General Assembly approved, for the fiscal year beginning next July
1, the community college appropriation amounts to $4, 032, 600. Thus,
in the period about which we are talking—from 1961 to the present
-the increase in the amount the State earmarks for assistance to the
community college is 834 per cent. In 1961, the State was contrib-
uting as its share of the cost of operating the colleges $150 per pupil.
That share has been double since that time to $300 per pupil.

In addition to these appropriations for operating costs, the State
since 1961 has authorized $30 million in capital funds for the con-
struction and equipment of buildings such as have been erected here
on this campus. All this is by way of emphasizing the fact that your
State government is keenly conscious of the importance of commun-
ity colleges in our educational scheme.

The Commission for the Expansion of Higher Education in Mary-
land (The Curlett Commission), in a report to me in June, 1962,
defined the role of the community college, in our three-part struc-
ture of public higher education, as follows:

"As the third segment of the total system of public higher educa-
tion in Maryland, community colleges should be located strategically
throughout the State, to help assure that the first two years of higher
education are available within the commuting distance for as many
students as possible. "

"These two-year institutions, governed at the local level but with
provision for adequate financial assistance by the State, have two cen-
tral functions. They should prepare high school graduates for fut-
ther education at four-year colleges and universities... and where-
ever feasible they, should furnish other students with a two-year ter-
minal program in sub-professional and technical fields. "

The report made it clear that the students at these institutions
should have a "collegiate" experience and not just an extension of
their high school years. This "third segment" of the total system of
public higher education in the State, as it is called by the Curlett
Commission, has a vital role to play in the education of Maryland
youth and the State, in cooperation with Baltimore City and the
counties, is making a concerted effort to bring to fulfillment the pur-
poses outlined in the report of this Commission.

We are here today to celebrate a major step forward in this phase
of our program of public higher education. Baltimore Junior Col-
lege, as I have suggested, pioneered the community college movement

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