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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Our Next Chapter: Community Colleges and the Aging Baby Boomers


Our Next Chapter: Community Colleges and the Aging Baby Boomers
By Judy Goggin and Bernie Ronan

The baby boomers are the largest generation in American history. This
generation born between 1946 and 1964 is twice as large in number as the generation that precedes it, and half again as large as the generation that follows it. Baby boomers have caused significant economic, political, and social changes – sometimes bordering on revolutions – as they have moved through the demographic pipeline of American life. And now they are starting to retire, which will have dramatic implications for community colleges, as it will for the rest of society.

The aging of the baby boomers embodies, above all, unparalleled
opportunities. The relative health, wealth, and skill of this generation mean nothing less than the emergence of a new stage of life beyond middle age. This as-yet-unnamed stage – call it the next chapter – is taking shape between the end of primary careers and childrearing and the onset of true old age. Because this new stage of life is likely to span several decades and will be characterized by general good health and an active, engaged lifestyle, adults entering this uncharted territory are finding little in the way of guidance and appealing opportunities for shaping these bonus years. And community colleges, which have throughout their history typified themselves as resourceful and adaptive to new educational opportunities, are better suited than perhaps any other American institution to respond to this new stage of life for Americans.

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Dr. Susan Salvador
Office for Student Services
11/19/2004