Episode 2: Everyone knows that community colleges offer associate degrees and are a gateway to transfer to a four-year institution. We talk a lot about credit students and credit courses. But there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of adults in the United States who rely on community colleges’ noncredit or adult education programs. Programs like citizenship classes, adult high school diploma courses, short-term certificates, classes for adults with disabilities, and English as a Second Language courses. But, for some reason, we don’t talk a lot about those. In fact, most colleges I have worked with have neglected marketing these programs. Here in California, legislation even makes it difficult for noncredit programs to hire full-time, tenure-track faculty. 

 I think it’s about time that noncredit has its day in the sun. And that’s exactly what my podcast guest has done at her institution. In this episode of Higher Ed Coffee and Conversation podcast, Chrissy Gascone, the Interim Dean of Instruction and Student Services at Santiago Canyon College Division of Continuing Education, launched a large marketing campaign that over the course of the last year has grown her programs substantially. She talks about why the noncredit department is often overlooked, what investing in marketing has done for her programs and for students, and how noncredit students have coped with the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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