Shaurin Mehta was laid off from his customer service job at United Airlines and has been unemployed since September 2008. He heard about Oakton Community College’s tuition free program on TV and decided to participate. “I’m looking for jobs all over, but I haven’t received a single call back. Even though I have bachelor’s in economics and psychology, and an associate degree in accounting, I cannot get anything,” said Mehta, 50, who immigrated to the United States nearly 30 years ago from India.
Mehta, like thousands of other unemployed individuals across the country, are turning to community colleges to either enhance skills they already have, or arm themselves with new skills, that will help them land new jobs. But unlike many of the others, Mehta will take classes for free, thanks to an increasing number of community colleges waiving tuition.
Some community colleges, like Oakton, are absorbing tuition costs, while others are offering reduced or tuition waivers through federal, state or locally funded programs, says Norma Kent, a spokeswoman for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).
“It’s institutionally driven; it’s their way of trying to serve the needs of their community and those needs vary from community to community,” Kent tells Diverse.
Less than 10 colleges nationwide currently offer free tuition programs, according to a list compiled by the AACC. Other colleges have similar programs under consideration. More would like to, but with budget cuts, the money simply isn’t there. And those that are able to do it, can only offer free tuition on a limited basis.
Since Oakton Community College, in suburban Chicago, announced its program last month, demand has been overwhelming, according to Robin Vivona, career services manager at the school. Vivona says she speaks to hundreds of people each week. “We are getting calls every one to two minutes, and we could have three to five calls on hold at a time,” she says. “We tried to keep records at first, but we had to abandon that.”
