has provided a collaborative link between DoD and higher education by reviewing military training and experiences for the recommendation of award of equivalent college credits. Registrars, admissions officers, academic advisors, career counselors, and DoD Voluntary Education professionals have a foundation for recognizing military educational experiences in terms of civilian academic credit.
CCME is the only national organization for professional military educators. We are an outgrowth of the California College and Military Educators Association which was founded in 1972 to promote, encourage and deliver quality education to all branches of the armed services. Growing from a state association to a global organization, CCME has embraced change, diversity and controversy.
We are concerned about remaining relevant and vibrant to our current and future members. From my view, I see several goals and challenges for CCME and its members.
All of my predecessors have made significant changes that have propelled CCME forward. We cannot afford to take our current strong position for granted. I envision a new CCME vision statement coupled with a five year strategic plan. Often we are queried as to the higher purpose of CCME other than an annual symposium. Even though we can articulate our goals and achievements, CCME needs a working, living document that succinctly outlines where we are headed and how we will know when we arrive. Vision to implementation is a challenge. Input and action are critical not only from the CCME Executive Board and nine State Advisory Councils on Military Education (ACME), but also from the general membership.
The delicate balance of time and money of an all volunteer Executive Board resulted in CCME contracting for event management. Consequently, the CCME Executive Board is becoming more than an annual symposium planner and better able to tackle current issues in higher education and those of our members. In addressing the vibrancy and diversity of our members, CCME needs to remain a creative stimulant that counterbalances the challenges that can lead to burnout and apathy. This is a challenge.
The challenge of seeking and vetting additional global affiliations will enhance CCME’s visibility and credibility. Yet at the same time, CCME needs to remain focused on the common goal of providing affordable, quality educational opportunities to DoD.
Coalescing the visions and goals of government, corporate and non-profit agencies presents an exceptional challenge. Successfully melding these into CCME is a challenge that I embrace graciously with the awareness that I am ultimately here to represent CCME in our efforts to support the students. Thank you for trusting me to serve in this capacity.
Kathleen Connolly is a Fort Lewis, Wash., education services officer and CCME president-elect. ♦