U.S. community colleges provide entry to STEMM education for first-generation, low income, and underrepresented students
Michael Pullin, Dean for Academic Initiatives at Queensborough Community College in New York, highlights the importance of community colleges for STEMM education in the U.S. He reminds us of the importance of listening to one another.
By Michael J. Pullin with Patricia A. Maurice and Janet G. Hering
2 September 2025, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16885921
There are just over 1,000 community colleges in the US, serving 8.8 million students in rural, suburban, and urban communities. 44% of all US students in higher education attend a community college [1]. Community colleges are generally less expensive than most four-year colleges and universities, and they serve more first-generation, low income, and underrepresented students than traditional institutions. While community colleges often offer career-focused terminal degrees in applied subject areas, they also serve as steppingstones for students to four-year colleges and universities and can promote life-long learning. On average, women tend to make up more than half of community college faculty, although they are still under-represented in many STEMM disciplines [2].
Chemist Michael Pullin is the Dean for Academic Initiatives at Queensborough Community College in New York City, a campus of the City University of New York (CUNY) [3]. Patricia and Janet know him from his excellent research in environmental chemistry, particularly his work on natural organic matter and metals. He was a tenured associate professor and department chair at New Mexico Tech, then a dean at Broward College before moving to CUNY. Throughout his career, he has been highly supportive of women faculty and students in STEMM.
We thank Michael for kindly agreeing to discuss the role of community colleges in STEMM education, providing insights on how community college administrators and faculty can help students, especially those from underrepresented groups, pursue careers in STEMM.
What are the primary ways community colleges help advance STEMM education in the US?
Many high school graduates in the U.S. are simply unready to start their college career in a traditional college setting, living in a dormitory and carrying a heavy course load. They may have significant family obligations or need to work to support themselves. A 4-year institution may not be close enough to attend as a commuter, but most students are within driving distance to a community college. Additionally, many non-citizens are not eligible for federal financial aid, making the low cost of community colleges especially attractive.
Unfortunately, many high school graduates are underprepared for college level work, especially in the math required by most STEMM baccalaureate programs. Community colleges are designed to help students with deficits in math and English transition to college-level work. Community colleges offer an array of free student support services, such as tutoring, writing labs, in depth advising, and peer mentoring, typically spending a much larger percentage of their operating budget on such services than 4-year institutions.
Compared with most 4-year institutions, community colleges offer smaller class sizes in introductory courses, such as math, physics, biology, and chemistry. Those courses are taught by faculty members who are dedicated to working with first- and second-year students. Community college STEMM students often get their first experiences with research at those institutions. Many community college STEMM faculty members maintain modest research programs, mainly for the benefit of students. Others integrate research experiences into their courses, sometimes with funding from programs like the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative (CCURI) [4]. Such experiences engage STEMM students early in their college careers – when they are more likely to switch majors or leave college – and provide context for their introductory coursework.
Recent immigrants and international students may not be ready for college level work in the English language, even if their math skills are better than many U.S. high school graduates. Community colleges typically offer affordable English as a Second Language options for those students.
Studies by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) of the academic background of science, engineering and health graduates found that, in both 2011 and 2020, about half of bachelor’s and graduate degree graduates started in community college [5]. Additionally, they reported that more than 50% of female, disabled, Hispanic or Latino, black or African American, and native Hawaiian or other pacific islander bachelor’s graduates started in community college [6]. Community colleges, through the hard work of their faculty and staff, are helping to improve representation in STEMM fields.
Most four-year institutions seek to admit the best-prepared students they can. Community colleges are open-access and admit any student with a high school credential. They are dedicated to meeting students where they are and lifting them up, making access to valuable STEMM degree programs more equitable.
What are some of the main challenges facing community colleges today, especially with respect to STEMM?
One major challenge for community colleges is funding. According to the Community College Research Center (CCRC), they receive less than half the funding on a full-time equivalent basis than 4-year institutions [7]. This disparity exists even though they serve more underrepresented and low-income students and provide the student support services required for those students to succeed. Notably, higher student funding levels at community colleges are associated with better student outcomes. Lack of resources may hinder adoption of the latest evidence-based reforms by community colleges [7]. Lower funding levels may impact STEMM programs, in particular by limiting the resources needed to build and renovate laboratory spaces and acquire and maintain scientific equipment.
Another major challenge is that 4-year colleges resist awarding meaningful transfer credit for community college coursework. Credit earned at a community college may simply be rejected or awarded only elective credit for some courses instead of counting them toward degree requirements. In 2014, researchers from the CUNY Graduate Center found that the lower bachelor’s attainment rate for students starting at community colleges was likely due to loss of credit upon transfer, adjusting for many other factors [8]. The loss of transfer credit is sometimes due to a mismatch between coursework at the two institutions. However, in my experience, it is more often caused by a lack of understanding of community colleges and their curricula.
As noted by Patricia and Janet above, I moved from 4-year institutions to community colleges halfway through my career. I’ve since learned that community college faculty set the same level of expectations for their students as their peers at 4-year institutions. They understand that their students need to be well prepared for upper-level coursework after transfer and are proud that, post-transfer, their students typically match or outperform students who started as freshman at the same institutions [8].
As part of my work at Queensborough, I oversee our Transfer Resource Center and negotiate transfer agreements with 4-year institutions. I’ve also helped with several projects aimed at improving the transfer process within CUNY. Those include the Associate to Bachelor’s Degrees (A2B) [9] project, which led to the development and implementation of the CUNY Transfer Explorer or “T-REX” [10], a tool to assess transfers of course credits between CUNY institutions. This has been expanded to include institutions outside the CUNY system so that the tool can be used nationwide [11], as described in a recent “Beyond Transfer” column in Inside Higher Education [12]. I was also the co-lead on a Department of Education Hispanic-Serving Institutions STEMM grant to improve transfer pathways in the sciences and mathematics between Queensborough and our nearby four-year CUNY partner, Queens College. Recently, we’ve received funding from the Heckscher Foundation to continue to improve transfer outcomes between the two institutions and we are also participating in an Aspen Institute/AASCU program to do the same [13].
