<Begin Segment 33>

MM: What was the general community's reaction to the notion of community colleges? Did they know what that was?

RK: No, generally they did not. This was in the early 1960s. Community colleges were really catching on in California, one of the chief places. They were mostly called junior colleges. And on the East Coast and in certain places... but in Hawaii there was very little knowledge of what a community college was. So my major task was to go around talking to business groups etcetera, telling them what a community college is, what community colleges were. And some of them were very skeptical. But we thought this was the quickest, easiest, cheapest way of enlarging educational opportunity. As it turned out -- and once we established the colleges they grew faster than we ever anticipated. And I mean, even to this day they're doing a great job. Because in many ways, I said the university is a dinosaur, but the community colleges should remain flexible, accessible, and I think that's holding true.

MM: Why do you think that is? What is it about community colleges that make them so much more viable or so much more relevant to the community as opposed to a four-year university?

RK: Well, I wouldn't say four-year university is irrelevant, but it's relevant in a more amorphous or broader sense with the research and so forth. But the more direct impact is on local communities, or within the state, is with the community colleges, is they train people to be electricians and plumbers and you know, engineering assistants and nurses and so on. And also the fact that more people, more people can go to community colleges, find it financially feasible to do so, etcetera, I think, makes them very attractive. And I think the community college faculty, at least up to now, have shown more flexibility. They take on a greater teaching load, although they're trying to cut back on that. And I think they pay more attention to the classroom. This isn't true of all professors and research universities, but many of them are more interested in their research than in students. You know, there's a role for that. But the community colleges emphasize student teaching. And in as much as you get freshmen and sophomores, these are the crucial periods in anyone starting a collegiate career. I think it's very important that they emphasize this aspect of the, of college life. And I think many of them are succeeding. Anyway, I find it very attractive and in Hawaii they've grown much faster, much bigger than I think we anticipated. So there was a need for this.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2004 Japanese American National Museum. All Rights Reserved.