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A Message From the Chancellor's Office
The community college system is growing. In a 1992 report, the California Department of Finance predicted 400,000 new students will be in the California Community College (CCC) system by the year 2005. The report stated that this will require eight new colleges, 13 new satellite centers, and more than $2 billion dollars in new capital needs. Technological change is producing profound, but ambiguous changes in society. Like most other states, California is undergoing rapid social change. A so-called network society is beginning to emerge in which more skilled workers are becoming independent contractors, rather than traditional employees. More and smaller firms use temporary joint ventures like partnerships and alliances to accomplish their work. Corporate acquisitions and mergers are increasing in frequency. From this changing environment emerge potential students whose leaning styles and needs are quite different than those of students in earlier generations. Flexibility and rapid response should enable community colleges to accommodate these changing educational needs. The California Community Colleges, Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) has implemented 4CNet, a statewide telecommunications network connecting all colleges, to assist the colleges to respond to these changing educational needs. All colleges will be able to facilitate connectivity throughout the state via comprehensive intra-college connectivity, to effectively carry out its mission as the third system of higher education in the State of California. Such a statewide telecommunications system and local infrastructure for the CCC will help accomplish the following:
4CNet, a collaborative network with the California State University system network, connects the 106 California community colleges and 17 administrative offices that are not co-located on college campuses with all 23 CSU campuses. This network has distinct benefits to the colleges within the system and to the system as a whole. The deployment of this telecommunications network allows colleges to share resources and information in the delivery of instruction and provide support services to faculty, students, and administrators. Access to improved instructions, resources, and support will improve learning outcomes of students. The establishment of 4CNet allows the CCC system to develop and sustain a competitive edge in providing training for California business and industry, meet the needs of today's adult learner, and have a positive impact on the physical environment of the State in the areas of air quality, fuel consumption, and transportation system (traffic congestion). In 1998 the network will be entering its third year of operation and its first full year of deployment. The development of the network and connections to it was accomplished over a two-year period. The network must expand to continue to meet the needs of the CCC system. The implementation of the Technology and Telecommunications Infrastructure Project (TTIP) has provided leadership and direction to the system in the area of telecommunications and technology. While the accomplishments have been good with the funds available, it has only been a beginning. The 4CNet system is an extremely large and complex system. The size of the system makes it difficult to move at a significant pace. The ability of the system to respond to these challenges will depend on the full deployment of resources throughout the college facilities. Year-one funding began the process of inter-connecting the colleges. The augmentation received in year two will allow for the full deployment of inter-college connectivity at the appropriate broad bandwidth required to meet the needs of the colleges and facilitate the beginning process for intra-college connectivity. The third and subsequent years of funding proposed to the Legislature will provide colleges with a basic level of resources required to distribute connectivity to faculty, students, and administrators. The overall strategy for telecommunications is long term, not short term. The base strategy is inter-college connectivity first, and intra-college connectivity second.
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