What projects or accomplishments as a Dean have you been most proud of?
I helped write and now lead a Department of Education Hispanic-Serving Institutions (“Title V”) grant at Queensborough. As part of that project, I led the development of a supplemental instruction (SI) program for high-failure rate gateway courses, including many introductory science and math classes that are taken at the start of STEMM degree programs. In SI, students who have previously completed one of those courses with a high grade are trained and employed to lead supplemental course meetings where they help students practice problem solving skills, learn difficult concepts, and review for major exams. We have been offering SI at Queensborough since 2021 and have found that students who take part in the SI sessions have a C or better grade rate of 20-30 percentage points higher than students who do not. Resources and information are available from the International Center for Supplemental Instruction at the University of Missouri–Kansas City [14].
Is there anything you wish you had known before embarking on a career in academic administration?
I recently heard someone say that “culture eats strategy for lunch.” Strategic planning that is data driven and employs evidence-based practices is essential for improving student outcomes. However, implementing that plan successfully requires an understanding of institutional history and culture as well as the lived experiences of your students. Faculty members and scientists are encouraged to set their own agenda and pursue it in an individualistic manner. In administration, a more collaborative approach is needed. The ability to work productively with faculty and professional staff, taking their ideas and viewpoints into account and building “buy-in,” is essential.
Do you have any suggestions for how other men can serve as allies for women and members of other under-represented groups in STEM?
I have enjoyed helping female and underrepresented faculty members and professional staff grow into their positions and beyond. Providing them with professional development opportunities, the ability to travel to conferences, and funding can really help. Connecting them to mentors at the college and beyond is also a great strategy.
Most important is listening to faculty and staff, especially women and those from underrepresented groups. Campus culture surveys can be very helpful, but each person’s experience of the campus can be different depending on their background and circumstances. Asking how they are doing and listening carefully can help you better understand when and how to help. You will never truly know the culture of your institution until you understand it from the perspective of its female and underrepresented faculty and staff.
What are your plans for the future?
I am really enjoying working at CUNY [15]. I think that its claim to be the “the nation’s leading urban university” [16] is not overstated. It lives its mission to “provide a public first-rate education to all students, regardless of means or background.” That speaks to me, as a first-generation college graduate. Queensborough Community College enrolls students from 109 countries who are native speakers of 86 languages. On a daily basis, I am amazed by what our students can accomplish when we give them the excellent teaching and support they need.
Conclusions and questions for further thought
Mike, we have known you since you were a graduate student and have always been impressed by your professionalism, devotion to teaching, and abilities to listen and lead. The programs you are developing and leading at CUNY are critically important to students’ success in pursuing STEMM education, and it is wonderful that they are being widely disseminated. We thank you for sharing your observations and experiences with our readers. Your dedication to solving problems is something we can all seek to emulate, no matter where and in what capacity we are working in the world of STEMM today.
We offer these questions for further consideration by our readers:
· Did you attend a community college, and if so, how did it impact your life?
· Have you taught at a community college and if so, how do your experiences compare with those described here?
· How can faculty and staff better support students transitioning between educational settings, whether it involves crossing international borders, moving from a public to private university (or vice versa) or from a community college to a 4-year institution or from undergraduate to graduate school?
References
[1] Mooney, G. and Foley, D., Community Colleges: Playing and Important Role in the Education of Science, Engineering, and Health Graduates, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics Info Brief, NSF 11-317 (2011): 1-5.
[2] https://www.aacc.nche.edu/2024/03/05/datapoints-trends-among-adjunct-part-time-instructors/ (Accessed June 5, 2025).
[3] https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/oaa/bios/mpullin.html (Accessed June 5, 2025).
[4] https://www.ccuri.us/ (Accessed July 1, 2025).
[5] Foley D., Milan L., and Hamrick K., The Increasing Role of Community Colleges among Bachelor’s Degree Recipients: Findings from the 2019 National Survey of College Graduates. National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics Info Brief, NSF 21-309 (2021): 1-8.
[6] https://www.ed.gov/higher-education/find-college-or-educational-program/community-college/facts-at-a-glance (Accessed June 19, 2025).
[7] Public Funding of Community Colleges, Community College Research Center Policy Fact Sheet, February 2022. https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/public-funding-community-colleges.pdf (Accessed June 19, 2025).
[8] Monaghan. D.B. and Attewell, P. The Community College Route to the Bachelor’s Degree. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 37 (2015), 70–91. DOI: 10.3102/0162373714521865
[9] https://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/oareda/research-partnerships/a2b/ (Accessed July 1, 2025). The A2B project is led by Alexandra Logue in collaboration with Ithaka S+R.
[10] https://explorer.cuny.edu/ (Accessed July 1, 2025).
[11] https://transferexplorer.org/ (Accessed July 1, 2025).
[12] https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/beyond-transfer/2025/04/03/policy-and-practice-foundations-and-building-blocks (Accessed July 1, 2025).
[13] https://highered.aspeninstitute.org/programs/transfer-intensive (Accessed July 1, 2025).
[14] https://info.umkc.edu/si/ (Accessed July 1, 2025).
[15] https://www.cuny.edu/ (Accessed July 1, 2025).
[16] https://www.cuny.edu/about/ (Accessed July 1, 2025).