PCC President Bennings Sees ‘Chasm of Opportunity’ for Community Colleges

When Adrien Bennings stepped into her role as president of Portland Community College, she became the first Black woman to hold that title, and only the eighth person to occupy the position since the college was established in 1961.

Bennings grew up in a military family and went on to embrace her love of learning by achieving a doctorate in philosophy in higher education administration from Texas Tech University. In the past 15 years she has focused on leadership in the community college arena, notably serving as the vice president of administration and finance, and chief financial officer, at Clovis Community College in New Mexico. Prior to accepting her position at PCC, she was president of Kellogg Community College in Michigan.

Bennings spoke to The Skanner about her excitement at PCC’s shift to the “one college model,” an approach to higher education that promotes cross-discipline learning, and about the opportunities of helming PCC at a time when community colleges are increasingly on the forefront of economic and pandemic recovery. Last year, enrollment fell by nearly a quarter amid COVID fallout and a largely remote classroom format. Even before the pandemic hit, PCC ramped up efforts to support the 65% of its students who are food-insecure. In response to reports that about 56% of its students experience housing insecurity, and at least 5% identify as homeless, PCC this week announced plans to develop affordable housing through partnerships with community-based housing providers. The first such site will include 84 units at the Portland Metropolitan Workforce Training Center in the Cully neighborhood.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Skanner News: In your professional life, you’ve focused on the community college arena of education. What does the community college model mean to you?

Adrien Bennings: I have a personal connection to community colleges, before I even became a working professional in that realm. I started college when I was 16 years old and I went to Texas A&M University, and just didn’t have my wits about me. I flunked out. I was a straight-A student in high school, had my book smarts, but when it came to being a 16-year-old at a public, four-year university in a world that was new to me and in some instances overwhelming, I didn’t start off too well. That being said, I actually was connected to Odessa Junior College, a community college in west Texas. And that opportunity allowed me to have a more personalized college experience for what I needed at the time, but also I had that time to really build my social experiences, my skill set, my discipline, and refocus on what I was there to accomplish. I got my grades up and transferred back to Texas A&M.

The community college realm was a critical part of my own journey in education and it was very necessary at the time for what I needed as a young teenager starting college at an early age.

TSN: What do you think the role of community college is – in higher education, and more regionally?

AB: When you think of community and colleges, I think it’s beyond just simply education. I believe that our role as a community college – not just at PCC – is really to impact and transform and create opportunities for lives and families, which translate ultimately to our communities and ultimately to impacting other areas, like our economy and workforce. So, I think that it really is a life impact institution, a life impact opportunity, that community colleges provide.

And I honestly don’t believe that community colleges have really fully tapped into our value.

Community colleges in general are a hidden gem, meaning that there is yet much work to be considered, accomplished, and as we move through the times, we’re evolving. Because the traditional model of education is not the traditional way of life for many of our community members, our families, our students, nowadays. It’s evolving over time. I just really see that our work is to transform and impact the lives of individuals and community altogether.

TSN: What drew you to PCC in particular?

AB: One of the things that first drew me is the mission. It really spoke to not only our focus on students, but also the collaborative culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. And each of those points stood out to me for a different reason. My background prior to starting in the professional realm was track and field, which I did in college and as a professional athlete, and I really loved the collaborative team dynamic environment. So, to see that word alone in a mission let me know that PCC was focused on working together to accomplish a greater purpose for our students and our community.

And then when you add to that within the mission of diversity, equity and inclusion – over the past two years, our nation has just been in what some would consider a state of chaos. You had the pandemic, but you had social and racial (upheaval). And I really was drawn to the fact that the north star for the college, the mission of the college, encompassed that to move us forward and to be more mindful and intentional about that.

So that was my initial drawing point. I started to look at where PCC was in terms of strategic planning, the challenges happening with enrollment, and I just thought of it as a beautiful opportunity aligned with my skill set, my values and what I was hoping to be a part of in a professional environment – but also which I personally connected to as well.

TSN: What is your vision for PCC after the pandemic?

AB: I really was in tune and aligned, first and foremost, a vision of the college, which I know over the past couple years has been shifting to a one-college model. So I came in with this vision of one together, together one, because that brought my own personal and professional values of working together as one, unified, as a body – it brought that in and aligned really seamlessly and beautifully with the one college model that PCC had been embarking upon.

In the 2019-20 academic school year, only 39% of Black students completed their degree, compared with 52% of white students. What will be your approach to improving those numbers, and the experiences, for Black students at PCC?

Knowing that that data is out there, knowing those disparities are real, we have to take a deep look in order to understand why there are such gaps in those outcomes. We can create strategies and new resources all day every day, but my approach would be, understanding what is happening specific to that demographic before we do some sort of what I like to call a bandaid approach which might help temporarily but may not be something that has a long-term, sustainable impact or outcome.

It heightens our sense of really identifying that as a college we do exist, and we’re open to all – the mission of community colleges in general is to be able to provide education and learning opportunities to everyone. But we’re missing it somewhere.

TSN: When researching PCC, what stood out to you?

AB: How we take a focus on a sense of belonging, and how we have identity-based approaches, because we serve different populations and identities and cultures of students. And that in and of itself, and making sure that that is physically present and available to all of our students – no matter if they’re attending Sylvania campus, or Rock Creek campus, or Cascade campus – I think that is one of the most valuable and beautiful points of existence for PCC that, in my mind, make us stand out even more.

TSN: What excites you most about the next phase of PCC?

AB: I stepped into PCC at a juncture in the history of the college where they’re going through some key transformative changes throughout the institution. And the exciting thing for me is I get to be a part of that. We’ve got the one college model, but we’ve also got reorganization happening internally over the last year and a half with our academic and with our student affairs. That is exciting to me.

Just the work of the strategic plan, knowing that we’re working toward fulfilling not only the aspirational but the strategic elements of a plan that from what I understand was deeply involved, and collaborated in, by community members and faculty and staff and students.

In living up to the term “community,” and when I say that PCC is beyond just education, it really is transforming lives. You’ve got the food and housing insecurities, and we’re addressing that, but also transportation. You’re talking about transportation not only for PCC purposes, but transportation for families to get children and families to medical care and activities – with that, there’s an impact to workforce alone.

I always say there’s a chasm of opportunity for community colleges.

There’s so much need out there, not just for PCC to be a part of, but community college in general, to where people start to really grow in the awareness and the recognition that community colleges exist truly to meet the needs of the community, and that is through education. And that is through workforce. That is through business development, skill development, meeting basic needs. I think we’re just touching on the surface of what that could look like in terms of having PCC on the forefront of that.

The realm of outcomes and influence of community colleges in general is a treasure trove.