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West Baltimore native heads CCBC Catonsville
By Marsha Koger
 While growing up in west Baltimore, Dr. Andrew C. Jones, president of the Catonsville Campus of the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC Catonsville), thought he was going to be another Perry Mason. As he got older, he became a football player and knew he was headed for the pros, until he had a knee injury while a senior at Edmondson High School. "I thought that that was the end of my life," he said. When in fact, it was the beginning, and the impetus that has led him to his present career.
At 51, Jones is the president CCBC Catonsville, located in western Baltimore County, with a total of 13,807 students, 573 employees, and an annual operating budget of $21 million. He is the first African-American man to serve as president.
"Being a president of a college is like having your own community, being Mayor, or being in charge of a fair-sized corporation. It's intoxicatingly motivating; it's dynamic; it's challenging. I get to see a lot of different issues and challenges. I get to see the different perceptions of issues and to see issues resolved based on collective intellect; it's just really exciting, and more importantly the things we do here have applicability outside of this setting; it's my giving back," said Jones.
The road for Jones hasn't always been easy. He attended Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, Gwynns Falls Parkway Junior High School and Edmondson. While at Edmondson, he had hopes of attending Dartmouth College and playing football. However, when he injured his knee, and got average scores on his SAT, he decided to attend the University of Maryland at College Park. He said his first couple of years at College Park he wasn't very focused, but finished his career there with a master's degree in library science.
"One of the main things that I've had to overcome is self-doubt. Racism does make things harder; however, for me that has never been a deciding factor. Some of the major hurdles that we have to overcome as a community are psychological and emotional barriers - getting out of the mentally depressive neighborhood," he said.
While studying library science at College Park, Jones said, "I became enamoured with learning. I began to see that access to certain information could make a difference in our community. Because people in my community didn't see information as a power tool. We were often disadvantaged in many different pursuits."
After graduating, Jones' goal was to go back into the community and set up urban information centers. Instead he worked in the Chancellor's Office at UMCP on community and affirmative action projects. While at the Chancellor's Office, he helped to develop diversity programs for professors and students. "I saw racism first-hand at levels that you wouldn't believe," he said. He then took a short stint with a private organization working with small 'mom and pop' businesses and worked his way up to becoming vice president.
"If you really want to make it, if you believe in God, you can do it. It's what you believe here," he said, pointing to his mind. "I like the way Jesse Jackson puts it: 'If you believe, you can achieve,'" Jones said. "With faith and belief in yourself, it's all accomplishable - if you're willing to work hard and smart and surround yourself with the right people."
Jones' career began to take more focus and shape when he applied for and was accepted to the position of associate dean of students at Coppin State College. At Coppin for seven years, he worked as director of student special services and associate professor of adult and continuing education. He then worked as executive assistant to the president at Talladega College in Alabama. A position as dean of Sojourner-Douglass College brought him back to Baltimore in 1983, and he spent 13 years at Sojourner, where he served as vice president of academic and student affairs and provost. He was instrumental in developing their campus in Nassau, Bahamas. He continued to pursue his own education and completed a doctorate degree in education from Temple University in Pennsylvania.
"I didn't grow up the brightest student. I grew up with modest circumstances. The Lord has just opened all kinds of doors for me. He has always shown me that there is a way to get something done. There's very little you can't do," he said. "The word can't is an unacceptable word in my household. Hurdles are self-imposed for the most part. There are going to be challenges, but you've got to tackle them. It's not that you can't do things, many times, it's you're inability to want to deal with it. If you don't deal with an issue up front, it keeps resurfacing," he said. He compares this to the time management principle of dealing with a piece of paper only once.
Jones returned to Maryland in 1999 from Cedar Valley College in Lancaster, Texas, where he served as chief operating officer. In his position at Catonsville for a little more than one year, he has been busy forging relationships with regional organizations, governmental officials, and further building a good reputation for the college. "I want to make faculty, staff and students feel comfortable, while providing the best two-year education for students throughout the country," he said. Catonsville is known for its programs in automotive, aviation, construction, computer graphics, CAM, environmental science, interpreter preparation, mortuary science, occupational health and safety, occupational therapy, recreation and parks and business.
