Selected papers from a conference on small/rural colleges are presented. Two separate presentations discuss the financing of small/rural community colleges. In two other papers, one by J. Wade Gilley and the other by Gerald B. James and Elton Collier Aycock, the positive and negative aspects of state coordination and control of local colleges are probed. Richard E. Wilson reviews the institutional and student characteristics related to the approximately 500 rural community colleges as compared to those of the total of 1,235 colleges listed in the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges' directory. In another paper, George B. Vaughan presents a philosophical overview with practical implications regarding curriculum comprehensiveness in times of limited resources. A series of recommendations from the conference are included on the following concerns: (1) organization and management; (2) initiating and maintaining comprehensive student development programs; (3) community services; (4) financing small/rural community colleges; (5) state coordination and control; (6) staff development; (7) curriculum comprehensiveness; (8) research in small/rural colleges; and (9) equal opportunity and the rural community college. (MB)