Jessie Ryan on 22 Years of Expanding College Opportunity and What Comes Next

Publication: Community College Daily / Community College Journal
Author: Tabitha Whissemore
Featured: Jessie Ryan, President, Campaign for College Opportunity

Campaign for College Opportunity President Jessie Ryan reflects on the Campaign’s 22 years of advancing student-centered higher education reform and its vision for the future in a Q&A with Community College Daily. Ryan highlights the Campaign’s role in securing more than $8 billion in state investments, helping more than 600,000 students earn an Associate Degree for Transfer through Campaign-sponsored legislation, advancing reforms that have virtually eliminated remediation in California community colleges, and training more than 1,500 student leaders.

Ryan also discusses the affordability, basic-needs, transfer, and completion challenges facing students; the importance of broad coalitions and authentic student voice in shaping durable reform; and the Campaign’s future focus on reengaging more than 6 million Californians with some college but no degree and advancing Pathways with Purpose. She points to rigorous research, coalition-building, student-centered policymaking, and sustained implementation as central to creating lasting systems change in California and as lessons other states can adapt.