Delta College important to Stockton's health

Print this Article Email this Article

Text Size: A | A | A

By Mike Klocke

Record Editor

August 16, 2009 12:01 AM

Many will recall hearing about the familiar - but somewhat erroneously chronicled - quote from Charles Erwin Wilson after he was named Secretary of Defense by President Eisenhower in 1953:

"What's good for General Motors is good for the country."

Those weren't his exact words, but they morphed into that statement over the years - and well before General Motors declared bankruptcy earlier this year.

We'll "steal" the essence of the quote today to localize things with this statement:

"What's good for Delta College is good for the city of Stockton."

I believe that to be the case on many levels.

Sure, there are people who say derisive things about Delta and who belittle students for attending UBT - University Behind Target. That's sophomoric - no pun intended - and unfortunate.

But the college is one of Stockton's real assets, albeit an under appreciated one. It's been that way for years and the school really is an important part of where the city - and its residents - will go in the future.

Delta has diversity of programs, from college prep to vocational education to continuing education to community-related classes for leadership, empowerment or just pure fun.

The quality of instruction at Delta also is quite good and underrated and the college does all it can to serve a very diverse community.

That's why it's important that Delta emerges positively from the economic crunch that was chronicled in a front-page story in The Record last week.

Delta is facing somewhat of a perfect storm with the administration forced to cut $8.3 million by canceling classes and cutting into some programs, just as the need for its services is increasing.

There are record numbers of high school graduates seeking to continue their education at Delta, with prices rising and enrollment being cut at state four-year colleges. This happens just as the county's unemployed are seeking training for new careers at Delta.

Almost 3,000 students could be turned away.

There certainly have been issues for Delta College in recent years, from fractured relationships on the board of trustees to expenditures of bond money to the sometimes circus that has been the Mountain House satellite campus. Many of Delta's biggest wounds have been self-inflicted.

But, as a whole, Delta College is such a community resource and has impacted lives in so many positive ways.

If you truly care about Stockton, then you have to care about what's happening at Delta College as officials, staff and students work to get through these tough times.

What's good for Delta is good for Stockton - and vice versa.

Special section planned

At approximately 10:58 p.m. Pacific Sunday, Aug. 23, Mission STS-128 will send the space shuttle Discovery hurtling into the sky from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The pride of Stockton will be on board.

Jose Hernandez, the son of former migrant farm workers and the pride of Franklin High School and University of the Pacific, will be one of the astronauts headed into space.

The two-week mission includes a journey to the International Space Station.

The Record will publish a special section about Hernandez one week from today ( Aug. 23). Staff writer Jennie Rodriguez has interviewed the astronaut, his family and many others and has handled the bulk of the reporting and writing. We'll have other stories as well as graphics and photos - both from our staff and from NASA.

The Hernandez tribute will be the front section of The Sunday Record.

Contact Klocke at (209) 546-8250 or mklocke@recordnet.com. The Record senior editors' blog is available at recordnet.com/blogs.