Very humble and mild-mannered in his management style, Jones also has been busy promoting the campus as a learning college and community, which places student learning at the core of all planning and operation, and promotes the concept that learning opportunities are available "anyplace, anytime, anyway." The Learning College philosophy has shaped the transformation of the college from a tri-college system in 1998 into a single college with campuses at Catonsville, Dundalk and Essex, and extension centers in Hunt Valley, Owings Mills, White Marsh, Towson and Eastern Boulevard. Annually, the college serves about 60,000 students with its credit and non-credit course offerings, and more than 225 companies with customized employee development training. The system is headed by Dr. Irving Pressley McPhail, chancellor.
While Jones is carving out a niche for himself in Baltimore County, his heart still remains close to home - the community. "We've got to make a difference with our children. We've got to educate and train them for jobs in the information age, so that they can become and remain competitive. That's why the work that is being done in areas like Sandtown-Winchester is very important. We've got to make a difference," he said.
Jones is making a difference at Catonsville and also sits on the board of The Arthritis Foundation of Maryland, and The Children's Home, and is on the Board of Trustees for Providence Baptist Church. He is married to Dr. Savannah Jones, and they have two children, Kyle, 16 and Dana, 22.
"I've had a lot of bad days, days when I've wanted to quit, but the good days have outweighed the bad days. I may not always know what to do, but I know what not to do. I have kept my faith and that has carried me through when nothing else has," he said. "I have had so many things happen in my life, that all I can say is that there has to be a God. Many times when I don't have an answer for something or a solution to a problem, when I look back at the end of the day, God has worked it out…I love the life that I lead. God has been good to me."
If you would like more information about CCBC Catonsville, call 410-455-6050, or visit us online at www.ccbc.cc.md.us.
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Degrees of Blackness
By Kwame Olatunji
First, let me start by qualifying this editorial, so as to not offend the innocent. This is intended to serve as a reminder to all those of African descent with collegiate backgrounds.
 Moving on, I have found in my experience that too often, Blacks with collegiate degrees are often faced with an interesting challenge. On the one hand, the attainment of such a prestigious honor - a college - degree, is a magnificent accomplishment. Given that we, as a people, typically came to this country in chains, anything so profound is in and of itself amazing. Given that individuals like Mary McLeod Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, W.E.B. DuBois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and others put their lives on the line for such opportunities to be available, Blacks earning college degrees is a beautiful way of coming full circle.
On the other hand, many of those who do attain such a feat can easily surmise - particularly as we enter a new century - that they do not owe anyone anything. These less in-touch individuals can easily conclude that they - alone - are responsible for the student loan payments and all other costs associated with this pursuit of higher education.
And, to a large degree, they are right.
In any event, the issue being addressed here is this: To get a degree and become ostracized from the struggle of the masses of Black people is a travesty.
Too often, those with degrees feel elevated to a higher level such that their less educated brothers and sisters are viewed as insignificant.
When those of us with degrees began to act as if we have no relationship to those poorer, less cultured members of the race - we have in fact cut our own throats.
Have we forgotten those ancestors of ours who owned property and businesses without the benefit of a college education?
Have we come to think that such wonders as Black Wall Street were built by the most educated people in history?
We, as a people, cannot afford to think that we do not need each and every member of our group - in one way or another.
However, like the whino who sits beside us in church with Thunderbird on their breath, we all have our shortcomings. Not for a minute can we afford to think that we - the educated - are there.
At this point, the lesson of Denmark Vesey's sacrifice is best served. Vesey, upon gaining his freedom, could have fled Charleston, South Carolina in 1799 when he hit the number and bought his freedom for $600. Instead, he stayed and fought for the freedom and liberty of all Blacks. Of course, he died - but his example serves as reminder that until the entire race is progressing, until the entire race is educated and politically astute, until the whole is financially solvent, until our churches are building factories in proportion to the money they collect - we are all still slaves.
We are only as strong as the weakest link in the chain.
In conclusion, to all of those upwardly mobile Black professionals, remember where we come from and that success for one does not mean success for all. Therefore, until all of us are there, the struggle continues!
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