Dateline: August 1989. Societal trends during the 1980's left community colleges with a smaller and older clientele taking fewer courses and providing fewer funds. Location, local support, and, most important, the attitudes of people within the college itself were the factors determining the success with which colleges met this challenge. Some colleges provided curricula responsive to the non-linear educational needs of adult students by integrating credit and non-credit areas. Other colleges, reluctant to part with transfer-oriented curricula, faced administrator-faculty disputes over class cut-off rates and the need for a marketing-oriented catalog. The former catered to older, better educated students who demanded well-prepared courses and doubled the proportion of college income from non-credit offerings. The latter invested energy in high school graduate recruitment and saw a decline in adult enrollment. Faculty members, reacting to changing enrollment patterns, either proved flexible by abolishing tenure and cooperating with part-time teachers or fought for protective agreements. Reacting to increased stress, some administrators fostered communication within the college toward the development of new ideas; others merely froze budgets and retreated, hoping to weather the storm. All colleges, however, faced increased government control and distrust between colleges and government agencies. (JP)