student syndicalism in community colleges

In the United States, two types of collegiate education institutions have evolved from the simple college and university: the liberal arts college and the community/technical college.

Community colleges

Community colleges, also known as technical colleges, junior colleges (although some junior colleges are not community colleges), and vocational colleges, are widely regarded in the United States as training grounds for the training of future workers in the capitalist workforce, as they are constructed precisely to educate people in vocational, hands-on skills.

They are also destinations for adults who missed out on a high school diploma when they were younger; as a result, community colleges and community college systems serve at least GEDs to such individuals, as most high school systems "age out" students and potential students at around 19 or 20 years of age, blocking most adults from gaining a high school education.

Most community colleges are limited to two-year educations, serving GEDs or TCCs, diplomas or associates' degrees. They are also often owned by the state governments (not the federal/national, but the second-level subdivision of government in the U.S.), as community colleges are often seen by state governments as means by which they can boost their economies.

Liberal arts college

Liberal arts colleges, on the other hand, do not usually provide vocational or hands-on education, focusing more on Liberal Arts/Humanities, which are dismissed in the more public view as economically "useless" and defended by others as institutions which encourage "critical thinking". Most avowedly liberal arts colleges are privately-owned and, hence, expensive in comparison to the community/technical colleges.

However, liberal arts colleges and colleges with a balance between the vocational and liberal arts tend to be the primary source of any radical student unionism in the United States. The presence of student syndicalism on the campi of the community colleges is close to nil, with most extracurricular organizations being local branches of trade-specific professional organizations with close ties to companies and industry groups in the capitalist economy.

The chance for student syndicalism in the community college

This is, potentially, where the student union meets the workers' union. As community colleges are dedicated to the training of students, adult or young, in the skills that would make them valuable to capitalist entities and corporations, private or state-owned, where the labor and trade unions are already actively campaigning for the rights of employees and other individuals, students' unions have the opportunity to campaign for the rights, accommodations and liberties of attending students.

Furthermore, it might be suggested that students' unions in the community colleges should campaign for the distancing of the institutions from their often-unfair distinction as places that simply churn out labor forces whose members cannot move any further upward in class or income than what the education of the community college equipped to the student.