FRESNO, Calif. – On a recent Wednesday afternoon, students at Fresno City College gathered in the dental hygiene lab.
The room was divided into dozens of booths, each with a quiet green reclining chair and a plastic mannequin head. The activity of the day was to perform dental work on a plastic tooth. It is part of an associate of science degree in dental hygiene program.
But in the spring, Fresno City College will begin accepting applications for a new program: a bachelor of science in dental hygiene.
Fresno City College is the fourth community college to offer a bachelor’s degree in the area, along with Taft, Bakersfield and Modesto colleges.
Increasingly, community colleges are offering bachelor’s degrees that some students say they find cheaper and more accessible. Bachelor programs at colleges range from industrial automation and respiratory care to dental hygiene.
College officials say the accessibility and affordability of local community colleges help make it easier for people to earn credentials and that degrees provide mobility for more people.
For example, dental hygiene programs in California were often offered through private universities rather than public colleges — which meant the degree cost students up to 25 times what it would at community colleges.
Currently, tuition for a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene ranges from $2,500 to $66,640 per academic year.
Fresno City College offers one of the cheapest programs, at $2,640 per academic year. Taft College and San Joaquin Valley College offer dental hygiene programs for just over $3,000 and $15,000 per year respectively.
By comparison, the private University of Southern California charges $66,640 per academic year.
For Marcela Aceves, a first-year student in Fresno City College’s dental hygiene associate program, the cost is enough to keep her away from places like USC, she says.
“I don’t know what their dental hygiene program is like, but who can afford to go there,” Aceves says. “Especially from the Valley.”
Aceves plans to attend the bachelor’s program at Fresno City College in part because it is much more affordable.
Use of available resources

The movement for community colleges to build bachelor’s degree programs began in 2014, and while all community colleges are able to offer such degrees, most Valley colleges have yet to take advantage of the opportunity.
“It’s expensive and you have to have resources, you have to have faculty,” says Liz Rozell, senior adviser to the vice chancellor for graduate programs at Bakersfield College. “Bakersfield College is a great college…we bring in good revenue.”
Bakersfield College serves 33,000 students annually, the largest student population for community colleges in the Valley, and has four campuses.
To make up for less revenue, Fresno City College, a smaller campus, is using its already extensive associate’s degree program to craft its bachelor’s program.
The college had offered the associate degree in dental hygiene for 107 units, which meant adding 13 more units, or about four more classes, to create a bachelor’s degree program.
Aceves, who is already part of the program, says that’s why she’s considering ending the program.
“I’m already interested in dentistry,” she says. “Why not take that step, go ahead, it won’t hurt anyone.”
Aceves worked as a dental assistant for eight years before deciding she wanted to level up, and she’s part of a group of people returning for economic mobility.
Impact on the community
Rozell says the students who participate in Bakersfield’s programs are an older and more established population than the typical college student.
“People go into careers and start working in industrial automation, for example,” says Rozell. “Then they peep outside. They can’t go further because they don’t have management skills.”
Fresno City College’s bachelor’s degree includes advanced critical thinking classes—classes that can lead to higher-paying management positions.
And to establish a program in the first place, colleges must also demonstrate a need from the community.
Lorraine Smith, dean of allied health programs in Fresno, says the dental hygiene program complements health care resources in the Valley.
“Dental hygiene I think is more of an awareness of how dental hygiene affects the health systems of the entire body,” she says. “Our region needs all kinds of health care providers.”
There are also benefits for students. Aceves says she’s now thinking about other jobs she can apply for after she finishes her bachelor’s degree.
“From the experience I’ve had here helping other students … teaching is starting to sound a little better,” she says.