h t e g p r n a i g ise s n i S i n t y u c m o m l l o e c ge f o BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA
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ith President Joe Biden proposing to make community colleges tuition free for two years; his wife, Jill, continuing to teach English at Northern Virginia Community College and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott recently donating $30 million to El Paso Community College, these versatile institutions of higher education are trending. They’re also at the center of another partisan political debate as conservatives argue for greater support for the more wide-ranging Pell Grants rather than tuition-free community colleges. (Of course, liberals note, that if community colleges were tuition-free, it would allow for underserved students to use Pell Grants for support services that would ensure they complete their education.)
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WAGMAG.COM AUGUST 2021
Few are better equipped for this spotlight’s glare than Belinda S. Miles, president of 75-yearold Westchester Community College (WCC) in Valhalla, the largest college in the county and the State University of New York (SUNY)’s first federally designated Hispanic Serving institution. Since her arrival in 2015, the college — which has 29,224 credit and noncredit students and 512 faculty members and staffers — has experienced increased graduation rates, new academic and workforce development programs and unprecedented growth in gifts to support scholarships and student programming. (While WCC does not have an endowment, it partners with the Westchester Community College Foundation, which distributes more than $2 million annually to students in the form of scholarships.) Miles also engages the community as a member of the Westchester chapter of The Links Inc., serving African-Americans and the African Diaspora by providing programming support for Covid-19 relief efforts, enrichment for promising high school students and voter education initiatives. She’s a dynamic speaker, who galvanized the American Heart Association’s 2018 “Go Red for Women” luncheon in Rye Brook and the YWCA of White Plains & Central Westchester’s virtual 2020 “In the Company of Women” presentation, for which she was the keynote honoree.
Miles attended public schools in her native Queens, graduating from York College City University of New York (CUNY) with a B.A. in political science. She earned an M.A. in educational psychology and an Ed.D. in higher education organization and leadership development from Teachers College, Columbia University. That led her to a number of faculty and administrative roles at LaGuardia Community College, Nassau Community College and Columbia University. Most recently, she served as provost and executive vice president of access, learning and success at Cuyahoga Community College with oversight of four campuses and many extension sites in the great Cleveland area. When she’s not in her office, you may find Miles, a Westchester resident, on the links of the county’s public golf courses or in front of a microphone. She loves to sing and accomplished one of her bucket list items by singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” as part of the Tri-C Vocal Trio at a Cleveland Indians’ home game in 2011. For her, community college is something to sing about:
President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan would include $109 billion to make community colleges like Westchester Community College tuition-free for two years. Why is that a good idea? “Westchester Community College’s mission is to provide accessible, high-quality and affordable education to meet the needs of its diverse community. Even with our lowest-in-thecounty tuition (less than $4,800 annually), the cost of higher education is a barrier for many to reach their full potential. In Westchester County, 8.4% of residents live in poverty, and students at WCC who apply for financial aid have a median household income of $33,808, compared to the county median income of $101,908. Removing the burden of paying college tuition is a major boost for families who will still have hardships posed by transportation, care for children and elders, housing and food insecurity, and other issues.” The American Families Plan would also include $80 billion for Pell Grants for the severely underserved. Margaret Spellings, secretary of education under President George W. Bush, recently told Judy Woodruff, anchor of the “PBS NewHour,” that while Biden is right to focus on education, the Pell Grant is the better, more versatile way to go rather than underwriting community colleges for those in need. What’s your reaction to that? “We applaud all efforts that give students the assistance they need to achieve their academic and career goals, including resources that help students get a strong start at community colleges like WCC where our students (who graduate with an associate’s degree) then successfully
