Two more Florida colleges may lose ‘community’ name

TALLAHASSEE — Florida community colleges would continue to be a vanishing breed under a proposal that will be considered during the legislative session that starts next week.

A bill (HB 619) that awaits a hearing in the House Education Committee would remove the “community” label from Florida Keys Community College and North Florida Community College in Madison.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Holly Raschein, R-Key Largo, and Rep. Jeanette Nunez, R-Miami, would rename the schools as The College of the Florida Keys and North Florida College. The bill has been unanimously approved by the House Post-Secondary Education Subcommittee.

If approved by the Legislature, it would mean only two institutions — Tallahassee Community College and Hillsborough Community College — would retain the community label in the 28-school system.

The majority of members of the state college system began as “junior colleges,” with the establishment of Palm Beach Junior College, now known as Palm Beach State College, in 1933 as the first two-year institution in the state.

Most later became community colleges and then “state colleges” when they began to offer fouryear baccalaureate degrees in addition to two-year associate degrees, which remain their primary degree programs.

State law allows the institutions, with approval from local boards of trustees, to seek designation as a “college” or “state college” if they have been authorized by the State Board of Education to grant baccalaureate degrees and the schools have secured accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

In the case of North Florida, the school will offer its first four-year degree, a bachelor of science in nursing. The Florida Keys school, meanwhile, is offering a bachelor of applied science in supervision and management.

Although the two colleges are seeking name changes, the effort may meet resistance in the state Senate.