SAINTS PERSPECTIVE, SCCC President Brad Bennett
Competitiveness. It’s a word with sharp edges that divides the situation into contrasts. Someone wins. Someone loses. It’s important to keep score.
With that in mind, it might seem odd that Seward County Community College has chosen “competitive” as one of our core values for the upcoming years. Are we becoming cutthroat contenders? Against who? And for what prize?
The answers lie in the fact that competitiveness is more than recognizing who comes out on top. It’s about the spirit of the endeavor, whether that is a business venture, a baseball game, or a quiz bowl match. And, when it comes to higher education, competitiveness can mean many things.
Exclusivity is one of them. At the so-called “elite” end of the spectrum, colleges and universities measure their worth by their acceptance rate. That’s right — the harder it is to get into an Ivy League or a top-tier state university, the “better” that institution is supposed to be. This exclusive attitude is supposed to extend to the students themselves. When they get that acceptance letter, it is the golden ticket to a bright future among other elite people who were lucky enough to be admitted.
That’s one kind of competition. And according to that scale, Seward County Community College would be on the “wrong” end. Proudly so! We have an extremely high acceptance rate. We don’t turn anyone away. That’s because we believe that college should be available and accessible to anyone who is willing to put in the work and learn. Exclusivity-based competitiveness is not what we are after.
This drive for excellence is also a form of competition. In this way of thinking, comparison and progress — competition — is what brings out the best in people. Giving everyone a participation ribbon is not a way to motivate students to shine. Indeed, as our accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission, and the Kansas Board of Regents know, it is not enough for an institution to say, “Students are in classrooms, and we’re doing our best!” These entities exist to hold colleges accountable. They expect numbers, data to track the effectiveness of our work. In that context, we are competing for excellence against an outside standard.
So, we rank performances, we issue grades, and we measure everyone’s progress. This can be painful at times, especially if you are struggling to master algebra, or English, or the beeper in a Quiz Bowl competition. But competition can be fun, too.
At SCCC, we sometimes sponsor competitions among our faculty and staff. Who can walk the most steps in a six-week period? Which team can read the most books? Which department will contribute the most home-cooked items to the annual Taste of Kansas food fest? These friendly competitions name winners, but the point of the whole thing is to participate in something with others. Along the way, each individual becomes better.
These are examples of what I think of as healthy competition. It holds us accountable for projects or ongoing work that can sometimes lose focus — essential for academics — and it also serves as a motivator. When you’re engaged in something important but easy to ignore — like increasing how much you move and exert physical energy during the day — this kind of healthy competition serves to keep all of us moving along. I like to say, “let’s be a little better every day,” reminding our campus that we are competing with ourselves more than anything else.
Not only does competition exist at large group levels, it becomes an organizational venture as well. With 19 community colleges in our state, it’s only natural that people often compare one to the others, debating about which is “best.” This is a little bit like a group of kids arguing about whose dad is the tallest, strongest, and so on. Everyone believes his father outshines the others. And isn’t that the way things should be?
Community colleges inspire loyalty in the local town and region. Having come to Seward from Colby Community College, I make it a point to attend our athletic competitions against the Colby Trojans. When I worked there, I cheered for the team in blue. Now, I am one hundred percent green and I will yell for the Saints in every contest.
When times get tough, though, we community colleges know how to support one another rather than competing viciously. I’m proud of the joint ventures we have taken on with Garden City Community College and Dodge City Community College, especially the annual legislative lunch hosted in rotation at our three campuses. After all, we western Kansas colleges need to stick together.
Yet in my (completely unbiased) opinion, SCCC does, in fact, outshine every other community college in the state. There’s no competition!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR — Brad Bennett is the president of Seward County Community College and the undisputed winner of the “who has applied the most green paint to various surfaces” competition that is still going on. You can reach him at
